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牧庵集

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Text ID
KR4d0465
Date
1260–1314
Dynasty
元

Mùān jí 牧庵集

The Mù-ān (Herding-Hut) Collection by 姚燧 (撰), 劉致 (撰附年譜)

About the work

The literary monument of Yáo Suì 姚燧 (CBDB 35141, 1238–1313) — zì Duānfǔ 端甫, hào Mùān 牧庵 (“Herding-Hut”), native of Yíngzhōu Liǔchéng 營州柳城 (modern Liáoníng). Mid-Yuán Hàn-Confucian senior official; the Sìkù editors identify him as the singular Yuán-period yīdài zōnggōng (one-generation patriarchal master) of gǔwén prose — the inheritance of the Hàn–Sòng prose tradition (Sīmǎ Qiān, Yáng Xióng, Bān Gù, Hán Yù, Liǔ Zōngyuán, Ōuyáng Xiū, Sū Shì) bearing on the founding Yuán imperial enterprise. The SBCK base derives from the Zhìshùn 至順 rénshēn (1332) cut prepared by Yáo’s disciple Liú Zhì 劉致 (Hànlín dàizhì) — sourced from the Jiāngzhè jùnxiàn shànxué yú qián (county-school surplus funds) and cut at the Hàngzhōu Rúxué tíjǔsī, supervised by the Píyáng (Póyáng) man Wú Shàn 吳善, with the textual collation done by Yè Jǐngxiū 葉景修 (a Qiántáng / Hángzhōu scholar). The 50-juàn (per Yuánshǐ) original is preserved by the SBCK base; some recensions number 36 juàn (the catalog meta), reflecting different early counts.

The Sìkù catalog’s fùlù (appendix) entry records that the niánpǔ (chronological biography) of Yáo Suì by Liú Zhì is appended to the collection (1 juàn) — the principal contemporary biographical witness.

Prefaces

The SBCK base preserves two foundational prefaces:

  1. Wú Shàn’s preface (Zhìshùn zhāoyáng zuòè = 1332): Wú, then Jiāngzhè děngchù rúxué tíjǔ, supervised the printing. The preface frames Yáo Suì as the singular Yuán-period equivalent of:

    • Hàn (400 years): Sīmǎ Qiān, Yáng Xióng, Bān Gù — 4 persons
    • Two Jìn-Wèi-Sui: no one of comparable stature
    • Táng (300 years): Hán Yù, Liǔ Zōngyuán — 2 persons
    • Sòng (300 years): Ōuyáng Xiū, Sū Shì — 2 persons
    • Yuán (the imperial dynasty): Yáo Suì alone

    Wú records the Zhìdà wùshēn (1308) period when Yáo was Hànlín chéngzhǐ and Wú first met him; the subsequent Yáo gàojié (resignation-southern-journey) which prevented further compilation; the Yáo-disciple Liú Zhì’s commission in Zhìshùn rénshēn (1332); the final collation results — 3 gǔfù, 222 poems, 38 xù, 53 jì, 140 bēimíngmùzhì, 58 zhìgào, 2 zhuàn, 15 zàn, 11 shuō, 10 zhùcè, 13 zázhù, 124 yuèfǔ — total 689 pieces in 50 juàn.

  2. Yuán-period original preface (by Yáo Suì’s ménrén, name partly illegible — likely Hú Zhīyù or another senior contemporary): characterizes Yáo as the chángjué jiāngshuài (great-decisive General) of Yuán prose — like Hán Yù and Lǐ Yōng of Táng, like Ōu and Sū of Sòng — a singular consolidating figure of the empire-founding generation. Records that Yáo composed many imperial-grade bēimíng for the senior Mongol-aristocratic families; that the Tài-dìng-era post-Yáo collection-gathering was initiated through Jiǎ Huàn Huáfǔ in Póyáng.

Abstract

The literary monument of the singular Yuán-period gǔwén master, characterized by the imperial-Yuán editors as the Yuán-dynastic equivalent of Hán Yù, Liǔ Zōngyuán, Ōuyáng Xiū, and Sū Shì in their respective dynasties. Yáo Suì (1238–1313) rose to Hànlín xuéshì chéngzhǐ 翰林學士承旨 — the senior Hànlín literary office — under Khubilai’s successors; his prose became the canonical model for Yuán-period state-papers, bēimíng (steles), and mùzhì (epitaphs) for the senior Mongol-aristocratic and Hàn-Confucian elite.

The 689-piece (per Wú Shàn’s 1332 collation) corpus comprises:

  • 3 gǔfù — major rhapsodies in the Hàn tradition
  • 222 shī — poetry across all forms
  • 38 xù — prefaces (collections of contemporary literary figures)
  • 53 jì — records (memorial-and-foundation pieces)
  • 140 bēimíng and mùzhì — the largest single category, including the foundational steles for senior Mongol-Khangli families and Hàn-Confucian elder statesmen (Téng Ānshàng’s mùjié míng KR4d0459 is among these)
  • 58 zhìgào — imperial commission decrees drafted by Yáo
  • 2 zhuàn — biographies
  • 15 zàn, 11 shuō, 10 zhùcè, 13 zázhù
  • 124 yuèfǔ (cí-form)

The collection’s pivotal historical importance is the bēimíng / mùzhì category: Yáo Suì was the senior Yuán composer of imperial-grade memorial inscriptions for the founding-and-second-generation elite. These 140 pieces are the largest single body of Yuán-period epigraphic biography preserved through manuscript transmission rather than stone survival.

The preservation chain: Yáo’s death 1313 → Tài-dìng-era partial gathering (in Póyáng) → Jiāngzhè provincial supervision in Zhìshùn rénshēn (1332) under Liú Zhì’s commission, Wú Shàn’s collation, Yè Jǐngxiū’s textual editing → SBCK reproduction. Composition window: 1260 (Yáo’s earliest official compositions) through 1313.

Translations and research

  • Yuán-shǐ j. 174 (Yáo Suì biography).
  • Hok-lam Chan and Theodore de Bary (eds.), Yüan Thought (Columbia UP, 1982) — multiple chapters discuss Yáo Suì.
  • Igor de Rachewiltz et al. (eds.), In the Service of the Khan — Yáo Suì discussed.
  • Hé Yòu-sēn 何佑森, studies of Yuán-era prose.

Other points of interest

The Wú Shàn 1332 preface’s tabulation of Yáo Suì’s relative status — the Yuán equivalent of Hán Yù, Sū Shì — is one of the foundational Yuán-period imperial self-characterizations of cultural-political continuity with HànTángSòng. The fact that this canonization happened only 19 years after Yáo’s death (and at a moment of Yuán imperial cultural consolidation under Wénzōng) makes it a particularly authoritative contemporary judgment.

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