桐江續集

Tóngjiāng xùjí 桐江續集

The Continued Tóng-jiāng (Paulownia-River) Collection by 方回 (撰)

About the work

The continued biéjí of Fāng Huí 方回 (CBDB 27727, 1227–1307), zì Wànlǐ 萬里, hào Xūgǔ 虚谷, native of Shèxiàn 歙縣 (Huīzhōu, Ānhuī), passed the Sòng jìnshì in Bǎoyòu 1 (1253) as a special biéshěng (separate-bureau) graduate, and after the Sòng’s fall in 1276 surrendered Yánzhōu 嚴州 (where he was Prefect) to the Yuán — receiving in turn the office of Jiàndélù zǒngguǎn (Director-General of Jiàndé Circuit, i.e. the renamed Yánzhōu). Soon dismissed; the Tóngjiāng xùjí preserves his post-1290s retirement-period literary output. Fāng’s literary-critical reputation rests above all on his Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ 瀛奎律髓 — the most influential Yuán-period anthology-commentary of TángSòng lǜshī, and the canonical formulation of the Jiāngxī school’s “Yīzǔ sānzōng” (One Patriarch Three Patriarchs) doctrine (Dù Fǔ as patriarch; Huáng Tíngjiān, Chén Shīdào, Chén Yǔyì as the three patriarchs). The Sìkù editors reproduce here a partial recension of the Xùjí — missing many juàn (the Sìkù editors note: poetry juàn 1, 2, 3, 21, 23, 24, 26, 32, 34, 36, 39, 40, 41 missing — i.e. only 29 of the originally 50 poetry juàn survive — and the prose juàn are almost entirely missing except for juàn 1 of the table-of-contents, with the rest “blank-tablet only manuscript” reduced to 8 estimated juàn; together 36 juàn total). The collection’s juàn-endings preserve a remarkable history of family-and-friend editorial intervention: juàn 4 ed. Cáo Yòu 曹祐 (his classmate at the Níngguólù rúxué jiàoshòu); juàn 5 by his son Fāng Cúnxīn 方存心 Zhèngxīn 正心; juàn 6 by his Huīzhōu rúxué jiàoshòu successors Féng Mèngguī 馮夢龜 and Lín Yīguì 林一桂; juàn 9 by his sister-grandson Liú Bǐngyì 劉秉懿; juàn 10 by his nephew-grandson Wāng Tíngzhī 汪庭芝; juàn 25 cut at GǔHáng (Hángzhōu) Xú Zhīshízhái’s Cānglàng shānfáng; juàn 27 by a xuéshēng named Xú whose given name is lost. The base contains the bibliographic seal-impressions of Yùlántáng 玉蘭堂 (Wén Zhēngmíng 文徵明’s seal) and Jìcāngwěi 季滄葦 (Jì Zhènyí 季振宜) — indicating the descent through the Sūzhōu connoisseurial collection lineage. The Sìkù editors are sharply critical of Fāng’s character (citing Zhōu Mì’s Guǐxīn záshí’s catalogue of his pre-1276 sycophancy to Jiǎ Sìdào, his pre-conquest Shíkězhǎn shū against Jiǎ, and his rapid 1276 surrender at Yánzhōu after announcing a “die-for-the-frontier” policy) but praise his scholarship (his jiǎngxué in the ZhūXī line) and the Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ–level poetry — particularly the lǜshī that “shí chū Sòngmò zhū rén shàng” (“really exceed the late-Sòng figures”).

Tiyao

[Standard Sìkù tíyào, in source, translated:] We respectfully submit: Tóngjiāng xùjí in 36 juàn was composed by Fāng Huí of the Yuán. Huí, zì Wànlǐ, hào Xūgǔ, a man of Shèxiàn. He passed the Sòng Jǐngdìng rénxū (1262) biéshěng examination; held the Tílǐng [post] in Chíyáng salt-tea office; cumulatively transferred to Prefect of Yánzhōu. When the Sòng fell, he surrendered to the Yuán, who appointed him Director-General of Jiàndélù; soon also was discarded. What [Fāng] composed includes the Xūgǔ jí; today not seen. This Tóngjiāng xùjí is all composed after his Yuán-period removal from office.

The collection has a self-preface saying 20 juàn; however the Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù makes [it] 50 juàn. Now observing the collection — juàn 4 end inscribed “Compiled-and-arranged by Cóngshìláng Níngguólù rúxué jiàoshòu, classmate Cáo Yòu”; juàn 5 end inscribed “Fāng Cúnxīn / Zhèngxīn cut and circulated”; juàn 6 end inscribed “By imperial appointment, Huīzhōulù rúxué jiàoshòu Féng Mèngguī, Lín Yīguì and others cut”; juàn 9 end inscribed “Sister-grandson Liú Bǐngyì respectfully edited and cut and circulated”; juàn 10 end inscribed “Nephew-grandson Wāng Tíngzhī respectfully edited”; juàn 25 end inscribed “GǔHáng (i.e. Hángzhōu) Xú Zhīshízhái’s Cānglàng shānfáng cut-and-circulated”; juàn 27 end inscribed “Student Xú [——] compiled-and-arranged” but [the student’s] name has been lost — so these are what later persons added in supplement, [the collection] is not [as in] its old [arrangement].

This base is still the Yuán-period old cutting: has the Yùlántáng seal and the Jì Cāngwěi shūcáng seal — must be what Wén Zhēngmíng once collected, then returned to Tàixīng’s Jì Zhènyí. The poetry collection lacks juàn 1, 2, 3, 21, 23, 24, 26, 32, 34, 36, 39, 40, 41 — only 29 juàn survive. The prose-collection only the first juàn table-of-contents can be distinguished; the rest are all the original cutting manuscript [where] the juàn characters have only ink-pillar [marker], not knowing head-or-tail; counting [them] there are still 8 juàn — presumably 13 juàn are lost. In between [there are] also rather many missing pages, no other base to collate; we now still preserve [it as is]. Observing Wú Zhīzhèn’s re-cut Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ — [he] suspected [that] the one preface at the front of the book was not what Huí composed; now in this collection, [the place where] this prose is loaded is after the Sòng Wáng Jùnfǔ xù — we know [Wú] had not seen this collection; then also a rare-and-cherished base; [we] do not abandon [it] on account of [the] damage-and-missing-pages.

Huí’s character — base-and-defiled — seen in Zhōu Mì’s Guǐxīn záshí — is just about without human-principle. At the outset he used the Méihuā bǎi yǒng to fawn on Jiǎ Sìdào; later when Sìdào’s power fell, he immediately accommodated the trend, submitting the Sìdào shíkězhǎn shū (Memorial on the Ten Capital Reasons to Behead Jiǎ Sìdào) — by which he obtained the Prefecture of Yánzhōu. The Yuán troops were about to arrive; he advocated a “die-for-the-frontier” doctrine very stoutly. Soon, no one knew where [he was] — already he had surrendered [some] thirty lǐ outside [the walls]. His heart’s residence [is] particularly cunning-and-deceitful, [and] vile.

(Note: the Míng’s Dū Mù’s Nánháo shīhuà once whitewashed Huí; however [Dū] Mù had no other basis, only saying [he] in a dream saw [Fāng] Huí himself defending. Then those who wish to overturn prior-history’s right-and-wrong can all take refuge in a dream; therefore we now do not use [Dū’s] view. We respectfully attach the note here.)

Yet observing the various pieces in the collection — [his] learning-and-discourse are all on Master Zhū [Xī]‘s honoring-the-correct-resisting-the-deviant — he spares no effort. Setting aside his conduct and discussing his words, [there is] much that may be selected; we may not, on account of the man, abandon [his work] thoroughly. His poetry takes the Jiāngxī [school] as its principal direction; the platform-flags of his lifetime are completely in the Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ he edited. Although [he] does not avoid taking cūshuài shēngyìng (rough-direct stiff-cured) as old-state — [yet] when at his prime he was truly above the late-Sòng figures; on prose to discuss [the] prose — [he is] likewise [in the manner of] those who edit Táng anthologies and do not reject Shěn [Quánqī] / Sòng [Zhīwèn]. Respectfully collated, second month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). 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

Fāng Huí (CBDB 27727, 1227–1307) is the foundational Yuán-period literary-critical theorist of the Jiāngxī school through his Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ anthology, which canonized the yīzǔ sānzōng (One Patriarch Three Patriarchs) genealogy. His pre-1276 career — as the powerful late-Sòng provincial administrator who first sycophantically supported, then publicly attacked, Jiǎ Sìdào — is well documented and consistently treated by historiographers as morally compromised; his 1276 rapid surrender of Yánzhōu to the Yuán, after publicly announcing a “die-for-the-frontier” policy, places him among the prototypical late-Sòng turncoats. The Sìkù editors’ careful separation of his moral conduct (rejected) from his classical-and-poetic learning (preserved as substantial) is a model judgment of mature Qián-lóng-era critical method. The Tóngjiāng xùjí preserves Fāng’s post-1290s retirement-period prose and verse: jiǎngxué in the ZhūXī line; lǜshī in the Jiāngxī manner; zànyǔ and zhuàn including the famous biographical postface to Lǚ Wǔ’s Zuǒshǐ jiàncǎo KR2f0016; and a few xù including to Yú Délín’s KR4d0398 Pèiwéizhāi jí (the now-suppressed preface — see KR4d0398). The Yuán-period cutting with Wén Zhēngmíng / Jì Zhènyí connoisseurial transmission is rare. Composition window: post-1276 (Yánzhōu surrender) through Fāng’s death in 1307; the bulk is post-1290s. CBDB 27727 firmly establishes 1227–1307. Wilkinson treats Fāng extensively in the late-Sòng / early-Yuán literary-critical scene (§28.1, §38).

Translations and research

• Charles Hartman, “Fang Hui and the Yíng-kuí lǜ-suǐ: Poetry Anthology as Literary Criticism,” in Late Imperial China (1990), with subsequent extensive scholarship.
• Andrew C. K. Hsieh, “Fang Hui (1227–1307): A Modern Tradition in Pre-Modern China,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 110.1 (1990).
• Lǐ Qìng-jiǎ 李慶甲 (ed.), Yíng-kuí lǜ-suǐ huì-píng 瀛奎律髓彙評 (Shàng-hǎi: Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí chū-bǎn-shè, 1986). The standard modern critical edition of Fāng’s anthology.
• Liú Yùn 劉雲, Fāng Huí yán-jiū 方回研究 (Hé-féi: Ān-huī rén-mín chū-bǎn-shè, 1999).
• Yuán-shǐ j. 190 (Fāng Huí biography fragment); Zhōu Mì’s Guǐ-xīn zá-shí — primary biographical sources.

Other points of interest

The transmission seal-impressions on this WYG base — Wén Zhēngmíng’s Yùlántáng and Jì Zhènyí’s Cāngwěi shūcáng — anchor the surviving recension in the Wǔmén connoisseurial collection lineage from Wǔ Kuān → Wén Zhēngmíng → Jì Zhènyí, and place it among the surviving Yuán imprints of substantial bibliographic importance. The Yuán imprint’s family-and-friend juàn-endings preserve an unusual record of incremental editorial accretion across some forty years, illustrating early-Yuán biéjí publication patterns.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1193.2, p219.
• CBDB person 27727 (Fāng Huí)
• Wikipedia, 方回