Zìtáng cúngǎo 自堂存藁
Surviving Manuscripts from Zì-táng by 陳杰 (撰)
About the work
The four-juàn reconstructed biéjí of Chén Jié 陳杰 (CBDB 510930, fl. mid-to-late Sòng), zì Shòufù 壽父, native of Fēnníng 分寧 (Jiāngxī), a Chúnyòu 10 (1250) jìnshì whose career is reconstructed by the Sìkù editors from internal evidence: first a clerk in a Huáinán zhìzhìsī office, then in a Chǔ (i.e. Húběi / Húnán) zhìzhìsī office, finally Prefect of Shòuchāng 壽昌 (recorded by his Yǐchǒu yuándàn pàibiǎo poem). The bulk of the surviving verse — assembled by the Sìkù editors from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn — dates between the Duānpíng era (1234–) and the post-1276 yímín period; the Sìkù editors detect a Yányòu 2 (1315) date on the Xiányǐ jì (Idle-Mooring Record) that they suspect indicates a misattribution to a different Chén Jié (the father of the Yuán Lùpízǐ 鹿皮子 Chén Qiáo 陳樵 of Dōngyáng — given that the date is incompatible with a 1250 jìnshì). Nonetheless the dating of the Chóng guò Xīhú gǎnshì (Re-visiting West Lake, Stirred at the Affairs) pieces confirms Chén Jié as a Sòng yímín who survived into the Yuán. His poetry the editors describe as “issuing from the Jiāngxī [school] but with style-and-bearing sharp-and-vivid, somewhat parsing in the Shíhú / Jiànnán (Fàn Chéngdà and Lù Yóu) frame and tone — strikingly distinct from the late-Sòng Jiānghú school’s shūsǔn qì (vegetable-and-bamboo-shoot vapor).” Particularly notable are the politically pointed Dú dǐbào (Reading the Court Gazette) pieces (denouncing flatterers and traitors), the harmonization of Guō Yìngyǒu 郭應酉 (later to die at the battle of Yáishān 1279), and the Wùchén chóngguò Yìyáng Shíqiáo poem confirming Chén’s friendship with Xiè Fángdé 謝枋得 KR4d0379.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Zìtáng cúngǎo in four juàn was composed by Chén Jié of the Sòng. Lì È’s Sòngshī jìshì records Jié, zì Shòufù, a man of Fēnníng, Chúnyòu 10 (1250) jìnshì, official of the Zhìzhì sī — having the Zìtáng cúngǎo — however È merely recorded his one poem “Inscribed at Méitán Máo Qìngfǔ’s Yúnyuèlóu” (a piece on Méixiān affairs), [and] in fact had not seen his collection; therefore the noble-and-native [details] he recorded likewise could not fully detail [Chén’s] beginning and end.
Now we have, from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, gathered the surviving pieces, still obtaining four juàn. Examining by his poetic phrases: among the four-syllable gǔshī, “Spring-day Jiāngyǒng” and other pieces have self-annotations of Duānpíng era onward — being the early years of Lǐzōng; [he] already could [compose] chants — his age [must] at that time have been around twenty. Down to Emperor Xiǎn’s Déyòu yǐhài (1275), [is] in all forty-two years; then at the Sòng’s fall he was already nearly sixty. The end of [the piece] Xiányǐ jì is signed “Yányòu 2, 7th month” — that year being yǐmǎo (1315), the distance from the Sòng’s fall a further 40 years, [so] Jié’s age would then have been beyond a hundred. [He] should not have such longevity; the time-period seems incompatible. Also the Xiányǐ jì’s end says: “had my son [Chén] Qiáo 樵 brush-write [it] and have it cut.” The Yuán Lùpízǐ Chén Qiáo was in fact a man of Dōngyáng in Wūzhōu — the native registry also is not aligned. This record is presumably composed by Chén Qiáo’s father, [and] the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn erred in attributing it to Jié’s name.
However, observing the collection’s Chóng guò Xīhú gǎnshì pieces — for [Chén] is a Sòng remnant veteran who entered the Yuán and was still [alive] — surely we may be without doubt. In the collection there is a Hé dàkǔn sháoyào yàn shī (Harmonizing the Great Senior’s Peony Feast) composed at Huáinán; further a Xuānxí suífǔ shī (Proclamation and Edict, Following the Office) [calling himself] sù chǔ sānqiān lǐ, lí huái dìyī chéng (“Going up the Chǔ three thousand lǐ, leaving Huái at the first stage”) — so [he] first held office in the Huái staff, later in the Chǔ staff, in accord with what Lì È called “zhìzhì sī clerk.”
Further there is a Yǔ jié dōngguī, hé tóngmù sòngxíng shī (Going east with the magistrate, harmonizing the colleagues’ send-off poem) saying “yí chù ér shēng, kuì zài zhōng” (‘should have been dismissed but was promoted; shame is in [me]’). Further there is a Qǐng dài shī (Requesting Replacement Poem) saying “jùn xiǎo, diāocán zuì” (‘the prefecture is small, the decay extreme’). Further there is a Yǐchǒu yuándàn Shòuchāng pàibiǎo shī (Yǐchǒu New Year, Shòuchāng, Submitting the Memorial) — so later he likewise was Prefect of a jùn; he did not finally die as a staff officer. What Lì È recorded was still not exhaustive.
His poetry, although the source issues from the Jiāngxī [school], the style-and-bearing is sharp and vivid; quite parsing in the Shíhú / Jiànnán (Fàn Chéngdà and Lù Yóu) frame and tone. Compared with the late-Sòng Jiānghú faction’s shūsǔn qì — there is a startling difference. Among the huángmáo báiwěi (yellow-thatch white-reed) [of the second-tier], [we] cannot but call him a qiáochǔ (foremost). According to his Wùchén chóngguò Yìyáng Shíqiáo poetic self-annotation, [he was] close to Xiè Fángdé 謝枋得. Further the Dú dǐbào (Reading the Court Gazette) pieces — driving out the deceitful flatterers — the language is all loyal-and-indignant; the Hé Guō Yìngyǒu (Harmonizing Guō Yìngyǒu) poem [says] he himself “fúbèi xiàosǐ; kè zì Hángzhōu lái, tán Jiāngshàng shīkuì jí jīngshī, fēi cái wùzhuó, jíwéi bùpíng” (‘supports the [weak] back to die in service; a guest comes from Hángzhōu, speaking of the army-route’s collapse on the Yangtze and the capital city — [I] am not the right talent for the job, [my] erring was extreme — exceedingly unequal’), and so on. [We have] also attached and recorded Guō’s poem and noted at the head that Guō later went to Yáishān; his zhìjié (resolute integrity) is also imaginable — and not merely the poetry is sufficient to transmit. Respectfully collated, seventh 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
Chén Jié (CBDB 510930 records the name only; conventional dates c. 1217 — 1250 jìnshì age 33 — through after-1276) is reconstructed by the Sìkù editors as a mid-rank Sòng official who served in the Huáinán and Húnán/Húběi (Chǔ) zhìzhìsī military-administrative staffs, was promoted to Prefect of Shòuchāng, and survived the Sòng fall as an aged yímín. The catalog meta gives no dates; the editors’ painstaking reconstruction is preserved here in summary. The substantive original Zìtáng cúngǎo — already not seen by the early-Qīng anthologist Lì È — had largely vanished by the eighteenth century; the present four-juàn recension is a Yǒnglè dàdiǎn re-aggregation. The two most historiographically significant pieces are the Hé Guō Yìngyǒu poem (which preserves the prefatory note that Guō later died at Yáishān, the 1279 catastrophe that ended the Southern Sòng) and the Wùchén Chóng guò Yìyáng Shíqiáo (1268) which documents Chén’s friendship with Xiè Fángdé. Composition window: 1234 (Duānpíng, Chén’s earliest verse) — c. 1295 (the yímín period); the Yányòu 2 (1315) date on the Xiányǐ jì is detected by the editors as a Yǒnglè dàdiǎn mis-aggregation from the father of the Yuán Lùpízǐ Chén Qiáo, a Dōngyáng man of incompatible registry. CBDB has no firm dates. Wilkinson does not single out Chén Jié.
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) — passing references.
- Quán Sòng shī vol. 67 collates Chén Jié’s verse from the present Yǒng-lè dà-diǎn-reconstructed base.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ detection of a Yǒnglè dàdiǎn attribution error — the Xiányǐ jì 閒艤記 of 1315 actually composed by the otherwise-unidentified father of the Yuán Lùpízǐ Chén Qiáo of Dōngyáng, not by the Sòng Chén Jié of Fēnníng — is a characteristic example of Qián-lóng-era kǎojù editorial precision. The piece is retained in the present recension but flagged.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1189.16, p739.
- CBDB person 510930 (Chén Jié)