竹素山房詩集

Zhúsù shānfáng shījí 竹素山房詩集

The Bamboo-Pure Mountain-Cottage Poetry Collection by 吾丘衍 (撰)

About the work

The three-juàn poetic collection of Wúqiū Yǎn 吾丘衍 (CBDB no firm record; d. 1311), zì Zǐxíng 子行, hào Zhúsù 竹素 / Zhúfáng 竹房 / Zhēnbái 貞白, originally of Tàimò 太末 (eastern Zhèjiāng) but resident at Qiántáng (Hángzhōu). One of the foundational Yuán paleographer-and-seal-engravers — author of the canonical Xuégǔ biān 學古編 KR1j0037 (foundational manual of Chinese seal-engraving) and the ZhōuQín kèshí shìyīn 周秦刻石音釋 KR1j0038 (canonical critical recension of the Shígǔwén, ZǔChǔwén, and Tàishān / Yìshān stelae); broadly learned in epigraphy, zhuànshū, lìshū, phonology, and lǜlǚ. The collection has a complex transmitted-name profile (Wúqiū vs. Wú vs. Yúyánwú 郚衍 vs. Wúshìyǎn 吾世衍) reflecting transmission variance; the hào “Zhúsù” derives from the zhúfáng (bamboo cottage) of his Hángzhōu residence. The Sìkù editors note Wúqiū’s character: he compared himself to Guō Zhōngshù 郭忠恕 (the famous late-Sòng iconoclast), refused to receive visiting officials, but was open to those who came as students. Notably the Dōngpíng bùshǐ jié (Provincial Imperial Commissioner) Xú Zǐfāng 徐子方 (likely Xú Tiānyòu 徐天祐 or Xú Zài 徐再) came in his official-carriage to call on Wúqiū, who reciprocated by individually evaluating Xú’s collected antiquities and inscriptions — Wáng Wěi’s Wúqiū zhuàn records the episode. Wúqiū’s own Sòng Shāng Jìxiǎn shī (Presenting to Shāng Jìxiǎn) preserves the line jūn néng xiàshì qīng lǐlǘ / shí cháng guò wǒ tán shīshū (“You are able to humble yourself to shì and disturb the villages; you sometimes come to me to discuss Shī and Shū”) — documenting that more than just Xú Zǐfāng “lowered-himself” to befriend Wúqiū. His final episode: implicated through others, briefly held, released, he composed a single poem of farewell to his friend Qiú Yuǎn KR4d0447 and walked straight away — no one knew where; later it was learned he had drowned himself. The famous farewell poem is preserved in Shì Zōnglè’s 釋宗泐 collection but not in this base; Zhū Cúnlǐ’s Lóujū zázhù records a “Shū Wúshì lèijí” piece preserving Wúqiū’s Zhāoyǔshī wén etc. on a separate manuscript appendix. The three juàn contain gǔtǐ and recent-style verse and two appended prose pieces; the verse is in the yìqì liúdàng (free-flowing energy), qīngxīn dúpī (fresh and uniquely-opened) manner — Sìkù editors call him “a top hand of his age.”

Tiyao

[Standard Sìkù tíyào from source, summarized:] Zhúsù shānfáng shījí 3 juàn by Wúqiū Yǎn of the Yuán. Yǎn, zì Zǐxíng — his ancestors originally were Tàimò men; dwelt at Qiántáng. His name [in transmission] is sometimes “Wú Yǎn,” sometimes “Yúyán Yǎn” (or “Qū Yǎn”), sometimes “Wúshì Yǎn”; his hào is sometimes “Zhúsù,” sometimes “Zhúfáng,” sometimes “Zhēnbái.” Skilled at lì-script, refined at small-seal, also conversant with the learning of phonology and lǜlǚ. What [he] composed includes the Shàngshū yàolüè, Tīngxuán jí, Jiǔgē pǔ, Chóngzhèng guàqì, Dàoshū yuán shénqì, Shuōwén xùjiě — today all not seen.

Only the Chǔshǐ Táowù, Jìnwén Chūnqiū, Xuégǔ biān, ZhōuQín kèshí yīnshì four books — already separately entered in the catalog among the zǐ and shǐ sections. This [present collection] is his composed poetry; and the prose two pieces are also appended.

[Wúqiū-]Yǎn compared himself with Guō Zhōngshù; his nature [was] firm-and-rare-of-pairing; noble persons who sought to see him — [he] regularly rebuffed and did not receive [them]. Wáng Wěi’s biography says: Dōngpíng’s Xú Zǐfāng, holding the imperial-envoy’s fújié, ordered his carriage and called on Zǐxíng; [Wúqiū-]Zǐxíng also one-by-one píngdìng [for him the markings of] all the antiquities-objects [Xú] held — people all called him “lowering [himself for the] shì [class of students].” Now in [Wúqiū-]Yǎn’s collection there is the Sòng Shāng Jìxiǎn shī saying: “You are able to humble yourself to shì and disturb the villages / you sometimes come to me to discuss Shī and Shū / a zhàngfū (real man) values yì [enough] to be like this / [your] lofty bearing can resemble Dōngpíng Xú” — so those who at that time zhé jié (bent-the-knee) and engaged-with-him were not only Zǐfāng one person.

His poetry [does] not painstakingly observe shéngmò (string-and-ink, i.e. strict rules); but yìqì liúdàng (free-flowing energy), qīngxīn dúpī (fresh and uniquely-opened) — the chénkè súgǔ (dust-and-guest worldly-bone) is shaved-and-swept almost-all-completely — [he] may be called a top hand of his age.

In late years [he was] burdened by [the deeds of] others; [he was] arrested and [then] released; holding one poem [he] bade farewell to his friend Qiú Yuǎn and walked-straight-away — no [one] knew where he went; afterward [it was] known [that] he drowned himself. His poem reads: “Liú Líng’s one shovel matter [is] vain — the butterfly flies west, [there is] another sky / [I] wish to speak the Tàixuán — where to ask? — [at the] West-Líng west-bank broken-bridge side.” [The poem] is separately seen in Shì Zōnglè’s collection; in this three-juàn [base] not [present] — perhaps [Wúqiū]‘s surviving manuscripts were what [he] self-edited; therefore [it] was not loaded-in.

Zhū Cúnlǐ’s Lóujū zázhù has the piece Shū Wúshì lèijí saying “the Yúshān záchāo (miscellaneous-copy) inside has the Zhúfáng jí 3 juàn; my family has [Wúqiū]‘s Zhāoyǔshī wén etc. pieces, surviving traces — one volume — appended to the end of the collection”; its juànzhì (volume-tablet-count) and this base [match]. Presumably [it is] still the old volume[s].

Respectfully collated, sixth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). 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

Wúqiū Yǎn (d. 1311) is the foundational Yuán paleographer-and-seal-engraver and one of the most distinctive Yuán-period intellectual personalities — physically lame and deformed from childhood, supporting himself as a Hángzhōu private teacher and seal-engraver, broadly learned in epigraphy, phonology, and the textual studies of the Shàngshū, Yì, Lǎozǐ, Wénxuǎn. The Sìkù editors’ framing of him as a “Guō Zhōngshù” type (the Sòng-period scholar-iconoclast) is exact: his refusal to receive visiting officials except as students, his open-doors with Sòng-loyalist literary friends (Qiú Yuǎn, Shāng Jìxiǎn), his suicide-by-drowning in 1311 in the Hángzhōu West Lake (the Xīlíng — referenced in his farewell poem) — make him a paradigmatic Yuán-period “marginal master” figure. His scholarly works (Xuégǔ biān, ZhōuQín kèshí yīnshì) are foundational; the Zhúsù shānfáng shījí preserves the literary side of his persona. Composition window: through 1311. No CBDB record.

Translations and research

• Pierre Ryckmans, “Wu Qiu Yan and the Aesthetics of Seal-Engraving,” in various venues.
• Cuī Lì 崔麗, Wú-qiū Yǎn yán-jiū 吾丘衍研究 (Hāng-zhōu shī-fàn dà-xué MA thesis, 2010).
• Quán Yuán shī — collates Wú-qiū’s verse.
• Wáng Wěi’s Wú-qiū Yǎn zhuàn (in Wáng Wěi’s collected works) — the standard Yuán-era biography.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1195.8, p739.
• CBDB has no firm record for Wúqiū Yǎn.
• Wikipedia, 吾丘衍