遺山集

Yíshān jí 遺山集

The Yí-shān Collection by 元好問 (撰)

About the work

The collected works in forty juàn of Yuán Hǎowèn 元好問 (CBDB 10074, 1190–1257), zì Yùzhī 裕之, hào Yíshān 遺山 — the foremost Jīn-dynasty literary figure and one of the great Chinese poets, the central anthologist of Jīn-period verse through his Zhōngzhōu jí 中州集 and Zhōngzhōu yuèfǔ 中州樂府, and the foundational historian of the Jīn through his manuscript Rénjīn lèi 壬辰雜編 which Tuōtuō’s Jīnshǐ compilers later drew on. A Xiántóngjí (later jìnshì) of Jīn Xīngdìng 5 (1221) at age 32; held office under Zhāngzōng’s last and Āizōng’s reigns as Magistrate of Chénliú, Nèixiāng, and Nányáng, then Shàngshūshěng yuánwàiláng, and Hànlín zhīzhìgào / Zuǒsī dūshì; was in Kāifēng during the Mongol siege; on the dynasty’s fall (Tiānxīng 3 / 1234) he was held briefly captive at Liáochéng, then retired to his native Xiùróngxiāng 秀容鄉 (in Hénán) and to his Yěshǐtíng 野史亭 (Wild-History Pavilion), where for twenty-three years he wrote bēi, zhì, zhuàn, edited Zhōngzhōu jí, and refused to take Yuán service. The collection was assembled and edited posthumously by the Dōng-píng-region Sòng-dynasty defector and Yuán xíngtái governor Yán Zhōngjié 嚴忠傑 (younger brother of the Dōngpínghóu Yán Shí 嚴實); the principal prefaces by Lǐ Yě 李冶 (1262, the great Yuán mathematician of Sìyuánshù 四元術 fame, hào Fēnglóng shānrén) and Xú Shìlóng 徐世隆** plus the postscript by Wáng È 王鶚 (1265) — preserved in the SBCK base — are the foundational Yuán-period biographical-and-evaluative documents on Yuán Hǎowèn. The collection is organized by genre: gǔfù; gǔshī; záyán; gǔ yuèfǔ; lǜshī (5- and 7-syllable, occupying juàn 7–10 — over 500 pieces, by far the largest body); juéjù (5-, 6-, 7-syllable); hóngcí (one juàn of “broad-vocabulary” examination prose); bēimíng / biǎo / zhì / jié (juàn 16–31, the great body of Yuán’s biographical zhuàn-writing for late-Jīn-and-post-conquest literati, monks, Daoist masters, and military men — the principal Yuán-period source for late-Jīn biographical history); jì (juàn 32–35); xùyǐn (juàn 36–37, the famous prefaces, including the Yǐn to his own anthologies, to friends’ collections, and to medical-philosophical books); míng, zàn, sòng; shū, shū; zátǐ; shàngliángwén, qīngcí; jìwén; tíbá. The 40-juàn extent of the present recension is firmly attested in Lǐ Yě’s preface (“the whole edition in 40 juàn delivered up; in addition the various biographical-pieces, encomia, and presentation-works, I have separately compiled from other collections”).

Tiyao

No tíyào in the Kanripo source (the source files reproduce the SBCK base, which preserves the substantial 1262 Lǐ Yě preface, the Xú Shìlóng preface, the Wáng È hòuyǐn of 1265, and the manuscript letter from Yáng Yúnyì’s grandson to Lǐ Xǐngzhāi about preparing the printing — the principal Yuán-period editorial documents). The Sìkù tíyào outside the source places the Yíshān jí at the head of “Jīn biéjí lèi 4” and characterizes the work as the foundational corpus of Jīn-dynasty literary culture, anchoring three concurrent traditions: (1) Yuán Hǎowèn’s place as the lineage-master between Zhào Bǐngwén and the early-Yuán SòngJīn intellectual recovery (Lǐ Yě’s preface explicitly establishes the lineage “the senior bearer-of-letters of the past century: in Dàdìng / Míngchāng [it was] Hànlín Chéngzhǐ Lord Dǎng; in Zhēnyòu / Zhèngdà [it was] Lǐbù Lord Zhào; after the Northern Displacement [it is] Yíshān xiānshēng, one man only”); (2) Yuán’s poetry that “in the seven-syllable verse is sourced in LǐDù, regulated and fine, with heroic-and-overflowing manner”; “in prose follows HánŌu, broad-and-clear and not in the strange-twisted and obscure language”; “in yuèfǔ is clear-grand and broken-suspended, leisurely-soft and clear-bright, embodying-form most-complete, again able to use the vulgar as elegant — transformed-old-into-new — obtaining the unforgotten subtleties not transmitted by his elders; from Dōngpō (Sū Shì) and Jiǎxuān (Xīn Qìjí) onward, he is not to be discussed [in their league]”; (3) Yuán’s historical-biographical zhuàn corpus that “preserves the central-state’s literary documents” of the fallen Jīn.

Abstract

Yuán Hǎowèn (CBDB 10074, 1190–1257) is the central literary figure of the Jīn dynasty, the bridge between the late-Jīn cultural florescence and the early-Yuán recovery, and one of the canonical Chinese poets of the second millennium. Native of Xiùróngxiāng (Xīnzhōu 忻州 in Héběidōnglù), descended from the Xianbei Tuōbá clan converted to the surname Yuán by the Northern Wèi. Adopted by his uncle Yuán Gé 元格 (a long-time Jīn local administrator); studied under Hǎo Tiāntǐng 郝天挺 and was inducted into the gǔwén tradition through his godfather; recommended to Hànlín at age 32 by Zhào Bǐngwén KR4d0417 and subsequently held office through the Mongol siege of Kāifēng (1232); was held in the YánShì family compound at Liáochéng after the Jīn fall; retired permanently after 1234 to his Xiùróng estate and the Yěshǐtíng pavilion at his uncle’s old grave-site. For the next twenty-three years he composed, on demand, the bēizhìmíng (epitaph-stele inscriptions) and xíngzhuàng (career biographies) for hundreds of late-Jīn-and-post-conquest figures — preserving in this collection the principal documentary archive of late-Jīn social, religious, military, and intellectual life, on which the Yuán-period Tuōtuō Jīnshǐ compilers explicitly drew. Concurrently he assembled the Zhōngzhōu jí (anthology of Jīn poetry, 109 figures, with biographical capsules — the principal Jīn-period anthology and one of the great Chinese poetic anthologies) and the Zhōngzhōu yuèfǔ (cí-anthology). Yuán declined all Yuán-state appointments, though Kublai Khan (then Shìzǔ) had earmarked him for the Tàishǐ office.

The poetic corpus is canonical and very large — Yuán’s Lùnshī juéjù 論詩絕句 in 30 pieces (juàn 11) is, with Yán Yǔ’s Cānglàng shīhuà, the most foundational SòngJīn poetics document; his post-1232 Jìyǐn 紀引 (juàn 7’s “[Jiāo] bīngwū jiāwū poems,” composed during the siege and surrender of Kāifēng), his Liùyuè shíyī rì yǔ and Yǐyǒu yuè bā yuèshí qī rì Xīnzhōu mèngzhōng suǒdé — these qìyùn preserved direct testimony of the dynastic catastrophe — are among the most-anthologized single Chinese poems. The biographical-stele corpus (juàn 16–31) is the foundational primary source for late-Jīn biography. CBDB 10074 firmly establishes 1190–1257; the Yuánshǐ j. 192 Rúxué zhuàn gives the standard biography. Wilkinson treats Yuán extensively as the principal late-Jīn historian and literary master (§29.1, §28.1, §35).

Translations and research

• Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema (trans.), Battles, Betrayals, and Brotherhood: Early Chinese Plays on the Three Kingdoms (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2012) — passing context for the late-Jīn cultural milieu.
• Wáng Cuī-líng 王翠玲, Yuán Hǎo-wèn yán-jiū 元好問研究 (Běijīng: Rén-mín wén-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2007). Major modern monograph.
• Hú Chuán-zhì 胡傳志, Jīn-dài wén-xué yán-jiū 金代文學研究 (Hé-féi: Ān-huī dà-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2000) — situates Yuán in the broader Jīn literary culture.
• Yáo Diàn-zhōng 姚奠中 et al. (eds.), Yuán Hǎo-wèn quán jí 元好問全集 (Tài-yuán: Shān-xī rén-mín chū-bǎn-shè, 1990). Modern critical complete works.
• John Timothy Wixted, Poems on Poetry: Literary Criticism by Yuan Hao-wen (1190–1257) (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1982) — full English translation of the Lùn-shī jué-jù with extensive commentary.
• John Timothy Wixted, “Yuan Hao-wen,” in William Nienhauser (ed.), The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature (Bloomington, 1986).
• Hoyt Tillman, “Yüan Haowen’s Poetic Sequence ‘Three Quatrains on the Yangtze’ and the Mind of a Jurchen Loyalist,” in T’oung Pao 73 (1987).
• Stephen West, “Mongol Influence on the Development of Northern Drama,” in China under Mongol Rule (ed. John D. Langlois, Princeton UP, 1981) — touches on Yuán’s role in the cultural transmission.
• Yuán-shǐ j. 192 (Rú-xué zhuàn) — the standard biography.

Other points of interest

The Yěshǐtíng 野史亭 (“Pavilion of Wild History”) at the grave-site of Yuán’s uncle in Xiùróngxiāng became the site of the principal Yuán-period historiographical activity: there Yuán composed his Rénjīn lèi (Miscellaneous Records of the Rénchén Year, i.e. 1232) and the Nánguān lù 南冠錄 (Record of the Southern Cap, i.e. captive), both manuscript histories of the Jīn dynasty’s collapse; both lost as discrete works, but extensively quoted and absorbed by the Jīnshǐ compilers (1343) and preserved in fragments in the present biéjí. The Lùnshī juéjù — 30 quatrains, each pithy critical commentary on a major Chinese poet from the Han through the Sòng — is the most-cited single poetics document of the Jīn dynasty, anticipating in compressed form the late-Míng / early-Qīng critical-comparative tradition of poetic-judgment quatrains.

Links

• SBCK base; WYG SKQS V1191.1, p1.
• CBDB person 10074 (Yuán Hǎowèn)
• Yuánshǐ j. 192
• Wikipedia, 元好問