百正集

Bǎizhèng jí 百正集

The Collection of [Lián] Bǎi-zhèng by 連文鳳 (撰)

About the work

The reconstructed three-juàn collection of Lián Wénfèng 連文鳳 (CBDB 33341, fl. through 1280), zì Bǎizhèng 百正, hào Yìngshān 應山, a “Sānshān” 三山 (Fúzhōu) man best known as Luó Gōngfú 羅公福 — the pseudonymous winner of the famous Yuán-period Yuèquán yínshè 月泉吟社 poetry contest of Zhìyuán bǐngxū (1286). The original Lián Bǎizhèng bǐngzǐgǎo 連百正丙子稿 (Wényuāngé bibliography one bù one cè) had long lost its transmitted copy by the Qiánlóng era; what is preserved in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn is sufficient to reconstruct three juàn of verse plus an appendix of three fù, two xù, two jì, one shuō, one zhuàn — including the famous Bīnghú xiānshēng zhuàn 冰壺先生傳 (Biography of Master Ice-Pot), a satirical fictive biography in the tradition of Hán Yù’s Máo Yǐng zhuàn and Sū Shì’s Luó Wén zhuàn. The Sìkù editors note Lián’s poetry as “clear, sharp, and fluent — self-expressing the xìnglíng (innate spirit) — without the xiānsuǒ cūguǎng (fine-fragmented, coarse-rude) habits of the late-Sòng jiānghú poets,” and place him just below the Southern-Sòng masters Yóu Móu, Yáng Wànlǐ, Fàn Chéngdà, Lù Yóu and just above the Yuán masters Fàn Hēng, Jiē Xīsī, Yú Jí, Yáng Zài.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: Bǎizhèng jí in three juàn was composed by Lián Wénfèng of the Sòng. Wénfèng’s zì was Bǎizhèng, his hào Yìngshān, a “Sānshān” 三山 man. His official career cannot be ascertained in detail. In the collection’s “Mùqiū záxìng” (Late-Autumn Miscellaneous Stirrings) poem there is the line “shìjí xìngmíng chú” (‘removed [my] name from the officials’ roster’) — so before Sòng Déyòu (1275–1276) he had likewise served. Again, in his “Gēngzǐ lìchūn” (Slight-Springs of Gēngzǐ year) poem there is the line “yòu féng gēngzǐ suì / lǎo jǐng duì sháohuá” (‘Again I meet a Gēngzǐ year, / in age confronting the season’s splendor’); gēngzǐ is Dàdé 4 (1300) of the Yuán Chéngzōng, so [he] still lived twenty-four years into the Yuán.

In Zhìyuán bǐngxū (1286), Pújiāng 浦江’s Wú Wèi 吳渭 invited Xiè Áo 謝翺, Fāng Fèng 方鳳 and others to hold the Yuèquán yínshè 月泉吟社; with “Chūnrì tiányuán záxìng” (Miscellaneous Stirrings of Spring-day in the Field and Garden) as theme, they solicited poetry from all four directions, gathering 2,735 juàn; 280 juàn were selected; 60 juàn were printed; with Luó Gōngfú 羅公福 taking the top place. According to the title-note, “Gōngfú” was Wénfèng’s pseudonym. Wáng Shìzhèng’s 王士禛 Chíběi ǒután 池北偶談 says: “The Yuèquán yínshè poetry is fresh, sharp, and pointed — a school of its own — and Xiè Áo’s grading of it was not balanced; he therefore reordered and changed Wénfèng to twenty-first.” However, at the start of the Yuán the southeast poetry-society writers were like a forest; that they raised Wénfèng to first without one dissenting word — there must surely have been a reason; it is not lightly admissible to overturn the predecessors’ grading by a single character or phrase.

Now observing what [Lián] composed: in the main, [it is] clear and crisp, flowing and fluent, self-expressing the xìnglíng, without the slender-fragmented and gross-coarse habits of the late-Sòng jiānghú people. Although above he does not match Yóu, Yáng, Fàn, Lù — below, he does not match Fàn, Jiē, Yú, Yáng — yet positioned among these figures he is not at all “white-thatch supporting them” [i.e., not their lowly understudy]; [his being] then ranked first does have a basis.

The Wényuāngé shūmù records “Lián Bǎizhèng bǐngzǐ gǎo” 1 bù 1 cè; long had no transmitted text. What the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn records is simply titled Lián Bǎizhèng jí, which must be that base. We have now gathered and arranged, editing into three juàn; also three fù, two xù, two jì, one shuō, one zhuàn — also scattered seen in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. The literary frame is elegant and clean — likewise not losing the standard of forerunners. The single “Bīnghú xiānshēng zhuàn” — although [Lián] used prose-as-play, yet “Máo Yǐng” 毛穎 and “Luó Wén” 羅文 zhuàn recorded in Hán [Yù] and Sū [Shì]‘s collections established the precedent in antiquity; we now likewise append it to the end of the juàn in order to preserve its outline.

Respectfully collated, ninth 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.

Abstract

Lián Wénfèng (CBDB 33341, fl. 1280; also active 1300 per the Gēngzǐ lìchūn internal evidence) is one of the principal figures of the early-Yuán Zhèdōng yímín poetic society movement. The Yuèquán yínshè 月泉吟社 of 1286 — organized by Wú Wèi 吳渭 at Pújiāng in collaboration with Xiè Áo and Fāng Fèng 方鳳 — was the first and largest of the early-Yuán Sòng-loyalist poetry contests; it solicited 2,735 manuscripts and printed 60, with Lián’s seven contributions under the pseudonym “Luó Gōngfú” 羅公福 taking the top place. The Sìkù editors push back firmly against Wáng Shìzhèng’s later attempt to re-rank Lián downward to 21st, on the grounds that contemporary consensus is more authoritative than later individual reassessment. The Bǎizhèng jí is essentially a Yǒnglè dàdiǎn re-aggregation: the original Bǐngzǐgǎo (the title referring to the bǐngzǐ year 1276, the year of the Sòng surrender) was already lost by the Qiánlóng era. The reconstructed corpus comprises three juàn of verse plus an appendix of prose, the most notable item being the Bīnghú xiānshēng zhuàn — a Hán-Yù-style satirical fictive biography. The composition window for the surviving material is approximately 1276 (the bǐngzǐ year of the original title) through 1300 (the Gēngzǐ lìchūn internal date). CBDB 33341 confirms Lián’s activity through 1280; the Sìkù internal evidence extends his life to at least 1300. Wilkinson treats the Yuèquán yínshè and Lián’s role within the early-Yuán yímín poetic networks (§28, §50).

Translations and research

• Niú Hǎi-róng 牛海蓉, Yuè-quán yín-shè yán-jiū 月泉吟社研究 (Běijīng: Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 2008). The principal modern monograph on the society, with extensive treatment of Lián Wén-fèng / Luó Gōng-fú.
• Hé Zōng-měi 何宗美, Sòng-mò Yuán-chū yí-mín wén-rén qún-tǐ yán-jiū 宋末元初遺民文人群體研究 (Běijīng: Rén-mín chū-bǎn-shè, 2009) — Lián in the Pú-jiāng circle.
• Wilt L. Idema, “The Yueh-ch’üan yin-she: Pu-chiang Society and the Construction of Sung Loyalism,” in Selected Papers (various). Brief but useful English-language treatment.
• Quán Sòng shī vol. 67 collates Lián’s verse from the Yǒng-lè dà-diǎn base.

Other points of interest

The Bīnghú xiānshēng zhuàn (Biography of Master Ice-Pot) appended to the present collection is a particularly interesting late-Sòng / early-Yuán example of the jiǎtuō zhuàn (parodic biography) genre — modeled on Hán Yù’s Máo Yǐng zhuàn (Biography of the Brush-Tip Mao) and Sū Shì’s Luó Wén zhuàn (Biography of Luó Wén, a personified spider). The “Master Ice-Pot” is the bīnghú (a ritual jar for holding water and ice); the biography uses the object’s transparency and coolness as a metaphor for Sòng-loyalist qīngjié (pure integrity). It is the most concrete document of Lián’s prose persona under the yímín condition.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1189.7, p463.
• CBDB person 33341 (Lián Wénfèng)