靜修先生文集

Jìngxiū xiānshēng wénjí 靜修先生文集

The Collected Works of Master Jìng-xiū [Liú Yīn] by 劉因 (撰)

About the work

The collected works of Liú Yīn 劉因 (1249–1293), zì Mèngjí 夢吉, hào Jìngxiū 靜修 — with Xǔ Héng 許衡 (1209–1281) one of the two pillars of early-Yuán Neo-Confucianism. Native of Róngchéng 容城 (modern Héběi, just southwest of Bǎodìng 保定). The Sìkù catalog meta gives 25 juàn and lists the edition as WYG; the actual Kanripo source-file base is the SBCK reproduction of the standard transmitted recension (the Yuánshǐ Rúlín zhuàn canonical wénjí of Master Jìngxiū). The collection is prefaced by Lǐ Qiān 李謙 of Dōngpíng — Liú Yīn’s fellow-attendant at the Crown-Prince’s court (the Chūnfāng) and contemporary witness to his career — whose preface preserves the principal contemporary biographical statement: Liú’s swift literary maturation, his recommendation to the Yuán court as Zànshàn dàfū under Yùzōng (Khubilai’s Crown Prince), his early withdrawal to care for his parents, his second summons as Jíxián xuéshì declined on grounds of illness, and his death at the age of 42 (chūnqiū cái sìshí yǒu èr). The work is divided into approximately 25 juàn of cí, fù, gǔshī (5- and 7-syllable, including a notable Hé Táo 和陶 — Echoing-Táo-Yuān-míng — cycle in juàn 3), lǜshī, juéjù, prose, letters, and zázhù. The Hé Táo cycle is the principal poetic achievement: 5 echoes of Guītián yuánjū, 20 echoes of Yǐnjiǔ, 9 echoes of Nǐgǔ, 11 echoes of Záshī, 7 echoes of Yǒng pínshì, and the 13-poem echo of Dú Shānhǎijīng — establishing Liú as the major Yuán echo-of-Táo poet.

Prefaces

The principal SBCK-preserved paratext is Lǐ Qiān’s preface, which serves as the foundational contemporary biographical record:

“Master Liú Mèngjí — heaven-given talent eminent-and-prominent — early-years reading-books and composing-prose, his brushwork drove [readers] to astonishment. Subsequently he steeped-himself in moral principles, broadening his learning — therefore his name-and-reputation grew the greater. By [the time] Yùzōng Huángdì (Khubilai’s Crown Prince Zhēnjīn) was just nourishing-virtue in the Green Palace (the Eastern Palace / Crown-Prince’s residence), [the Crown Prince] heard of his worthiness and by the office of Zànshàn dàfū summoned [him] to the capital. Not long [after, Liú Yīn] resigned on account of [his] parents being old and returned to nourish [them]. After several years’ residence, the court, revering-and-looking-up [to his] virtuous-friendship, appointed [him] Jíxián xuéshì. Again [he] resigned by [reason of] illness. After more than a year [he] thereupon did not rise again — spring-and-autumn just forty-two — the gentry-and-officials mourned him. [His] gate-disciples gathered-up [his] poetry-and-prose, obtaining several hundred pieces. The Yòuxiá Zhānggōng (Vice-Censor Zhāng), by [his] sincere old-acquaintance righteousness, and grieving Liú’s [having] no descendants, undertook to cut blocks [for publication], required me to compose the preface…. The Master’s cízhāng (literary compositions) [are] xiánwǎn chōngdàn (leisurely-and-graceful, harmonious-and-tranquil), qīngzhuàng dùncuò (clear-and-vigorous, suspended-and-checked) — principle-fused and meaning-far — possessing the form of a [true] creator [of literature]. Self-properly transmitted to immortality — what [need is] there for a preface? [I] just sketch the outline as follows. The Master’s huì [name] [was] Yīn, Mèngjí his zì; self-styled Jìngxiū. Lǐ Qiān of Dōngpíng prefaces.”

Abstract

Liú Yīn (1249–1293) is the singular Yuán yǐnjūn (recluse-gentleman) of imperial-grade reputation — the only Yuán Confucian of stature who systematically refused Mongol office. Summoned by Khubilai’s Crown Prince Zhēnjīn 真金 (Yùzōng) in Zhìyuán 19 (1282) as Chéngdé láng jiān Yòuzànshàn dàfū 承德郎兼右贊善大夫 (per the Yuánshǐ j. 171 biography); served briefly, resigned to care for his aged parents, returned home; later again summoned as Jíxián xuéshì 集賢學士 but declined on grounds of illness; died at 42 years of age. Liú’s principled refusal of Yuán office gives him an ambivalent position in the Yuán-Confucian canon — revered for his learning and integrity but politically marginal compared to Xǔ Héng and Wú Chéng.

The literary collection of approximately 25 juàn establishes Liú as also a major Yuán poet. Particularly notable: (1) the 20-poem echo-of-Táo Yǐnjiǔ cycle of juàn 3 — the major Yuán-period engagement with Táo Yuānmíng’s reclusion-poetry, fundamental for Yuán yǐnyì (reclusion) poetic literature; (2) the politically charged poetry including Yān Gēxíng, Sàiwēng xíng, the Wǔdāng yělǎo gē (Song of the Wǔdāng Old Man-of-the-Wilds), and various pieces invoking the figures of Yán Guāng 嚴光, the SìHào 四皓 (Four Whitebeards of Shāngshān), Lǐ Hé 李賀, and the Hòufù Chìbì tú — all part of Liú’s reclusion-loyalist literary self-fashioning. (3) Liú’s other major Confucian work, the Sìshū jíyì jīngyào 四書集義精要 KR1h0031, is separately catalogued.

CBDB 29001 (dates 1249–1293 firm from Yuánshǐ 171); the SBCK base derives from the standard transmitted Yuán recension. The catalog meta lists the edition as WYG, but the present source-base is the SBCK reproduction.

Translations and research

• Hok-lam Chan, “Liu Yin (1249–1293)”, in Igor de Rachewiltz et al. (eds.), In the Service of the Khan: Eminent Personalities of the Early Mongol-Yuan Period (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1993), pp. 543–561.
• Hoyt C. Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (Honolulu: U Hawaii P, 1992) — Liu Yin discussed in chapters on Yuán reception.
• Wing-Tsit Chan, “Chu Hsi and Yüan Neo-Confucianism”, in W. T. de Bary (ed.), Yüan Thought.
• Yuán-shǐ j. 171 (Liú Yīn biography) — the standard biography.

Other points of interest

The Lǐ Qiān preface to the SBCK base is one of the principal contemporary biographical statements on Liú Yīn — Lǐ was Liú’s fellow-attendant at the Crown-Prince’s court (the Chūnfāng), making this an eye-witness rather than secondary source. The detail “I once on an affair passed Bǎodìng — Liú was then in mourning for his mother in a hut, his sideburns-and-hair [already] mixed-with-white — I supposed it was on account of grief that he had so wasted-away — not thinking that this one parting would suddenly become a permanent farewell” — preserves a unique personal vignette.

Links

• SBCK base, V0554.
• Wikipedia, 劉因
• Yuánshǐ j. 171