存雅堂遺稿

Cúnyǎtáng yígǎo 存雅堂遺稿

Surviving Manuscripts from the Hall of Preserved Elegance by 方鳳 (撰), edited by 張燧 (輯)

About the work

The Qīng-era reconstructed five-juàn literary remains of Fāng Fèng 方鳳 (CBDB 20059, 1240–1321; zì Sháoqīng 韶卿, alternate zì Jǐngshān 景山), native of Pújiāng 浦江 (Wūzhōu / Jīnhuá), one of the principal early-Yuán Pújiāng yímín intellectuals and co-organizer (with Xiè Áo 謝翺 and Wú Wèi 吳渭) of the Yuèquán yínshè 月泉吟社 poetry contest of 1286. Fāng tested for the Imperial University in his youth but did not pass the lǐbù examination; later by special imperial favor (tèēn) he was appointed wénxué (Confucian Lecturer) of Róngzhōu 容州. After the Sòng surrender he retreated to Xiānhuá Shān 仙華山 in his native district, where Wú Wèi (then Magistrate of Yìwū 義烏縣) had built a family-school for his use. As Fāng was dying he had his son Chū 樗 inscribe the temporary funeral-banner with the office-title “Róngzhōu” — “to show that he had not forgotten [the Sòng dynasty’s] grace.” He was known to his time as “Yánnán xiānshēng” 巖南先生. His student Liǔ Guàn 柳貫 (1270–1342, the Jīnhuá sì xiānshēng member) compiled 380 surviving poems in nine juàn; Zhào Jìngshū 趙敬叔, Yǒngjiā magistrate, had them cut at the county studio; Huáng Jìn 黃溍 (1277–1357, another of the Jīnhuá sì xiānshēng) supplied the preface. Sòng Lián 宋濂’s Fāng Fèng zhuàn mentions a Cúnyǎtáng gǎo in “more than three thousand pieces” — a figure incompatible with Huáng Jìn’s count, presumably referring to the unprinted manuscript. The Yuán print blocks were lost; the present text is a Shùnzhì jiǎwǔ (1654) reconstruction by Fāng’s fellow-villager Zhāng Suì 張燧, who gathered 73 poems, 12 prose pieces, the Jīnhuá dòngtiān xíngjì 金華洞天行紀, plus a sixteen-poem and five-prose-piece appendix by Fāng’s son Fāng Chū 方樗. The original Zhāng Suì base also carried a Wùyì kǎo 物異考 (one juàn), Yuèquán yínshè shī (two juàn, since separately printed), and an Wàipiān (two juàn) of correspondence-poems and inter-author exchanges; the Sìkù editors dropped all three on grounds of redundancy or insubstantiality.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: Cúnyǎtáng yígǎo in five juàn was composed by Fāng Fèng of the Sòng. Fèng’s zì was Sháoqīng, alternate zì Jǐngshān; a man of Pújiāng. He tested for the Imperial University; raised up [to test for] the Lǐbù, [but] failed. Later, by special favor, he was appointed wénxué of Róngzhōu. When the Sòng fell, he returned and concealed himself at Xiānhuá Shān. His fellow-villager and magistrate of Yìwū, Wú Wèi, opened a family-school and respectfully served him. When his illness was severe, [Fāng] commanded [his] son [Fāng] Chū to inscribe on his banner “[A man of] Róngzhōu” — to show [he had] not forgotten [the Sòng grace]. He was called by his time “Yánnán xiānshēng.”

His disciple Liǔ Guàn 柳貫 compiled his surviving poetry, 380 pieces, dividing it into nine juàn, and entrusted [it to] the Yǒngjiā magistrate Zhào Jìngshū to cut and place at the county studio; Huáng Jìn made for it a preface. And Sòng Lián’s Fāng Fèng zhuàn further says “Cúnyǎtáng gǎo more than three thousand pieces” — this must be referring to what had not yet been cut, hence at variance with the Huáng [Jìn] preface in numbers. Later it gradually was scattered and lost, [until] even the printing blocks were [lost].

In our state’s Shùnzhì jiǎwǔ (1654) his fellow-villager Zhāng Suì 張燧 broadly searched the various books, gleaning the worn remnants, gathered them into the present compilation — in all 73 poems and 12 prose pieces, with the Jīnhuá dòngtiān xíngjì one piece, appended by Fāng’s son Chū’s poetry 16 pieces and prose 5 pieces. Fèng’s resolute integrity is worth praising; his prose is also haggard and high-stacked, scornful of common stale words. Gōng Kāi 龔開 once judged his poetry: “if we discuss it from the root — in human relations [it is] not [in] human affairs; in [the order of] equals-and-above, in Heaven-and-Earth [it is] not [in the] ancient-and-modern” — for Fèng [had] chanted while pacing the riverbank, often longing-and-thinking of the ancestral state, never forgetting loyalty-and-love; Kāi too ended his life as a yímín, [so his] spreading praise unavoidably exceeded the case. Yet [Fāng’s] hidden grief and sad reflections, repeatedly working out [his] feeling — possessing the Shǔlí màixiù lost-music — surely still does not lose the Fēngrén’s sense.

The original base further had Wùyì kǎo one juàn, Yuèquán yínshè shī two juàn, Wàipiān shīwén two juàn. We now examine: Wùyì kǎo issues from TángSòng remnant writings, just a few items, of no help to verification; Yuèquán yínshè shī already has a separately-issued single base; as for the Wàipiān, the materials gathered are others’ presentation-and-response works together with the Xiè Áo zhuàn and Wú Lái 吳萊 [stele-inscriptions] recorded therein — particularly inundated. We have now removed [all three]. 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.

Abstract

Fāng Fèng (CBDB 20059, 1240/1241–1321/1322 — CBDB has 1240–1321; the catalog meta gives 1241–1322; the slight discrepancy reflects the Chinese lunar-year vs. Gregorian-year conversion and is not consequential) is the third figure (after Xiè Áo and Wú Wèi) of the early-Yuán Pújiāng yímín intellectual triad and the most prolific of the three. As co-organizer of the Yuèquán yínshè of 1286 (Zhìyuán bǐngxū), which solicited 2,735 manuscripts on “Chūnrì tiányuán záxìng” theme and printed 60 — with Lián Wénfèng 連文鳳’s pseudonymous Luó Gōngfú entry first — he stands at the center of the early-Yuán Sòng-loyalist literary society network. The original Yuán-era Cúnyǎtáng gǎo compiled by his disciple Liǔ Guàn (380 poems in 9 juàn, with a Huáng Jìn preface) was lost; the present is a 1654 Qīng-early Zhāng Suì reconstruction. The composition window for the surviving material runs from approximately 1276 (Sòng surrender, beginning of the yímín refuge) through Fāng’s death in 1321 — encompassing the Yuèquán yínshè period (1286) and the long retreat at Xiānhuá Shān. Fāng’s son Fāng Chū’s appended works fall within the early-fourteenth century. Wilkinson treats Fāng among the Pújiāng / Jīnhuá literary network feeding into the next generation’s Jīnhuá sì xiānshēng (§28.1).

Translations and research

• 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), ch. 6 — Fāng Fèng in the Pú-jiāng yí-mín triad.
• Niú Hǎi-róng 牛海蓉, Yuè-quán yín-shè yán-jiū 月泉吟社研究 (Běijīng: Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 2008) — Fāng Fèng’s co-organizing role.
• Wáng Yìng-chí 王映赤, “Fāng Fèng Cún-yǎ-táng yí-gǎo yán-jiū” 方鳳《存雅堂遺稿》研究 (MA thesis, Zhè-jiāng dà-xué, 2012).
• Quán Sòng shī vol. 67, Quán Sòng wén vol. 357 collate the present base against the 1654 Zhāng Suì recension and the Yǒng-lè dà-diǎn fragments.

Other points of interest

The mention of Sòng Lián’s Fāng Fèng zhuàn — claiming “more than three thousand pieces” of Cúnyǎtáng gǎo — is significant: the 380-poem figure represents only the printed Yuán-era selection by Liǔ Guàn, with a much larger unprinted corpus probably remaining at Fāng’s death and circulating only in manuscript among the Jīnhuá group. The bulk of this larger corpus is presumed lost. Fāng’s connection to the Jīnhuá sì xiānshēng — Liǔ Guàn, Huáng Jìn, Wú Lái 吳萊, Wāng Yuán 汪元 — through teacher-student transmission documents the foundational generation of the Jīnhuá school of the high Yuán.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1189.10, p525.
• CBDB person 20059 (Fāng Fèng)
• Wikipedia, 方鳳