牟氏陵陽集

Móushì Língyáng jí 牟氏陵陽集

Mr. Móu’s Língyáng Collection by 牟巘 (撰)

About the work

The principal biéjí of Móu Xiàn 牟巘 (1227–1311), late-Sòng jìnshì of Húzhōu 湖州 (originally of Jǐngyán 井研 in Shǔ) and one of the most prominent Sòng-loyalist refusers — he is reported to have lived behind closed doors for thirty-six years after the fall of the Sòng. The collection runs to twenty-four juàn (6 juàn of poetry + 18 juàn of miscellaneous prose). Its title commemorates the family’s ancestral home on the southern slope of Língshān 陵山 in Sìchuān — Móu’s father Móu Zǐcái 牟子才 having registered the family at Húzhōu — and the Língyáng designation thus serves as a quiet emblem of bù wàng běn 不忘本. The earliest preface is Chéng Duānxué’s 程端學, dated Zhìshùn 2 (1331), which establishes the editorial history. Móu’s verse, in Wáng Shìzhēn’s 王士禎 verdict, carries something of the Sū Shì / Huáng Tíngjiān “manner” (PōGǔ ménfēng 坡谷門風), while his prose is diǎnshí xiángyǎ 典實詳雅 (substantively classical and detailed).

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: Língyáng jí, in twenty-four juàn, was composed by Móu Xiàn of the Sòng. Xiàn’s zì was Xiànzhī 獻之; he was a man of Húzhōu. His father, [Móu] Zǐcái 牟子才, held office under Lǐzōng as Hall-Academician of the Duānmíngdiàn 端明殿學士 and as Minister of Rites; he was renowned for his uprightness. Xiàn likewise passed the jìnshì examination and rose to be Vice-Director of the Court of Judicial Review (大理少卿). When [the Sòng] entered the Yuán [period], he did not serve; he closed his gate for thirty-six years. Hence in this collection, in the “five-syllable poem for the Ninth-Month festival” 九日五言詩, the xù discusses the matter of Táo Qián’s encounter with Wáng Hóng 王宏 on the road, with provision of wine and food; and in the “Inscription on the Yuānmíng tú” 題淵明圖 and other writings the conceit is in every case Móu Xiàn’s own. He has also remarked that the world is fond of saying that Táo Yuānmíng’s poems entering the Sòng (i.e. the LiúSòng) bear only jiǎzǐ sexagenary cycle-markings and not era-names, and Huáng Yùzhāng 黃豫章 (i.e. Huáng Tíngjiān) likewise said “the jiǎzǐ markings do not run before the Yìxī 義煕 reign-period”. But in the present extant Tao collection the poems do not include any era-name marking; Táo took shame in serving Liú Yù, his great principle is plain — this need not be too closely argued — and so forth. Thus in Móu’s prose he repeatedly inscribes the Zhìyuán 至元 era-name (i.e. of the Yuán), the conceit being from this.

This collection comprises six juàn of poetry and eighteen juàn of miscellaneous prose. It is prefaced by Chéng Duānxué’s preface of Zhìshùn 2 (1331). Wáng Shìzhēn’s 王士禎 Jūyìlù 居易錄 says that Móu’s poetry has the manner of the SūGǔ gate (Sū Shì and Huáng Tíngjiān), and that his miscellaneous prose is all diǎnshí xiángyǎ (substantively classical and detailed). Now examining what he composed, we know that Shìzhēn’s judgment is not made up. Móu was originally a man of Jǐngyán 井研 in Shǔ; his family had for generations lived on the southern slope of Língshān 陵山. From Zǐcái he first registered the family at Húzhōu; that he names the collection Língyáng is to keep this origin in mind.

Respectfully collated, tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). 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.

(Chéng Duānxué’s original preface, also preserved here, is dated first day of the eighth month of Zhìshùn 2 [1331]. It is a Daoxue-inflected discourse on the relation of wén 文 to dào 道, arguing that the proper movement is for dào to bear wén (wén yǐ chuán dào), not for wén to ornament dào (dào yǐ shì wén); after the Western Han the only writers in whom this proportion was preserved are the few — Zhūgě Liàng, Táo Yuānmíng, Dù Fǔ, Lù Zhì, Hán Yù, Ōuyáng Xiū, Sū Shì, Zēng Gǒng. He then locates Móu Xiàn explicitly within the YīLuò (ChéngZhū) lineage and praises Móu’s “Yuān-míng-style great principle” (Sòng-loyalist refusal of Yuán office) as the existential ground of his prose. The preface was solicited by Móu Yìngfù 應復, a sub-administrator in the Zhèdōng commander’s bureau and Móu Xiàn’s grandson, when he was preparing the woodblock printing in Yín 鄞 c. 1331.)

Abstract

Móu Xiàn (1227–1311), zì Xiànzhī 獻之 (also Xiànfǔ 獻甫), hào Língyáng 陵陽, was the son of Móu Zǐcái 牟子才 (jìnshì 1223), a celebrated Lǐzōng-era courtier of upright fame. The family had migrated to Húzhōu in the early thirteenth century from Jǐngyán 井研 in Shǔ, retaining “Língyáng” as a sentimental designation. Móu Xiàn himself was a Sòng jìnshì who rose to be Vice-Director of the Court of Judicial Review (大理少卿) before the fall of the Sòng. After 1276 he refused all Yuán offers and lived in pointed seclusion at Húzhōu for thirty-six years, finally dying in 1311 at age 85 — the round figure is well-attested. He became one of the most-cited late-Sòng / early-Yuán models of yímín 遺民 conduct, and the Língyáng jí is the principal documentary witness to that career. Critical to the dating of the work: the prose pieces date overwhelmingly to the post-conquest period (the tiyao notes Móu’s pointed use of Yuán Zhìyuán 至元 era-names within his own prose, while elsewhere thematizing Táo Yuānmíng’s silent dating practice); the collection as we have it was edited and printed under Móu Yìngfù 牟應復 (Móu’s grandson), with Chéng Duānxué’s preface of 1331. The notBefore / notAfter range above (1275–1311) brackets the composition window of the bulk of the surviving prose; the jí itself was printed only after Móu’s death. CBDB 20743 gives 1227–1311, consistent with the catalog and the conventional figure for Móu’s lifespan; Wilkinson has no specific entry. Wáng Shìzhēn’s Jūyìlù judgment — SūHuáng manner in verse, classical-substantive prose — has remained the standard evaluation of Móu’s stylistic position.

Translations and research

• Jennifer W. Jay, A Change in Dynasties: Loyalism in Thirteenth-Century China (Bellingham, 1991), passim — Móu Xiàn is one of the principal yí-mín figures discussed.
• Wāng Yùn-zhāng 汪允章, “Móu Xiàn yǔ Sòng-mò Yuán-chū Húzhōu yí-mín shī-rén qún-tǐ” 牟巘與宋末元初湖州遺民詩人群體, Wén-xué yí-chǎn 文學遺產 (2009, no. 5), pp. 86–95.
• Wāng Sūn-yīng 汪孫穎, “Móu Xiàn Língyáng jí yánjiū” 牟巘《陵陽集》研究, PhD diss., Sūzhōu dà-xué, 2014 — comprehensive textual and biographical study.
• Bāo Wéi-mín 包偉民, Sòng-dài dì-fāng cái-zhèng-shǐ yánjiū 宋代地方財政史研究 (Shàng-hǎi: Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí, 2001), uses Móu’s prose for late-Sòng Húzhōu administrative history.
• Móu’s surviving verse is collected in Quán Sòng shī vol. 65; prose in Quán Sòng wén vol. 354–355 (Shàng-hǎi: Shàng-hǎi cí-shū chū-bǎn-shè).

Other points of interest

The tiyao’s discussion of Móu Xiàn’s repeated use of Yuán Zhìyuán era-names within his prose — paired with his pointed thematic interest in Táo Yuānmíng’s reported avoidance of LiúSòng era-markers — is a fascinating piece of late-Sòng / early-Yuán “loyalist semiotics”: where Táo had refused to use the new dynasty’s reign-titles, Móu deliberately does use them, but framed by an explicit invocation of Táo’s refusal, producing a complex self-positioning. This is a useful case study for Sòng yímín writing-strategies. The collection’s title is also a vivid example of Sòng family-migration memory: a Shǔ family that long-since settled in Húzhōu still names its principal biéjí after the Sìchuān ancestral hill.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1188.1, p1.
• CBDB person 20743 (Móu Xiàn)
• Wikidata, Mou Xian