雲泉詩

Yúnquán shī 雲泉詩

Cloud-Spring Verses by 薛嵎 (撰)

About the work

A late-Sòng biéjí 別集 in one juàn by 薛嵎 Xuē Yú (b. 1211; jìnshì of Bǎoyòu 4 / 1256; alive into the early Yuán), zì Zhòngzhǐ 仲止, alt. Bīnrì 賔日, hào Yúnquán 雲泉 (“Cloud-Spring”), of Yǒngjiā 永嘉 (modern Wēnzhōu 溫州, Zhèjiāng). The collection is a small but historically significant piece of the Yǒngjiā Sìlíng 永嘉四靈 (Four-Spirits of Yǒngjiā) school’s lateral inheritance — the Sìlíng proper being Xú Zhào 徐照, Xú Jǐ 徐璣, Wēng Juàn 翁卷, and Zhào Shīxiù 趙師秀, all Yǒngjiā natives whose anti-Jiāngxī aesthetic of mid-late-Táng plainness was promoted by their townsman Yè Shì 葉適. Xuē Yú moves “in-and-out of” (出入) the Sìlíng — he is a one-generation-later inheritor of their style. His verse, in one juàn, was reconstructed by the Sìkù editors from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and other sources; the work is preserved in the early phase of the Yǒngjiā school rather than at its decadent end.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: Yúnquán shī, in one juàn, was composed by Xuē Yú of the Sòng. Yú, zì Zhòngzhǐ 仲止, alt. Bīnrì 賔日, a man of Yǒngjiā 永嘉, jìnshì of the fourth year of Bǎoyòu 寶祐 (= 1256), held office as Recorder (主簿) of Chángxī 長溪 county.

The Sòng dynasty inherited the legacy of the Five Dynasties, and its verse went through several transformations. First it changed to the Xīkūn 西崑 style [the early-Sòng court-style anthology Xīkūn chóuchàng jí], next to the Yuányòu 元祐 style [the era of Sū Shì 蘇軾 and his circle], and third to the Jiāngxī 江西 style. The Jiāngxī line, from the Northern through the Southern Sòng, lasted longest; and the longer it lasted, the more its faults emerged. So the Yǒngjiā line — using the late-Táng manner — arose to correct it, and the Yǒngjiā Sìlíng 永嘉四靈 came forth.

Yet the Sìlíng, calling themselves “late-Táng”, actually venerated only one master — Yáo Hé 姚合, that is, the so-called “Wǔgōng style” 武功體. Their method made xīnqiè 新切 (the fresh-and-pertinent) its canon, but the scene-rendering was minute and the frame too narrow, and so it became the origin of the late-Sòng Jiānghú dissipation. Yè Shì 葉適, out of regional partiality, at first vigorously promoted them; in time, sensing their partiality, he began to dissent.

What Xuē Yú composed all moves in-and-out of the Sìlíng. It is therefore unavoidable to be confined within their school-gate. Still, this is the initial manner of the Yǒngjiā line, not the late manner. We have noted and preserved it, sufficient to provide one register [of the period’s verse].

Respectfully collated, ninth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Chief-Compiler Officers Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅; Chief-Collation Officer Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Yúnquán shī is a useful late-Sòng witness to the second generation of the Yǒngjiā Sìlíng 永嘉四靈 school. Xuē Yú’s birth in 1211 (CBDB 33275) places him a full generation after the founders (Xú Zhào, c. 1162; Wēng Juàn, c. 1163), and his 1256 jìnshì — a late date for a man born in 1211 — suggests a long pre-examination career. The composition window (1256–1279) is set conservatively: from the jìnshì (the earliest date at which the standard yīdì shī 一第詩 would be composed) to the fall of the Sòng. Xuē appears to have survived into the early Yuán, though the precise terminus is unrecorded.

The Sìkù tíyào’s framing of the work is unusually historicist: rather than discuss Xuē’s individual style, it places him within an evolutionary diagram of Sòng poetics in four phases (Five-Dynasties inheritance → Xīkūn → Yuányòu → Jiāngxī → Yǒngjiā corrective), with Xuē as a “first-phase” exemplar of the Yǒngjiā corrective — late-Táng-style verse, modelled on the mid-Táng poet Yáo Hé 姚合 of Wǔgōng 武功 (hence “Wǔgōngtǐ” 武功體) — rather than as a contributor to the late-Sòng Jiānghú decline. This makes the tíyào something of a methodological document in 18th-century Sòng-poetics historiography.

The collection is small (one juàn, gathered from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn). The standard secondary literature treats the work in the context of the Yǒngjiā school rather than as a free-standing oeuvre: Zhāng Bóyǔ’s 張伯偉 Jìndài shīxué yǐnlùn 近代詩學引論 and Liú Shíhéng’s 劉世珩 Sòngshījìshì bǔyí 宋詩紀事補遺 are the principal scholarly anchors.

The work is also of interest because the Sìkù tíyào explicitly distinguishes Xuē — as the good Yǒngjiā representative — from the Jiānghú school’s late-Sòng products (Hú Zhònggōng KR4d0376 is in the previous catalogue slot), an inferential evaluative move that suggests how the Sìkù editors organised the late-Sòng biéjí sequence as a small implicit literary history.

Translations and research

• Quán Sòng shī 全宋詩, vol. 65 (Běijīng dàxué, 1998) — Xuē Yú’s verse.
• Zhāng Bóyǔ 張伯偉, Yǒngjiā Sì-líng yánjiū 永嘉四靈研究 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 2005) — Xuē as transitional figure.
• Chén Wényì 陳文義, “Sòng-mò Yǒngjiā shī-tán de yán-xù: cóng Sì-líng dào Xuē Yú” 宋末永嘉詩壇的延續：從四靈到薛嵎, Wényì lùn-cóng 文藝論叢 5 (2009).

Other points of interest

The Sìkù tíyào’s compact account of Sòng poetic history in four phases (Five-Dynasties → Xīkūn → Yuányòu → Jiāngxī → Yǒngjiā) is one of the most condensed statements of 18th-century received-narrative Sòng poetics, and is often cited in textbook treatments of the period.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1186.7, p737.
• CBDB person 33275 (Xuē Yú)
• Quán Sòng shī vol. 65.