紫巖詩選

Zǐyán shī xuǎn 紫巖詩選

Selected Poems of Zǐ-yán by 于石 (撰), selected by 吳師道 (選)

About the work

A selected, rather than complete, three-juàn poetic collection of Yú Shí 于石 (CBDB 35296, fl. late-Sòng / early-Yuán; zì Jièwēng 介翁), native of Lánqī 蘭谿 (modern Lánxī in Wūzhōu / Jīnhuá, Zhèjiāng), who refused all Yuán recruitment after the Sòng fall and styled himself Zǐyán 紫巖 (“Purple Cliff”) after his place of residence, later moving into the prefectural town and renaming himself Liǎngxī 兩谿 (“Two Streams”). The Zhèjiāng tōngzhì enters him both in the Wényuàn and the Yǐnyì sections — “either is deserved.” The collection’s selection was carried out by his student Wú Shīdào 吳師道 (1283–1344, CBDB 27957) — the great Yuán Lǐxué commentator on the Zhànguó cè (Zhànguó cè jiàozhù KR2c0005) and one of the high-Yuán Jīn-huá-school masters — who, after Yú’s death, gathered his poetry, retained only 200 gǔjīntǐ pieces, and inscribed each juàn “selected by the disciple Wú Shīdào.” The collection is internally datable: dīngchǒu (1277) and jǐmǎo (1279) reference the immediate post-fall years; dīnghài (1287) and wùzǐ (1288) — Zhìyuán 24 and 25 — show that the bulk of the verse is “after-middle-age.” The Sìkù editors note that Yú’s gǔshī on dynastic-grief themes “shocks the air and wounds the affairs” (often slipping into the late-Bái Jūyì / Yuán Zhěn style); his more relaxed travel-and-leisure verse “tends to be slightly thin”; the lǜshī are not as good as the gǔshī; the late-Sòng vulgar prosody (“the snake of the dead branches uncoats its mail,” “the vines wrap the strange stone, the tiger sprouts whiskers”) is also not absent — “the moving of qì transforms the person.”

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: Zǐyán shī xuǎn in three juàn was composed by Yú Shí of the Sòng. Shí’s zì was Jièwēng, a man of Lánqī. When the Sòng fell, he did not take office; on account of [his] residence he self-styled “Zǐyán”; in late [age] he moved into the prefectural town, further taking the hào “Liǎngxī.” The Zhèjiāng tōngzhì records [him] in the Wényuàn chapter, and likewise records [him] in the Yǐnyì chapter — both [places he] is not unworthy of; [we] cannot rest on one side, [so] he appears in both.

The collection has dīngchǒu (1277) and jǐmǎo (1279) date-records — being just after the first breach of Línān; further it has compositions of dīnghài (1287) and wùzǐ (1288) — being Zhìyuán 24 and 25 — all his middle-age-and-after poetry. Each juàn is titled “selected by the disciple Wú Shīdào.” [The collection has] only gǔjīntǐ poetry, 200 pieces — presumably [Wú’s] intent sought refined sifting, [so] the early compositions [are] not [all] recorded.

His gǔshī on stirred-by-the-time, wounded-by-the-affairs themes are mostly of mournful and severe note, but sometimes lose [the mark] by going too far; his travel-and-leisure-themed [pieces] have a clear, distant feeling, but sometimes lose [the mark] by going slightly thin. Pieces like “Speaks of the neighbor old-man,” “Mother-and-son parting on the roadside,” “The woman” — [he] wishes to emulate Dù Fǔ but unavoidably falls into [Bái JūyìYuán Zhěn]; pieces like “Late stroll in the mountains” — [he] wishes to model on [Mèng Hàorán of] Xiāngyáng but unavoidably falls into [Qián Qǐ and Láng Shìyuán]. All take their model from above [but] gain only the middle. However, [coming] after the Jiānghú anthology had flourished, [it is like] in the jiūjiū bǎiniǎo qún (chattering hundred-bird flock) suddenly seeing a solitary phoenix.

His lǜshī do not match the gǔshī — particularly the broad sweep [still] takes [its] cleanness and orderliness. As for the “Inscribed at the Jìngjūsì” — xuě duò kūzhī lóng jiějiǎ / téng chán guàishí hǔ shēng xū (“Snow falls on the dry branch — the dragon unshelters its scales / vines wrap the strange stone — the tiger grows whiskers”); the “Inscribed at the Qīzhēnyuàn” — chánjiā yě biàn yínbiān liào / bù zhǒng xiánhuā zhǐ zhǒng méi (“Even the Chán [monk’s] house in chant-time speculates / no idle flower planted — only plum”) — [these are] rather not [free] of the late-Sòng vulgar frame. This too is the moving of qì transforming the person. Respectfully collated, sixth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). 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

Yú Shí (CBDB 35296, lifedates uncertain — CBDB lists him with zero years, but the internal dīngchǒu–wùzǐ date sequence places his middle-age in the late 1270s–1280s; modern scholarship generally gives c. 1247–1305) is a Lánqī Sòng-loyalist yímín of the Yánzhōu / Wūzhōu region whose poetic instruction passed to his student Wú Shīdào 吳師道 (1283–1344), one of the Jīnhuá sì xiānshēng and the great Yuán Lǐxué commentator on Zhànguó cè. The teacher-student relationship is the historiographically interesting datum: the early-Yuán Lánqī yímín generation transmits to the high-Yuán Jīn-huá-school. Wú’s selection — 200 gǔjīntǐ pieces in three juàn — represents his curated reading of his teacher’s significant work, organized as 五言古詩 (juàn 1), 歌行長短篇 (juàn 2), and 五言律 / 七言律 / 七言絶 (juàn 3, mixed). Yú’s other prose works are lost. The composition window for the surviving verse is approximately 1276–1300. CBDB lacks firm dates; the local Lánxī gazetteer tradition gives 1247–1305 circa. Wilkinson treats the Wūzhōu / Lánqī yímín network within the Jīnhuá school formation (§28.1).

Translations and research

• Niú Hǎi-róng 牛海蓉, Yuán-chū Sòng-jīn yí-mín cí-rén yán-jiū 元初宋金遺民詞人研究 (Běijīng: Zhōng-guó shè-huì kē-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2007) — passing references to Yú Shí in the Lán-qī circle.
• 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) — situates Yú Shí in the early-Yuán Wū-zhōu literary network.
• Wáng Hé 王賀, “Yú Shí Zǐ-yán shī xuǎn yán-jiū” 于石《紫巖詩選》研究 (MA thesis, Zhè-jiāng shī-fàn dà-xué, 2013).
• Quán Sòng shī vol. 67 collates Yú Shí’s poetry from the present base.

Other points of interest

The teacher-student transmission from Yú Shí to Wú Shīdào is one of the principal documented links between the late-Sòng yímín generation and the high-Yuán Jīn-huá-school formation, alongside the parallel Fāng Fèng → Liǔ Guàn link (cf. KR4d0407). Wú Shīdào’s editorial role here — selecting and arranging his late teacher’s verse in three thematic juàn — is a notable example of the Yuán-period xuǎnběn practice.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1189.13, p653.
• CBDB person 35296 (Yú Shí)
• CBDB person 27957 (Wú Shīdào)