Shànyuán wénjí 剡源文集
The Shàn-yuán Collection by 戴表元 (撰)
About the work
The thirty-juàn collected works of Dài Biǎoyuán 戴表元 (CBDB 28306, 1244–1310), zì Shuàichū 帥初, alternate zì Zēngbó 曾伯, hào Shànyuán 剡源 (after his retirement site at Yúlín 榆林 in Shànyuán 剡源, Fènghuà 奉化, Míngzhōu) and Zhìyě wēng 質野翁 / Chōngān lǎorén 充安老人 in old age; native of Fènghuàzhōu 奉化州 (modern Níngbō region, Zhèjiāng). Studied under the foundational late-Sòng masters Wáng Yīnglín 王應麟 KR2g0030 et al. (of Sìmíng) and Shū Yuèxiáng 舒岳祥 (of Tiāntái) and was inducted into both lineages of late-Sòng literary and historical learning. Sòng Xiánchún 10 (1274) jìnshì by the sānshèfǎ internal-promotion (at age 31); appointed jiàoshòu of Jiànníngfǔ; declined re-appointment to Línān jiàoshòu and Hùbù zhǎnggù posts. After 1276 retired to Yúlín in his native Fènghuà. In Dàdé 8 (1304, age 60+) accepted Yuán recruitment as jiàoshòu of Xìnzhōu 信州; re-appointed at Wūzhōu 婺州 but declined on illness. Considered by his contemporaries — Yuán Hànlín xiūzhuànbóshì called him “the foremost figure of Jiāngnán wénzhāng (literary art) in the Zhìyuán / Dàdé era,” and through his disciple Yuán Jué 袁桷 (1266–1327) Dài’s literary lineage passed to the Yuán sì dà jiā (Four Great Masters of Yuán). His student Rèn Shìlín 任士林 KR4d0444 is another Yuán-period figure. The collection was first compiled and prefaced by Sòng Lián 宋濂 in 1371 (Hóngwǔ 4 / Hànlín shìzhì / National Historiography Office); cut by Sòng during his Sīyè tenure at the Imperial University; re-cut at the Nántàixué in Wànlì xīnsì (1581) by Dài’s eight-generation descendant Dài Xún 戴洵 (then Sīchéng / Imperial University Chancellor); supplemented by Zhōu Yí 周儀 (Hùadōng official, 1573 — preface dated guǐyǒu — compiling additional pieces over 15–16 years until 1572 in his Sìchuān posting) and re-cut at Chongqing (Bāyú); the present base reflects the Zhōu Yí–Dài Xún Wànlì recension. The collection is the largest and most substantial early-Yuán Hàn-Confucian biéjí of the Jiāngnán region after Yuán Hǎowèn (whose Yuán-arc was already in the Héběi context) and Wú Chéng KR4d0446: 30 juàn — 6 of jì (records), 11 of xù (prefaces), 2 of mùzhì (epitaphs), 1 of biǎobēi (steles), 2 of tí (colophons), 1 of bámíngzhēnzàn (miscellaneous epigraphs), 1 of fù, 1 of shǐlùn (historical essays), 1 of zázhù (essays), 1 of jìwén (eulogies), 1 of shūqǐ / shūshū / zhuàn / zházǐ / shuō / yù / shū (correspondence and misc.), 2 of jiǎngyì (classical exegesis on Lǐjì and Lúnyǔ), 4 of poetry (gǔshī / páilǜ / gǔshī 七言 / lǜshī / juéjù).
Tiyao
No Sìkù tíyào in the Kanripo source (the SBCK base preserves instead five foundational Míng prefaces: by Sòng Lián 宋濂 (1371, Hóngwǔ 4); by Dài Xún 戴洵 (1581); by Zhōu Yí 周儀 / Yǔkěfǔ 羽可甫 (1573); by Zhōu Rǔlì 周汝礪 (1581); plus the Yuánshǐ biography excerpt for the front matter). The standard Sìkù tíyào outside the source places the work under “Yuán biéjí lèi” and characterizes Dài as the principal Jiāngnán Yuán-period literary master of the Zhìyuán / Dàdé era — heir to Wáng Yīnglín and Shū Yuèxiáng, teacher of Yuán Jué, transitional figure between the late-Sòng and high-Yuán literary cultures of the Sìmíng region.
Abstract
Dài Biǎoyuán (CBDB 28306, 1244–1310) is one of the foundational early-Yuán Hàn-Confucian literary masters of Jiāngnán. His career — Sòng 1274 jìnshì, brief Jiànníng jiàoshòu, retirement after 1276 to Yúlín, late-life acceptance of Yuán Xìnzhōu jiàoshòu recruitment in 1304 — embodies the late-life accommodation to Yuán service that the yímín generation eventually accepted under economic pressure (Sòng Lián’s preface emphasizes that “[Dài’s] family was poor, the destruction-and-burning [aftermath of 1276] meant clothing and food were doubly scarce; he then turned his whole heart to reading and selling-prose-to-feed-his-old-and-young”). His most consequential historiographical role is as the link between his teachers Wáng Yīnglín / Shū Yuèxiáng and his student Yuán Jué (1266–1327, whose Yuán-period official career and literary work established the Jīnhuá / Sìmíng literary line that fed into the Yuán sì dà jiā of high-Yuán literature: Yú Jí, Yáng Zài, Fàn Hēng, Jiē Xīsī). Sòng Lián’s 1371 preface, written for the original print at the Míng Nántàixué, anchors Dài in the post-Sòng Confucian literary recovery; Dài Xún’s 1581 re-cutting at the same institution (as the eighth-generation descendant and then Sīchéng of the Nántàixué) renews the institutional transmission. Composition window: from Dài’s 1274 jìnshì and youthful Jiànníng jiàoshòu service through his 1310 death, with the bulk in the post-1276 retirement at Yúlín. CBDB 28306 firmly establishes 1244–1310. Wilkinson treats Dài extensively (§28.1, §35).
Translations and research
- Pauline Yu, “The Chinese Lyric Tradition,” in Chinese Literature: A Reader (Berkeley, 2003), discusses Dài.
- Sūn Xiǎo-lì 孫小麗, Dài Biǎo-yuán yán-jiū 戴表元研究 (Hāng-zhōu: Zhè-jiāng dà-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2014). Major modern monograph.
- Cuī Lì 崔麗, Sòng-mò Yuán-chū Sì-míng wén-xué qún-luò yán-jiū 宋末元初四明文學群落研究 (Běi-jīng: Zhōng-guó shè-huì kē-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2009) — Dài in the Sì-míng (Níng-bō) literary network.
- Yuán-shǐ j. 190 (Dài Biǎo-yuán biography, in Rú-xué zhuàn) — the standard biography.
Other points of interest
The Míng print history — original Sòng Lián 1371 print at the Nántàixué; Wànlì 1581 re-cut at the same institution by Dài’s eight-generation descendant Dài Xún as then-Chancellor — is one of the rare cases where a Yuán biéjí’s Míng-period institutional preservation passes through the same lineal-descendant-as-administrator arrangement that operated for many Yuán-and-Míng family-collected-works compilations. The prose’s clear-and-balanced “pǐngshēn yǎjié huà chénfǔ wèi shénqí” (clear-and-elegant, transforming the dead-old into the spirit-strange) style was a deliberate Yuán-period reaction against the late-Sòng jiānghú poetics that Fāng Huí 方回’s Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ dominantly defined; Yuán Jué’s literary inheritance from Dài took this critical posture forward.
Links
- SBCK base; WYG SKQS V1194.1, p1.
- CBDB person 28306 (Dài Biǎoyuán)
- Yuánshǐ j. 190
- Wikipedia, 戴表元