Yuèwū màngǎo 月屋漫稿
Casual Manuscripts from the Moon-Chamber by 黃庚 (撰)
About the work
A one-juàn poetic collection of Huáng Gēng 黃庚 (CBDB 11114 / 35323, lifedates uncertain — fl. through Tàidìng era 1324–1327), zì Xīngfǔ 星甫, native of Tiāntái 天台 (Tāizhōu, Zhèjiāng). Born at the end of the Sòng, did not take office under the Yuán. Earlier anthologists treated him as a Sòng yímín and entered his work in the Sòng biéjí, but his own self-preface to this collection is dated Tàidìng dīngmǎo (1327) — by which time the Mongols had unified the realm for fifty-seven years (1271 founding of the Yuán + 56). The Sìkù editors therefore re-classify him as a Yuán figure, “following the Zhèjiāng tōngzhì’s placement of him in the Wényuàn zhuàn.” Huáng was once a guest of Wáng Yīngsūn 王英孫 at Shānyīn (Shàoxīng); he tested in the Yuèzhōng poetry society on the Zhěnyì theme and took first place, the examiner being Lǐ Shìláng (a Yuán Lǐbù shìláng) — Lǐ’s píngyǔ (evaluation) of Huáng’s poem along with the original verse are both preserved in the collection. The verse is mostly in late-Sòng Jiānghú form; the Sìkù editors find the lǜshī “rather conventionally weak” but the occasional sharp jǐngjǔ (warning-strikes) — e.g. xiéyáng míng wǎnpǔ / luòyè shòu qiūshān (‘slanting-sun illuminates the late shore / fallen leaves thin the autumn mountain’); liǔsè dú qīngyǎn / méihuā tóng sùxīn (‘willow-color [is] alone [in its] green-eye; plum-blossom [is] with [me of] one plain-heart’); míngláng zhōu yè jù / sǎwǎng lànghuā yuán (‘the boatman-staff strikes the leaves’ cluster / the cast net’s wave-flower rounds’) — show genuine new alertness. Composition window: from Huáng’s mature years post-1276 (presumed; no firm earliest date) through the 1327 self-preface; he is unlikely to have lived much longer.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Yuèwū màngǎo in one juàn was composed by Huáng Gēng of the Yuán. Gēng’s zì was Xīngfǔ, a man of Tiāntái. [He was] born at the end of the Sòng; entered the Yuán [and] did not take office. Later poetry-anthologists, on the ground that he was a Sòng yímín, jointly entered [him] in [the] Sòng poetry. Yet observing the collection’s first self-preface — it is composed in [Yuán Tàidìng] dīngmǎo (1327); at that time the Yuán had unified within-the-seas already 57 years — [we] cannot still attach him to the Sòng people. We now hereafter still title him as a Yuán person — following the Zhèjiāng tōngzhì Wényuàn zhuàn precedent.
Gēng once was a guest in Shānyīn at Wáng Yīngsūn’s family; tested in the Yuèzhōng poetry society’s Zhěnyì (Pillow / Yìjīng) theme; Gēng [took] first; the examiner was LǐShìláng. The píngyǔ (evaluation) [and] the original poem are both in the collection. Presumably at the time he was thus recommended-and-honored.
His poetry still follows the time-fashion; the form and frame cannot avoid being base-and-weak; yet at sharply-rendered places, [it] at times reveals new alertness. Like the five-syllable: “xiéyáng míng wǎnpǔ / luòyè shòu qiūshān” (“Slanting-sun illuminates the late shore / fallen leaves thin the autumn mountain”); “liǔsè dú qīngyǎn / méihuā tóng sùxīn” (“Willow-color is alone its green-eye / plum-blossom is with me of one plain-heart”); “míngláng zhōu yè jù / sǎwǎng lànghuā yuán” (“The boatman-staff strikes the leaves’ cluster / the cast net’s wave-flower rounds”); and other lines — the seven-syllable: “zhōng dài xīyáng lái yuǎnsì / bēi hé chūnyǔ wò píngwú” (“The bell carries the evening sun, coming from the distant monastery / the stele is harmonized by spring rain, lying on the level plain”); “xì liǔ yǔzhōng chuí lǜ zhòng / cánhuā fēnglǐ luàn hóng qīng” (“Fine willows, in the rain, hang green-heavy; remnant flowers, in the wind, scatter red-light”); “qīng yè mèng fēn qiānlǐ yuè / gùxiāng rén gè yīfāng tiān” (“Clear-night dream divides at the thousand-lǐ moon; my native-village people are each in a [different] direction of [the] sky”); “fēngyuè mǎn huái shī kě xiě / xuěshuāng qīn bìn jìng xiān zhī” (“Wind-and-moon fill the chest, poetry can be written; snow-and-frost invade the temples, the mirror first knows”) — and other lines — all are fēngzhì wǎnyuē (graceful-and-subtle), xiāorán zì yuǎn (self-distantly aloof) — still not failing to be a complete-form [poet]. Respectfully collated, seventh 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.
(The frontmatter also preserves Huáng’s own substantive self-preface, criticizing the late-Sòng-end kējǔ corruption of poetry and dating his self-edited Màngǎo to Yuán Tàidìng dīngmǎo (1327).)
Abstract
Huáng Gēng (CBDB 11114, lifedates uncertain) is one of the principal “second-generation” Yuán-period figures of the late-Sòng Jiānghú school transmission: born at the end of the Sòng, did not take office, but evidently survived well into the Yuán era and self-edited his collection in 1327. His poetic relations with Wáng Yīngsūn (of Shānyīn / Shàoxīng) and his prize-winning entry in the Yuèzhōng poetry society document the yímín poetic-society culture of Zhèjiāng. The collection is small and the bulk is in Jiānghú style; the few notable lines (preserved in the Sìkù tíyào) became Yuán-period anthology-standards. The catalog meta correctly classes Huáng as Yuán; the Sìkù editors reverse the earlier Sòng-classification. Composition window: post-1276 through 1327. CBDB has no firm dates; the local Zhèjiāng tōngzhì lacks specifics. Wilkinson does not single out Huáng.
Translations and research
- Méi Xīn-lín 梅新林, Zhè-jiāng wén-xué shǐ 浙江文學史, vol. 2 (Hāng-zhōu: Zhè-jiāng dà-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2010) — passing references.
- Quán Yuán shī — collates Huáng’s verse.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1193.4, p777.
- CBDB person 11114 (Huáng Gēng)