Yùchǔ jí 玉楮集
The Jade-Paper Mulberry Collection by 岳珂 (撰)
About the work
A late-Sòng biéjí of 385 poems by Yuè Kē 岳珂 (grandson of Yuè Fēi 岳飛), composed over three years from wùxū 戊戌 (1238) to gēngzǐ 庚子 (1240) and given its title from the Lièzǐ 列子 anecdote in which an artisan carved jade into a mulberry leaf — a labor of three years that could not be told apart from the real ones. The collection is securely datable and is itself the principal record of Yuè Kē’s later career, after his 1233 Yuánxī lantern poem at Jīngkǒu (referring to Wéizōng 佑陵 of the Northern Sòng) had drawn on him the enmity of Hán Zhènglún 韓正倫. The work is the chief late-Sòng witness to Yuè Kē’s poetic voice (his prose and antiquarian writings are catalogued separately).
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Yùchǔ jí, in eight juàn, was composed by Yuè Kē of the Sòng. Kē, zì Sùzhī 肅之, sobriquet Yìzhāi 亦齋, also styled Juànwēng 倦翁, was the grandson of Èzhōngwǔwáng 鄂忠武王 Yuè Fēi 岳飛. He held office as Fūwéngé dàizhì 敷文閣待制, served as Vice-Minister of Revenue (戶部侍郎), and Chief of the Huáidōng General Commissariat. His other works, the Tíngshǐ 桯史 and Bǎozhēnzhāi fǎshū zàn 寶真齋法書贊, are listed separately. This collection runs from wùxū 戊戌 (1238) down to gēngzǐ 庚子 (1240), three years’ work in all, totaling 385 pieces. The title is taken from the Lièzǐ phrase “carving jade into a [mulberry] paper-leaf — three years, and the work was not yet done” — Yuè composed the preface himself and prefixed it to the collection.
We note: in the yuánxī lantern-viewing at Jīngkǒu 京口 of Shàodìng guǐsì 紹定癸已 (1233), Yuè composed a poem touching upon the Yòulíng 佑陵 affair (the entombment of the Northern Sòng Huīzōng); Hán Zhènglún 韓正倫, suspecting that Yuè was borrowing the topic to satirize him personally, contrived a grudge and entrapped him with another charge. After the matter was cleared up and he was released, Yuè was recalled to office in wùxū (1238). Thus the opening poem of this collection has the line “five years sitting under a strange slander”, and other poems too repeatedly recall this. The poetry is preserved here for only three years, with the same matter as its source. Yuè’s preface says: “Wood lives long by being good-for-nothing; the goose is spared by not crying out; the ceremonial wine-vessel is discarded for its blue-and-yellow [ornament]; the great gourd serves only for floating about.” There is plainly something of indignation in his words.
Although at times rather plain on the surface, the verse lacking the poet’s “one-singing-three-sighing” cadence, his clear, open, magnanimous qìgé 氣格 is still well worth notice. Wáng Shìzhēn 王士禎 in Jūyìlù 居易錄 reports that copies of this collection are exceedingly rare in circulation: Zhāng Zhēn 張貞 of Ānqiū 安邱 obtained an old manuscript copy from the Gāo Tángwáng’s 高唐王 family, and only then did the text begin to spread.
Respectfully collated, tenth month of Qiánlóng 41 (1776). Chief-Compiler Officers (ministers) Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅; Chief-Collation Officer (minister) Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The Yùchǔ jí belongs to the last and most poignant phase of Yuè Kē’s career. After his 1233 lantern-poem at Jīngkǒu had been read as veiled criticism of court politics — a reading that resulted in five years of harassment culminating in his temporary disgrace — Yuè’s recall to office in 1238 prompted this dense burst of literary work. The collection’s dating is unusually precise: 1238–1240, established by Yuè’s own preface and by internal references that the Sìkù tiyao traces. The textual transmission was exceptionally narrow: the work was effectively lost until Wáng Shìzhēn’s report that Zhāng Zhēn had recovered a manuscript from the household of the GāoTáng prince. The Sìkù version is therefore the principal modern witness. The collection’s title and preface, with its accumulated Zhuāngzǐ and Lièzǐ allusions to uselessness as a means of survival, signals Yuè’s bitter retrospect on the Zhènglún affair.
Translations and research
- Hāyàowēn 哈耀文, “Yuè Kē Yùchǔ jí zhī shī-shǐ jiàzhí” 岳珂《玉楮集》之詩史價值, Sòng-dài wénxué yánjiū 宋代文學研究, no. 12 (2014).
- Wáng Yǎojū 王曜駒, “Yuè Kē shēng-píng jí qí shī-wén yánjiū” 岳珂生平及其詩文研究, MA thesis, Sūzhōu dàxué, 2010.
- Yuè Kē corpus is well-served by the Beijing University Quán Sòng shī volumes; modern critical edition by Wú Jiànrén 吳健仁 in Yuè Kē jí jiào-zhù 岳珂集校注 (Hángzhōu: Zhèjiāng gǔjí, 2015).
Other points of interest
The Yùchǔ jí is also a useful collateral source for Yuè Kē’s editorial activity on the famous Xiāngtāi 相臺 Nine Classics, which was completed during the very years (c. 1238–1240) covered by this collection. The Sìkù tiyao’s note that copies of the work were nearly lost in the mid-Qīng explains why Yuè Kē’s poetic side is much less studied than his prose and antiquarian writings.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1181.7, p441.
- CBDB person 10759 (Yuè Kē)