九華詩集

Jiǔhuá shī jí 九華詩集

Poems of the Nine-Petal Mountain by 陳巖 (撰)

About the work

A site-by-site topographical poetic cycle on the famous Jiǔhuá Shān 九華山 of Chízhōu 池州 (modern Ānhuī), composed by Chén Yán 陳巖 (CBDB 47681, d. 1299; zì Qīngyǐn 清隱, self-styled Jiǔhuá shānrén 九華山人), a Qīngyáng 青陽 (Chízhōu) man who repeatedly failed the late-Sòng jìnshì examinations and on the dynasty’s fall withdrew entirely from public life. Built a residence at Gāoyánghé 高陽河 in Qīngyáng with chambers named Xīshān Dìyī Lóu 溪山第一樓, Línqīng Chí 臨清池, Jìngguān 静觀, and Yànjū 燕居, and visited every notable site of Jiǔhuá, composing one poem per site. The collection contains 207 qījué on named scenic sites plus three poems on local wùchǎn (products), for a total of 210 pieces — confirming the 210 figure of the Fāng Shífā 方時發 Zhìdà wùshēn (1308) preface. Fāng’s original print combined a Jiǔhuá shān tú 九華山圖 (Jiǔhuá map) with Chén’s poems appended; the map has been lost and the poetry alone survives. The collection appends an 11-poem set by the Buddhist monk Shì Xītǎn 釋希坦 (later transcribed from the Chízhōu fǔ zhì), with which Chén’s verses can be cross-verified. The Sìkù editors praise the cycle as “loose and dust-cleared, with the manner of the gāorén yìshì (high men and untrammeled gentlemen)” and as a topographical poetic source unsurpassed for Jiǔhuá Shān (“from the prior poets through Lǐ Bái onward — none has been so complete in itemizing the springs, stones, grottoes, and ravines as this compilation”).

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: Jiǔhuá shī jí, one juàn, was composed by Chén Yán of the Sòng. Yán’s zì was Qīngyǐn, a man of Qīngyáng. At the end of the Sòng he repeatedly tested for the jìnshì and did not pass. When he entered the Yuán he thereupon concealed himself in retreat and did not take office, building a chamber at his residence at Gāoyánghé, where he daily whistled and sang within; when he went out, he traveled through all the [most beautiful] sites of Jiǔhuá. Arriving at a place, he composed a poem to record it, naming it Jiǔhuá shī jí.

Prefixed to [the work] is the Zhìdà wùshēn (1308) preface by his fellow-villager Fāng Shífā 方時發, which says: “Taking the mountain’s east and west and drawing them as a túběn (map-base), embroidering [it] into [printing-blocks of] zǐ-wood, sharing [it] with friends in distant lands. — Poet Chén Qīngyǐn’s chants had old printing-blocks burnt in the wars and incomplete. These 210 pieces are what I gathered up from the scattered surviving [material]. I have donated the funds and recut [it], to make poetry and mountain shine upon each other to the inexhaustible,” and so on. At that time Fāng [Shí-]fā originally cut the Jiǔhuá Shān tú and appended [Chén] Yán’s poetry to the back; now the map has been lost and the poetry collection alone survives. The number of pieces matches Shífā’s preface — [so this is] still the original base.

Yán died in Dàdé 3, jǐhài (1299); Shífā’s preface was composed in wùshēn (1308) — nine years after Yán’s death. His poetry is all in seven-syllable quatrains; in all 207 pieces chant famous sites and 3 chant products. Jiǔhuá Shān got its name from Lǐ Bái; poets have many [pieces] inscribing and chanting [there], but in taking spring-stone-grotto-ravine sites and bestowing upon them complete pǐnmù (categorizations and titles), in fact nothing is so complete as this compilation. His poetry is likewise free-and-clear, dust-cleared, transcending the usual lanes — possessing the manner of high-and-untrammeled gentlemen. It is not merely sufficient to supply [material] for the mountain gazetteer’s selection.

Yán also once compiled the poems of Dù Fǔ into the Fèngsuǐ jí, also prefaced and transmitted by [Fāng] Shífā and Yáng Shǎoyú 楊少愚; today the manuscript no longer exists. This base appends at the rear Shì Xītǎn’s 釋希坦 poetry — 11 pieces — being what later persons transcribed from the Chízhōufǔ zhì; within [these] are places that can mutually verify with [Chén] Yán’s poetry. We still preserve the old recording and keep [them]. Respectfully collated, seventh 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.

(The frontmatter further preserves Fāng Shífā’s 1308 preface — describing Jiǔhuá’s pre-eminence among Chinese mountains, quoting Fàn Chéngdà on its rank above Huángshān, Xiāndū, Yàndàng, and the Wūxiá; the Lǐ Bái “Tiānhé guà lǜshuǐ / xiù chū jiǔ fúróng” couplet that gave Jiǔhuá its name; and Liú Yǔxī’s judgment “the strange peaks of Jiǔhuá are themselves a particular thing of Heaven’s making”; concluding with the explanation that he donated funds to recut Chén’s burnt collection. Also the biography of Chén Yán: “Chén Yán zì Qīngyǐn, of Qīngyáng; self-styled Jiǔhuá shānrén; broadly learned across [all] books, bearing the great intent of putting [it] to use in the age. At the late Sòng he repeatedly tested for jìnshì and did not pass. When [the dynasty] entered the Yuán he thereupon concealed himself and did not come out. At the time when Yuán Shìzǔ was inviting the recluse-and-untrammeled [men], he then wandered the lakes and rivers to avoid [the call]; in old age he finally returned to Qīngyáng [and] built a chamber at Gāoyánghé. He had a tower called Xīshān Dìyī, a pool called Línqīng, chambers called Jìngguān and Yànjū. Daily he whistled and sang within. When he went out, he traveled through all [places of] Jiǔhuá’s [scenic excellence]. Arriving at a place, [he] composed a poem to fasten [the experience], naming it Jiǔhuá shī jí. He also compiled Dù [Fǔ]‘s poems into the Fèngsuǐ jí; his fellow-villagers Fāng Shífā [and] Yáng Shǎoyú prefaced and transmitted [it]. He died in Dàdé 3.“)

Abstract

Chén Yán (CBDB 47681, d. 1299) is one of the most distinctly topographical Sòng-loyalist yímín poets. Unlike the PújiāngJīnhuá circle around Fāng Fèng 方鳳 and Xiè Áo or the Hángzhōu circle around Dèng Mù 鄧牧 and Zhōu Mì, Chén’s yímín gesture was overwhelmingly territorial: 207 quatrains methodically inventorying every named site of his native Jiǔhuá Shān. The cycle is the most complete pre-modern poetic topography of any single Chinese mountain. The internal organization — by named site, with each poem typically opening with the site-name and proceeding through a four-line itinerary-and-association sequence — provides a poetic fāngzhì parallel to the proper Shānzhì; and indeed the Míng and Qīng editors of the Jiǔhuá shān zhì extracted Chén’s poems site-by-site as the standard literary supplement to each gazetteer entry. Chén’s other principal work, the Fèngsuǐ jí (a compilation of Dù Fǔ’s poetry, prefaced by Fāng Shífā and Yáng Shǎoyú), is lost.

Composition window: post-1276 (the yímín retreat) through 1299 (Chén’s death). The 1308 Fāng Shífā preface — nine years posthumous — establishes the textual base. The appended 11-poem set by Shì Xītǎn 釋希坦 (a monk active on Jiǔhuá in the early Yuán) was added by the Sìkù editors from the Chízhōufǔ zhì; on a few sites Xītǎn’s poems verify Chén’s identifications. CBDB 47681 gives only the 1299 death date. Wilkinson treats Jiǔhuá and Anhui mountain-topographical poetry generally (§50).

Translations and research

• Hé Yùn-zhāng 何運璋 (ed.), Jiǔ-huá shān zhì 九華山志 (Hé-féi: Huáng-shān shū-shè, 1990) — modern critical mountain gazetteer that systematically incorporates Chén Yán’s cycle as the literary substratum.
• 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 (2007) — passing references.
• Wáng Bǐng 王冰, “Chén Yán Jiǔ-huá shī jí yán-jiū” 陳巖《九華詩集》研究 (MA thesis, Ān-huī shī-fàn dà-xué, 2008).
• Quán Sòng shī vol. 68 collates Chén Yán’s poetry from the present base.

Other points of interest

The Jiǔhuá shī jí is one of the only Chinese mountain-cycle poems to systematically include the local Buddhist sacred geography (the Jīn dìzàng of Jiǔhuá, the Bēidù and Gě Zhìchuān traditions) alongside Daoist immortal-traces and ordinary scenic sites — a feature reflecting Chén’s yímín position as a private literatus equally indifferent to all three institutions. The cycle’s mention of the SòngYuán Yáng Liǎnzhēnjiā desecration is absent — unlike Lín Jǐngxī KR4d0395’s Dōngqīng xíng — confirming that Chén’s gesture is topographical-cultural rather than directly anti-Yuán.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1189.14, p687.
• CBDB person 47681 (Chén Yán)