Fùshān yígǎo 富山遺稿
Surviving Manuscripts of Fù-shān by 方夔 (撰)
About the work
The collected poetry, in ten juàn, of Fāng Kuí 方夔 (one name 一夔, zì Shízuǒ 時佐), self-styled Zhīfēizǐ 知非子, native of Chúnān 淳安 (Yánzhōu, Zhèjiāng), pupil of Hé Mèngguì 何夢桂 (Qiánzhāi 潛齋), late-Sòng / early-Yuán Confucian who failed the jǔzǐ (provincial / metropolitan) examinations and retired to the foot of Fùshān, naming his study Lùqǐ 緑綺 and teaching disciples (whence “Fùshān xiānshēng”). His two original works — Hàn lùn 漢論 in ten juàn and Fùshān lǎngǎo 富山懶稿 in thirty juàn — have both been lost; what is preserved here is a Míng-era re-aggregation by his fifth-generation descendant Fāng Wénjié 方文傑, with a preface by Shāng Lù 商輅 (1414–1486, Míng zhuàngyuán and Tàibǎo) commending the verse as “calm-and-measured, expansive-and-substantial, not engaging in carving and chiseling” — and rooting it in Fāng’s tutelage under Hé Mèngguì. The Chúnān Fāng line had been one of the most distinguished literary clans of Yánzhōu from the Northern Sòng onward, producing the Diànzhōngchéng Fāng Zhòngmóu 方仲謀, the Tōngpàn Fāng Yuánxiū 方元修, the Yòuwéndiàn xiūzhuàn Fāng Yín 方誾, and the Tàipúshàoqīng Fāng Wén 方聞 — a context the Sìkù editors stress.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Fùshān yígǎo in ten juàn was composed by Fāng Kuí of the Sòng. Kuí — also named “Yīkuí” 一夔, zì Shízuǒ — was a man of Chúnān. Born at the end of the Sòng, he once studied under Hé Mèngguì; he applied himself to the jǔzǐ enterprise but did not succeed with the examiners, [so] he retired and concealed himself at the foot of Fùshān, naming his hall “Lùqǐ” 緑綺; he received disciples and taught learning among them, and self-styled himself “Zhīfēizǐ.” He composed Hàn lùn in ten juàn and Fùshān lǎngǎo in thirty juàn, which circulated in the world. Later the printing-blocks were dispersed and lost; his descendant Shìdé 世德 and others reassembled his poetry and edited it into the present compilation.
Kuí’s learning had original substance, and his moral character was particularly lofty. Shāng Lù 商輅 once praised his poetry as “calm-and-measured, expansive-and-substantial, not engaging in carving and chiseling” — by this can be seen the breadth and elegance of his comportment. Zhōu Xuān 周瑄 likewise praised that “his issuing forth in tonal regulation is not bound by frame and meter” — for Kuí, when stirred by inspiration, brushed off his works rather lacking the merit of polish-and-refinement; therefore Shāng [Lù] and the rest spoke thus. Yet the qíngzhì (affect and intent) is continuous and complete, and the jīqù (lively interest) is itself sufficient. The five-character form, qìshì (energy and force) blue-and-vast, is particularly superior to the seven-character.
The Chúnān Fāng clan, from the Northern Sòng onward — like the Bureau-Vice-Director Zhòngmóu, Vice-Prefect Yuánxiū, Imperial-Diarist-Compiler Yín, and Court-of-Imperial-Stud Junior-Minister Wén — all gained distinction in poetry and were praised by the age. Although their collections have already been lost, the lingering style and remnant resonance have nourished the descendants; and it can be known that Kuí’s saturation [in the family tradition] in fact has its own source. Respectfully collated, third 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.
(The frontmatter also preserves Shāng Lù’s original preface, which praises Fāng Kuí’s tutelage under Hé Mèngguì Qiánzhāi, situates the yígǎo in the family tradition, and notes that Fāng’s fifth-generation descendant Wénjié, with his son Zhōng 中 (then lǐng xiāngjiàn lái jīng — a holder of provincial recommendation in the capital) and the kinsman Tíngchén 廷臣 (then Bīngkē jǐshìzhōng) had pressed Shāng to compose the preface for the engraving.)
Abstract
Fāng Kuí (CBDB 11260, lifedates uncertain, fl. late-Sòng / early-Yuán — the catalog meta provides no dates, and CBDB lists him with zero years; the standard SòngYuán xuéàn j. 64 places his floruit roughly 1260s–1310s in continuity with his teacher Hé Mèngguì, who was born in 1229 and lived into the early Yuán). Hé Mèngguì was a Sòng jìnshì of 1265 who refused Yuán service; Fāng’s studentship and subsequent retreat to Fùshān thus place him securely in the Yánzhōu yímín circle. His two original works Hàn lùn (a ten-juàn historical treatise on the Hàn) and Fùshān lǎngǎo (a thirty-juàn literary collection) are both lost; the present ten-juàn recension was reassembled in the mid-Míng by his fifth-generation descendant Fāng Shìdé / Fāng Wénjié, with Shāng Lù’s preface establishing the line of transmission. Most of the surviving material is verse; the Sìkù editors particularly note the five-syllable poetry’s blue-vast qìshì. The composition window is essentially Fāng Kuí’s productive lifetime in retreat at Fùshān, conservatively c. 1260–1310. CBDB has no firm date; Wilkinson does not single out Fāng Kuí.
Translations and research
- Méi Xīn-lín 梅新林, Zhè-jiāng wén-xué shǐ 浙江文學史, vol. 2 (Hāng-zhōu: Zhè-jiāng dà-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2010) — Fāng Kuí among the Yán-zhōu yí-mín literary circle.
- Zhāng Hóng-shēng 張宏生 (ed.), Jiāng-hú shī-pài yán-jiū 江湖詩派研究 (Běijīng: Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1995) — passing references.
- Quán Sòng shī vol. 67 collates Fāng Kuí’s poetry from this base text.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1189.5, p365.
- CBDB person 11260 (Fāng Kuí)