莊靖集

Zhuāngjìng jí 莊靖集

The Zhuāng-jìng Collection by 李俊民 (撰)

About the work

The collected works in ten juàn of Lǐ Jùnmín 李俊民 (CBDB 29144, 1176–1260; zì Yòngzhāng 用章, hào Hèmíng dàorén 鶴鳴道人), native of Zézhōu 澤州 (modern Jìnchéng in Shānxī). Lǐ was a descendant of the Táng prince Lǐ Yuánjiā 李元嘉 (Prince of Hán). In his youth he passed through the Chéngshì school of Lǐxué; in Jīn Chéngān 5 (1200) he took the jīngyì (Classics-specialist) jìnshì in first place (i.e. zhuàngyuán); served as Yìngfèng hànlín wénzì and soon withdrew; after the Jīn southern displacement (1213) he retreated to Sōngshān as a Daoist householder under the name Hèmíng dàorén. Yuán Shìzǔ (Kublai Khan) summoned him by ceremonial-carriage to an audience; Lǐ pleaded to return to the mountains. On his death he received the posthumous shì Zhuāngjìng xiānshēng (Master Solemnly Tranquil). His original collected works — comprising seven juàn of poetry and three of prose — were cut by the Zézhōu prefect Duàn Zhèngxíng 段正行 (with prefaces by Lǐ Zhòngshēn 李仲紳 of Chángpíng dated dānè 1219, Wáng Tèshēng 王特升, Liú Yíng 劉瀛, and Lǐ Bǐng’s disciple Shǐ Bǐngzhí 史秉直 of guǐmǎo 1243). Re-cut in Míng Zhèngdé by Zézhōu local Lǐ Hàn 李瀚; by the Qiánlóng era only manuscript copies survived. The post-conquest poetry conspicuously dates by gānzhī cycle alone (no dynastic era) — Lǐ self-styling as “another Táo Qián.” The poetry is rich in yōuyōu jīliè (hidden grief, impassioned) notes anchored on Sòng / Jīn-dynastic loyalty; the prose has a calm-and-distant gāozhì (lofty arrival). The Sìkù editors place him just below Yuán Hǎowèn KR4d0420 in stature but on equal footing in zhìjié (resolute integrity).

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: Zhuāngjìng jí in ten juàn was composed by the Jīn dynasty’s Lǐ Jùnmín. Jùnmín’s zì was Yòngzhāng, a man of Zézhōu. In youth [he] thoroughly studied the learning of the Chéng [brothers]. In Chéngān 5 (1200), by the jīngyì [examination] he was raised to the jìnshì in first place. As Yìngfèng hànlín wénzì, [after] not long [he] abandoned office and taught [as] a teacher. After the Southern Displacement (1213) he concealed himself at Sōngshān, self-styling Hèmíng dàorén. Yuán Shìzǔ called him by ceremonial-carriage to an audience; [he] still begged to return to the mountains and died — bestowed the shì Zhuāngjìng xiānshēng. The collection has seven juàn of poetry and three of prose. It was once cut by the Zézhōu prefect Duàn Zhèngxíng; Chángpíng’s Lǐ Zhòngshēn and others composed prefaces. In the Míng Zhèngdé period, the local man Lǐ Hàn re-deposited [it] in cut [form]; today the blocks have long been lost — what is preserved is only a manuscript-copied base.

Jùnmín held his will and retreated into wilderness, not entangled by fair office; in [his moments of] coming-out and remaining-in, [he] was able to keep his person clean. In the collection, [for] what follows [his] entering the Yuán, [he] dates only by jiǎzǐ — silently comparing himself to Táo Qián. Therefore the poetry he composed is mostly of a hidden-grieving and impassioned tone, fastening his heart on the ancestral state; lodging his cares deep and far — not merely making the fresh-and-strange [his] industry. The literary frame is calm-and-easy, harmonious-and-leveled; with lofty zhì, [it] also resembles his person. Although his breadth-and-greatness does not match Yuán Hǎowèn, his lifetime zhìjié is approximately the equal — truly may be called not unworthy of what he learned.

At the end of the poetry there are occasional annotations; the preface does not say by whom they were added — they must be Jùnmín’s self-annotations. Respectfully collated, tenth month of Qiánlóng 41 (1776). 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 four substantial JīnYuán prefaces: Lǐ Zhòngshēn 李仲紳 of Chángpíng (1219, dānè) — comparing Lǐ to the deepest “water-with-source” that flows into the river and sea, in contrast to the “ditch-water that overflows after a rain”; Wáng Tèshēng 王特升 — comparing Lǐ to Hán Yù; Liú Yíng 劉瀛 — on the editorial recovery of the manuscripts; Shǐ Bǐngzhí 史秉直 (1243, guǐmǎo) — Lǐ’s disciple, framing Lǐ as the contemporary Hán Yù in his integration of the zhōngzhèng learning with literary art.)

Abstract

Lǐ Jùnmín (CBDB 29144, 1176–1260) is the senior Jīn-loyalist yímín of the Shānxī region and stands alongside Yuán Hǎowèn as the foundational figure of the late-Jīn / early-Yuán Hè-běi-and-Shān-xī literary culture. The biographical record is firm: 1200 jīngyì zhuàngyuán; brief Hànlín service; post-1213 retreat to Sōngshān; Yuán Shìzǔ’s ceremonial summons (which Lǐ accepted only to ask to return); the posthumous shì Zhuāngjìng. The post-1234 (the Jīn dynasty’s actual fall) verse universally dates by gānzhī alone — the most documented case of the Táo-Qián-style refusal of dynastic era-names in Jīn-loyalist literature. The original 1219 cutting and the 1243 final edited recension establish the work’s textual base; the Qiánlóng Sìkù recension descends through manuscript transmission with the original blocks lost. Composition window: 1200 — 1260 (Lǐ’s death). CBDB 29144 confirms 1176–1260, in firm agreement with the Sìkù editors’ dating and with the disciple Shǐ Bǐngzhí’s 1243 preface. Wilkinson treats Lǐ in the Jīn / Yuán literary transition (§29.1).

Translations and research

• Hú Chuán-zhì 胡傳志, Jīn-dài wén-xué yán-jiū 金代文學研究 (2000), pp. 245–267 — Lǐ Jùn-mín in the post-Jīn intellectual scene.
• Lǚ Liè-bāng 呂列邦, Lǐ Jùn-mín yán-jiū 李俊民研究 (Tài-yuán: Shān-xī rén-mín chū-bǎn-shè, 2009).
• Zhōu Huì-quán 周惠泉, Jīn-dài wén-xué shǐ 金代文學史 (1996).
• Quán Jīn shī, Quán Yuán wén — collate Lǐ’s poetry and prose against the present base.

Other points of interest

The Lǐ Jùnmín / Sōngshān retreat is the most-documented case of the late-Jīn intellectual class’s flight to Daoist householder identity (the “Hèmíng dàorén” hào explicitly invoking the Quán-zhēn-Daoist ascetic life), parallel to the slightly later Sòng-loyalist Dèng Mù 鄧牧 retreat to the Dòngxiāogōng. The Yuán Shìzǔ ceremonial summons (in 1259 or 1260, immediately before Lǐ’s death) is one of the earliest documented Mongol-state attempts to incorporate elderly Jīn loyalist literati into the new regime through ceremonial recognition without functional appointment.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1190.4, p519.
• CBDB person 29144 (Lǐ Jùnmín)
• Wikipedia, 李俊民