Yùjǐng qiáochàng 玉井樵唱
The Yù-jǐng (Jade-Well) Woodcutter’s Songs by 尹廷高 (撰)
About the work
The three-juàn poetic remnant of Yǐn Tínggāo 尹廷高, zì Zhòngmíng 仲明, biéhào Liùfēng 六峯 (“Six-Peaks”), native of Suìchāng 遂昌 (modern Zhèjiāng, west of Lìshuǐ 麗水). The opening juàn preserves Yǐn’s zìjì (self-record) noting that his father Yǐn Dòng 尹棟 (hào Zhúpō 竹坡) was a Sòng presented-graduate of the Guǐchǒu year (1253) and served as a Shàoxīngfǔ mùguān — including in the Sòng-era Cǐjūntíng shīhuà; Yǐn Dòng composed 1,000+ poems, all lost in the Bǐngzǐ (1276) destruction; Yǐn Tínggāo could remember only one couplet: “Bái píng yǐng zhàn wúhén shuǐ; huáng jú xiāng cuī wèiliǎo shī” — “White duckweed’s shadow dips in traceless water; / Yellow chrysanthemum’s fragrance presses unfinished poetry.”
The collection’s structure follows Yǐn’s career as a Yuán-period Confucian educator. The Suìchāng xiànzhì records him as Chǔzhōulù rúxué jiàoshòu in the Dàdé era; Gù Sìlì’s Yuán shī xuǎn xiǎozhuàn records him as having served at Yǒngjiā 永嘉 (modern Wénzhōu), then retiring to the capital and falling-ill-resignation. The Sìkù editors note that internal poem-evidence — including the Yǒngjiā shū suǒ jiàn and the Yǒngjiā zhìmǎn dàizhě wèizhì poems, plus the Gàobìng zhìshì xiè Lǐ shàngshū shī — confirms the Yǒngjiā tenure; the Yǒngjiā guānshī zhì does not record his name, leading the editors to conclude that the Suìchāng and Yǒngjiā gazetteers are both at-fault in different respects. Yǐn was a friend of Yú Jí 虞集 KR4d0493 in late life — Yú composed inscriptions for Yǐn’s ShàoTáo èrān (Shào / Táo Two-Huts) — suggesting that Yǐn’s reclusion-poetic positioning matched Yú’s late-period orientation.
Tiyao
The Yùjǐng qiáochàng, 3 juàn, by Yǐn Tínggāo of the Yuán. Tínggāo, zì Zhòngmíng, biéhào Liùfēng, [was] a Suìchāng man. The juàn-head has Tínggāo’s self-record, [recording] his father Zhúpō’s poem — one couplet — likely [in] the [tradition of] Dài Fùgǔ’s Shípíng jí taking his father’s surviving poems [to] crown the head. Zhúpō [is] named Dòng — in Sòng Bǎoyòu jiān (1253–1258) once held office [as] Shàoxīngfǔ mùguān — seen in [the] Cǐjūntíng shīhuà; while [Yǐn] Tínggāo’s xínglǚ (career-conduct) [is] not generally seen.
Only the Suìchāng xiànzhì states [he held] office [in the] Dàdé era as Chǔzhōulù rúxué jiàoshòu; while Gù Sìlì’s Yuán shī xuǎn xiǎozhuàn further says he once supervised-teaching [at] Yǒngjiā — [his] term being-full, [he] reached the capital — [he] declined-on-illness and returned — [these are] with [the Suìchāng gazetteer] not in accord. The Yǒngjiā guānshī zhì also lacks his name. Now examining the collection there is the Yǒngjiā shū suǒ jiàn one [poem] which says: “This region fortunately had a small harvest / Stealing-stipend seems to have yuán (predestined-connection)” — also has Yǒngjiā zhìmǎn dàizhě wèizhì poem — also has Gàobìng zhìshì xiè Lǐ shàngshū shī — so [Yǐn] Tínggāo’s officing-at-Ōu (Yǒngjiā) and illness-decline truly [are] not without basis — suspect the prefecture-and-county gazetteers [are] at-fault in kǎo (examination).
His poetry [in] qìgé (atmosphere-and-frame) [is] not exceedingly chāobá (transcendent-and-lifted); yet [in] shénsī (spirit-and-thought) [it is] qīngjùn (clear-and-eminent) — still able to not become-tinted-by vulgar-airs. In late years [he] [was] friends with 虞集; [Yú] composed inscriptions for his Shào / Táo èrān — also can see [the] correspondence-of-class [between them].
Respectfully collated, seventh month of Qiánlóng 42 (1777). 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 Yǐn Tínggāo, a SòngYuán transition figure whose Confucian educational career — fragments recovered by the Sìkù editors from contradictory regional gazetteers — placed him at Yǒngjiā 永嘉 (Wénzhōu) and Chǔzhōu (Lìshuǐ) as a Yuán rúxué jiàoshòu during the Dàdé era. The collection’s opening preserves a fragmentary memorial to his Sòng-era father Yǐn Dòng (zì Zhúpō) — a Bǎoyòu-era jìnshì (1253) and Shàoxīngfǔ mùguān — whose original poetic corpus of 1000+ pieces was destroyed in the 1276 SòngYuán transition (Bǐngzǐ jiā huǐ yú kòu). The single surviving couplet of his father preserved by Yǐn is one of the few surviving traces of late-Sòng Suì-chāng-area literary culture.
The Sìkù editors evaluate Yǐn’s poetry as not chāobá (transcendent-lifted) in form but qīngjùn (clear-and-eminent) in spirit — preserving non-vulgar feeling. His late-life friendship with Yú Jí 虞集 (Yú composed inscriptions for Yǐn’s Shào / Táo èrān) suggests an alignment with the mid-Yuán yǐnyì (reclusion) poetic tradition. Composition window: from Yǐn’s adult literary activity (after c. 1285) through approximately the early 1330s.
Translations and research
- Yuán-shǐ lacks a biography of Yǐn Tíng-gāo. Principal biographical data is the Sìkù tíyào reconstruction.
- Gù Sì-lì 顧嗣立, Yuán shī xuǎn xiǎo-zhuàn — brief biographical note.
Other points of interest
The dual-citation method by which the Sìkù editors reconstructed Yǐn’s career — using poem-titles and dated-annotations to resolve contradictions between the Suìchāng xiànzhì (Chǔzhōu posting) and the Yuán shī xuǎn xiǎozhuàn (Yǒngjiā posting) — is a model of Sìkù philological method applied to obscure figures. The opening father-tribute (Dài Fùgǔ’s Shípíng jí-style father-included opening) is one of the few preserved Sòng-Yuán-transition memorial-paratexts.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1202.6, p693.