Dōngyě nónggē jí 東野農歌集
Farm Songs of the Eastern Wilds by 戴昺 (撰)
About the work
Five-juàn poetry collection of Dài Bǐng 戴昺, a thirteenth-century Tiāntái poet best known as the grand-nephew of Dài Fùgǔ 戴復古 and as a representative voice of the Jiānghúpài 江湖派 against the Late-Táng-revival fashion. The frontmatter preserves both Yáng Wànlǐ’s 楊萬里 commendatory original preface (citing Dài’s reply-poem to those debating Táng-versus-Sòng styles) and Dài Bǐng’s own 1253 self-preface.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Dōngyě nónggē jí, five juàn, was composed by Dài Bǐng of the Sòng. Bǐng, zì Jǐngmíng 景明, “Dōngyě” being his self-style, was a man of Tiāntái 天台 and the grand-nephew of the Shípíngjūshì 石屏居士, [Dài] Fùgǔ. He took his jìnshì in Jiādìng jǐmǎo (1219) and was appointed Magistrate of Justice of Gànzhōu 贑州. His self-preface speaks of “serving as official at Qiūpǔ” — that is, in the Bǎoyòu reign he again served as a staff-aide at Chízhōu; we do not know what office he held at the end of his career.
His poetry circulates in two recensions in the world: one was that submitted by the LiǎngHuái Provincial Office under the title Dài Dōngyě shī in only one juàn, attached as supplement to the Shípíng jí; the other was submitted by the Zhèjiāng office, divided into five juàn, somewhat better arranged but missing several pieces present in the LiǎngHuái version. We have here taken the Zhèjiāng version as the base, supplemented from the LiǎngHuái version with thirteen poems, and added a further two from the Sòng shī chāo 宋詩抄, totalling more than a hundred pieces — a figure that agrees with the number stated in the self-preface, so this can fairly be called a complete edition.
Bǐng excelled in poetic composition from his youth and was praised by [Dài] Fùgǔ. He has the lines “I do not study the Late-Táng manner — once I heard the great elegant tone” 不學晚唐體,曾聞大雅音, and his work in general displays a natural, spontaneous quality, free of mechanical chiselling. Among the five-character lines: “the eyes brighten beneath a thousand trees, spring enters several blossoms” 眼明千樹底,春入數花中, “autumn bed: rain on the wútóng leaves, dawn sleeves: wind in the bamboo” 秋牀梧葉雨,曉袂竹林風, “the clear pond steeped in bamboo-green, the old tree gnawed by the wisteria’s shade” 清池涵竹色,老樹蝕藤陰, “the cricket-voices slip down the grass-fringed gully, pine-cool: the crane’s dream is clear” 草澗蛩聲滑,松凉鶴夢清. Among the seven-character: “wild waters lay heaven’s image trembling on their surface, sea-clouds press the wild-goose ranks low” 野水倒涵天影動,海雲平壓雁行低, “willow-soft wind, sudden warmth in the cold to coax the blossoms; small rain, damp again, then clearing” 颺栁輕風寒忽暖催花,小雨濕還晴 — all clear and graceful, recitable, and quite faithful to the Shípíng family manner.
Respectfully collated, third month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editors-in-chief: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Editor-General: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The collection is the principal surviving work of Dài Bǐng. Two anchor texts establish its provenance: Yáng Wànlǐ’s preface (which must antedate Yáng’s death in 1206 and so probably represents a juvenile gathering Dài presented to the elder poet) and Dài Bǐng’s own Bǎoyòu gǎiyuán guǐchǒu xiūxì rì preface dated to Bǎoyòu 1, guǐchǒu (1253). The composition window for the surviving texts thus runs from at least 1219 (the year of his jìnshì and Gànzhōu appointment) to 1253. Yáng Wànlǐ’s preface is implausibly early relative to the 1219 jìnshì and is best read as evidence that Dài Bǐng began circulating verse before his examination success — in keeping with Dài Fùgǔ’s commendation of him as a precocious Jiānghúpài talent. The polemical Dá wànglùn TángSòng shītǐzhě 答妄論唐宋詩體者 (“In answer to those who recklessly debate the Táng-versus-Sòng poetic styles”) quoted by Yáng — “What use is the chiselled phrase, the labour of the lung-and-bowels? When words convey thought it is already prose; the disposition of the heart has from the beginning no ancient or modern, no need to argue Sòng or Táng” 安用雕鎪嘔肺膓?辭能達意即文章,性情元自無今古,格調何須辨宋唐 — is one of the cleanest articulations of the Jiānghúpài aesthetic stance.
The Sìkù editors integrated the LiǎngHuái and Zhèjiāng provincial submissions plus the Sòng shī chāo into a five-juàn arrangement by genre (5-character ancient, 7-character ancient, 5-character regulated, 7-character regulated, 7-character quatrain). Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, does not list the work individually; the standard secondary placement is in surveys of Jiānghúpài poetry.
Translations and research
- Yú Bēihuǐ 余北薈 et al., Dài Fùgǔ Dài Bǐng shī xuǎn 戴復古戴昺詩選 (Zhèjiāng gǔ-jí, 1991).
- Wāng Yǒnghào 汪涌豪 and Hú Zhōngxíng 胡中行 (eds.), Sòng shī jiànshǎng cí-diǎn (Shànghǎi cí-shū, 2002), brief discussion of Dài Bǐng under the Late Sòng Jiānghú-pài.
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
Dài Bǐng’s reply-poem on the Táng-vs-Sòng debate has become a commonplace citation in surveys of Sòng poetics and supplies one of the canonical thirteenth-century Jiānghúpài manifestos.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1178.9, p683.
- CBDB person 27758
- KR catalog: cf. Dài Fùgǔ’s Shípíng shī jí and Shípíng cí, also catalogued in KR4d.