小亨集

Xiǎohēng jí 小亨集

The Xiǎo-hēng (Lesser-Prosperity) Collection by 楊弘道 (撰)

About the work

A six-juàn collection of the JīnYuán transition poet Yáng Hóngdào 楊弘道 (fl. 1224–1254 or later; CBDB 35368 records fl. 1224 only; no firm lifedates), zì Shūnéng 叔能, native of Zīchuān 淄川 in Shāndōng. The Sìkù editors note his career runs the Jīn → Sòng → Yuán treble-transition: under the Jīn Xuānzōng’s Xìngdìng end (c. 1220) he first met Yuán Hǎowèn at the southern Jīn capital; in the Jīn Āizōng Zhèngdà 1 (1224) served as Línyóu jiǔshuì (Wine-Tax inspector at Línyóu); in the Sòng Lǐzōng Duānpíng 1 (1234, the year the Jīn collapsed) he was Xiāngyáng fǔxué jiàoyù under the Sòng; in Duānpíng 2 (1235) drafted as Sòng’s Tángzhōu sīhù; in twelfth month of the same year, after the Yuán took Tángzhōu, returned north to settle his family at Jǐyuán; thereafter spent the remainder of his career under the Yuán without notable office. The Sìkù editors note that of the major JīnYuán poets after Zhēnyòu’s southern crossing (1214), Yáng was one of the most celebrated — Yuán Hǎowèn’s prefaces to the Xiǎohēng jí and to Yáng Fēiqīng’s Táorán jí both name Yáng alongside Xīn Jìngzhī, Lǐ Chángyuán, Léi Bówēi, and Wáng Zǐzhèng as masters of post-Zhēn-yòu Jīn poetry; Yuán’s Zèng Hóngdào shī (Presentation Poem to Hóngdào) acknowledges Yáng’s thirty-year poetic fame. Jiāo Hóng’s Jīngjí zhì recorded the Xiǎohēng jí in 15 juàn; long lost. The Sìkù base is a Yǒnglè dàdiǎn reconstruction edited into 5 juàn of poetry and 1 juàn of prose.

Tiyao

The Xiǎohēng jí, 6 juàn, by Yáng Hóngdào of the Yuán. Hóngdào, zì Shūnéng, [was] a Zīchuān man. Born at the end of the Jīn; his deeds are not seen in standard biography. By examining the poems and prose in [this] collection: at the end of the Jīn Xuānzōng Xìngdìng era [he] first met Yuán Hǎowèn at the [southern] capital. At this time the Jīn had already moved south. By the Jīn Āizōng Zhèngdà 1 [year, 1224, he] once supervised the Línyóu jiǔshuì (Línyóu Wine-Tax). Later again [he] served under the Sòng: in the Sòng Lǐzōng Duānpíng 1 (1234) [he served as] Xiāngyáng fǔxué jiàoyù; his Tóu Zhào zhìzhì zhā (Submitted Memorial to Censorate-Commissioner Zhào) has the phrase “returning-to-court not yet completing three years” — therefore [he] should be one who in [Sòng] Shàodìng’s end (1233) had returned-south. In the collection there is again the Zèng Zhòngjīng shī preface, which says: “In Duānpíng 2 (1235), after Qīngmíng, [I] left Xiāngyáng and acted as Tángzhōu sīhù; in the upper-ten-days of the twelfth month [I] moved-north [and] sojourned [my] home at Jǐyuán” — so [his] being in Sòng was not long; [he] soon entered the Yuán. Examining the Sòngshǐ: this year in [the] seventh month Yuán troops reached Tángzhōu; Quán Zǐcái abandoned his troops and fled by night; Tángzhōu was thereupon taken by the Yuán. Hóngdào likely on account of this returned north.

Afterward [he] rarely [had] outstanding manifestation; up-and-down [he was] perhaps not yet again employed. Only in the collection’s Mén-tiē-zi (Door-Stickers) there are the verses “yǐyǒu (Yǐyǒu year, 1249) again-encountering, [my] sideburns [are] not yet white” — calculating, [he] entered the Yuán another fourteen-or-fifteen years and Hóngdào was already sixty. Comprehensive [view of] his lifelong [career] — drifting south-and-north, stealing-stipend [to] keep-himself-alive — his coming-out and remaining [were] indeed wú zú dào (not worth speaking of). Yet his poetry was at that day most famous.

Yuán Hǎowèn’s preface to his collection says: “After the Jīn’s southern crossing, those who learned poetry [were] only Xīn Jìngzhī, Yáng Shūnéng — taking Táng-men as their guide.” Again [Yuán Hǎowèn’s] preface to Yáng Fēiqīng’s Táorán jí says: “After Zhēnyòu poetry-learning was abundant — Luòxī Xīn Jìngzhī, Zīchuān Yáng Shūnéng, Tàiyuán Lǐ Chángyuán, Lóngfáng Léi Bówēi, Běipíng Wáng Zǐzhèng — all are called as professional [poetic] specialists.” Again [Yuán Hǎowèn’s] Zèng Hóngdào shī says: “Within the seas, Yáng sīhù — name reputation thirty years.” Again [it] says: “Heavenly-stars at Lóngmén — surnames-and-given-names new — how could [one] know book-and-sword [are] old in [the] dust of wind?” His being-fallen-prostrate for Hóngdào [was] reaching the very most. Liú Qí’s Guīqián zhì also paired Hóngdào with [Yuán] Hǎowèn and Lǐ Fén and Dù Rénjié as roughly contemporary; like Zhào Bǐngwén and Yáng Yúnyì on seeing his poetry both praised-and-sighed unceasingly. Bǐngwén [went so far as] to compare [his poetry] to jīngāo shuǐbì (gold-fat water-jade) — extra-mundane difficult-to-obtain treasure.

Now examining what he composed: his 5-character ancient poems obtain the xìngbǐ essence — sometimes approaching the HànWèi yíyīn (HànWèi remaining sound); his regulated-verse style-and-frame [are] gāohuá (high-and-florid) and rather have Táng-tone — although not approaching [Yuán] Hǎowèn’s xiónghún cāngjiān (heroic-vigour grey-and-firm), yet judging by the poetic-masters of his time, [we] cannot fail to consider [him] one of the great masters of the north. Jiāo Hóng’s Jīngjí zhì records the Xiǎohēng jí in 15 juàn; the world has long lost-and-transmitted [it]. Now from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn-mid [we have] gathered-and-arranged [it]; [it is] divided into 5 juàn of poetry and 1 juàn of prose.

Respectfully collated, ninth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). 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

The collection of Yáng Hóngdào (CBDB 35368, fl. 1224 onward) — one of the principal JīnYuán transition poets and a celebrated member of the late-Jīn / early-Yuán poetic generation centered on Yuán Hǎowèn 元好問 (1190–1257). Yáng’s career spans an unusually complex political transition: a Jīn-period rise to poetic fame at the southern Jīn capital (Yuán Hǎowèn first met him at Xìngdìng end, c. 1220); a brief Jīn official tour as wine-tax supervisor under Āizōng Zhèngdà 1 (1224); a short southern career under the Southern Sòng as Xiāngyáng fǔxué jiàoyù (1234) and Tángzhōu sīhù (1235); and after the Yuán capture of Tángzhōu (1235.7), a return north to a quiet life at Jǐyuán under the Mongols. The Sìkù editors note that Yáng’s fame — as recorded by Yuán Hǎowèn, Liú Qí, Zhào Bǐngwén — far exceeded his political fortune, with major contemporaries calling his verse “extra-mundane treasure”. The original 15-juàn collection (per Jiāo Hóng’s Jīngjí zhì) was lost; the 6-juàn Sìkù base is a Yǒnglè dàdiǎn reconstruction (5 juàn of poetry + 1 juàn of prose). Yuán Hǎowèn’s preface — preserved in the volume — is the principal contemporary critical evaluation, ranking Yáng alongside Xīn Yuán 辛愿 (Jìngzhī 敬之), Lǐ Fén 李汾 (Chángyuán 長源), Léi Yuān 雷淵 (Bówēi 伯威), and Wáng Yún 王惲 (Zǐzhèng 子正) as the principal Jīn poetic-tradition specialists after the 1214 Zhēnyòu southern crossing. Yáng’s poetic doctrine — “for jìntǐ I take Táng, for gǔtǐ I take the Wénxuǎn” — and his foundational rejection of late-Jīn imitative practice is one of the central JīnYuán transition poetic positions; in this respect Yáng anticipates the analogous position later taken by Qiú Yuǎn 仇遠 KR4d0447 in the SòngYuán southern transition. Composition window: approximately 1220–1255.

Translations and research

• Stephen H. West, “Jin/Yuan Period Poetry” essays in Encyclopedia of Chinese Literature and standard reference works.
• Jīn-shǐ and Yuán-shǐ lack a biography of Yáng Hóng-dào; the principal biographical sources are Yuán Hǎo-wèn’s preface (in this volume) and Liú Qí’s 劉祁 Guī-qián zhì 歸潛志.

Other points of interest

Yuán Hǎowèn’s Zèng Yáng Hóngdào shī with its couplet “Within-the-seas Yáng sīhù — name reputation thirty years” is one of the most-cited YuánHǎowèn presentation-poems and a key document of JīnYuán transition poetic-friendship circles. The Sìkù editors’ Yáng-preserved-via-Yǒng-lè-dà-diǎn recovery is one of the more important Sìkù-era recoveries of a Jīn-Yuán-era literary corpus.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1198.5, p159.
• CBDB person 35368 (Yáng Hóngdào)