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 Shào-Táo 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 Sòng-Yuán 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 Sòng-Yuán 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
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
- 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.