Gěnzhāi shījí 艮齋詩集
The Gěn-zhāi (Stopping-Studio) Poetry Collection by 侯克中 (撰)
About the work
The 14-juàn poetic collection of Hóu Kèzhōng 侯克中 (CBDB 35408; lifedates uncertain — Hóu lived to over 90 suì), zì Zhèngqīng 正卿**, native of Zhēndìng 真定 (modern Héběi). Blind from childhood but possessed of extraordinary memory: hearing other children recite books, by day’s end he had memorized all the lessons. In adulthood he practiced literary composition, considering himself an autodidact; later abandoning this for the Yì (Classic of Changes), he composed the Dà Yì tōngyì 大易通義 in his ninetieth year — now lost. Yuán Juè’s 袁桷 preface (preserved in his Qīngróng jūshì jí KR4d0473) survives and provides the principal biographical witness.
The collection’s structure (the SKQS base derived from the Yuán-era cut preserving Máo Jìn’s seal — i.e. the Máo Jìn / Jígǔgé reprint):
- substantial lǜshī (regulated verse) — the bulk of the collection
- particularly numerous 7-character lǜshī
- juàn 1–2: all on the Classics and History (yǒng jīng / yǒng shǐ)
- juàn 8: the Xiéyīn gé 諧音格 (Phonetic-Harmony Style) — Hóu’s invention: 31 poems in 7-character form and 21 in 5-character form, each poem rhyming throughout the entire piece on yīntōng (phonetic-equivalent) but zìyì (character-different) words. Example: rhyming on yī dōng (1st East rhyme), Hóu uses tóng 同, dòng 峒, tóng 桐, tóng 銅, tóng 童 — all phonetically tóng but written with different characters. The Sìkù editors note this is Hóu’s zìchuàng (self-created) style — gǔ suǒ wèi yǒu (something the ancients did not have).
Tiyao
The Gěnzhāi shījí, 14 juàn, by Hóu Kèzhōng of the Yuán. Kèzhōng, zì Zhèngqīng, [was a] Zhēndìng man. Young [he] lost his sight. Hearing the various children reciting books — by day’s end [he] could remember all what they had been taught. Slightly grown [he] practiced cízhāng — he himself said [he] could attain it without study. Subsequently [he] regretted [this], thinking [that] kān huá shí shí, mò shǒu yú lǐ (to-cut floral-ornament [and] eat the fruit, none [is] first-among-principle), [the] origin from the Yì by-which to seek, then [one] obtains [it]. Thereupon [he] applied-mind to reading the Yì — composed a book named Dà Yì tōngyì. [He] reached his nineties and died. Now the Tōngyì [is] already not transmitted; while what Yuán Juè composed [as] preface still appears in the Qīngróng jūshì jí-mid; can [from it] one briefly see Kèzhōng’s beginning-and-end.
This [base is] his composed poetry-collection — still [in the] Yuán-period old cut. The juàn-head has [a] Máo Jìn private-seal — likely [the] Jígǔgé what [it] stored. The middle has lǜtǐ the most; and 7-character regulated [verse] [is] especially abundant. Juàn 1 [and] juàn 2 [are] all yǒng jīng and yǒng shǐ compositions. Juàn 8 [is the] Xiéyīn gé — each piece entirely uses sounds-passing-through characters-different [words] to mutually-harmonize-them. Like yī dōng matching tóng (同), dòng (峒), tóng (桐), tóng (銅), tóng (童); èr dōng matching yōng (鏞), yōng (庸), róng (容), yōng (墉), róng (蓉) — and the like. Altogether 31 7-character pieces, 21 5-character pieces. Also Kèzhōng’s self-created style, [something the] ancients did not have.
His poetry rather approaches the Jīrǎng (Shào Yōng) [tradition] — much enters principle-ways — but [his] shūqíng fùjǐng (poured-out feeling and stated landscape) compositions also at-times have [pieces] sufficient to support recitation-and-chanting.
Formerly, Táng Rǔxún young and lost-sight, in adulthood was able [to compose] poetry — Gūmiè yī jí (One Collection from Gūmiè) — Míng-people astonished as [something the] ancients [did] not have. Yet [they] did not know [that Hóu] Kèzhōng was already in front [of him] — [this is] also sufficient to be evidence [for the] this-collection [being] rare-in-transmission. Also [Táng Rǔxún] was able [to compose] Tángshī jiě — and [Hóu] Kèzhōng then was even-able to gǔ jīng (gloss-the-classics) — what [he] learned again is above [Táng] Rǔxún.
Respectfully collated, ninth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). 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 remarkable poetic collection of Hóu Kèzhōng, a Yuán-period blind autodidact poet-scholar (CBDB 35408; lifedates uncertain; lived to over 90 years) from Zhēndìng (modern Héběi). Hóu’s biography is registered in Yuán Juè’s 袁桷 preface (preserved in the Qīngróng jūshì jí KR4d0473): blind from childhood, Hóu possessed extraordinary auditory-and-memory faculty; by day’s end he memorized everything he heard children recite; in adulthood he composed verse autodidactically; later abandoning verse-as-craft, he composed the Dà Yì tōngyì 大易通義 commentary on the Classic of Changes in his ninetieth year (now lost).
The collection’s principal innovation is the Xiéyīn gé 諧音格 (Phonetic-Harmony Style) of juàn 8 — Hóu’s zìchuàng (self-created) verse-form using only homophonic-but-graphemically-different rhyme-words. The Sìkù editors register this as gǔ suǒ wèi yǒu (something the ancients did not have). Many yǒng jīng and yǒng shǐ (Classics-and-Histories-meditative) compositions in juàn 1–2.
The Sìkù editors specifically compare Hóu favorably to the late-Míng blind poet Táng Rǔxún 唐汝詢 (Gūmièyījí author and Tángshī jiě commentator): Hóu is the Yuán-period precedent — already ancient — and his commentarial scope on the Classics surpassed Táng’s narrower Táng-poetry focus.
Composition window: from Hóu’s adult literary activity (after c. 1265) through his death.
Translations and research
- Yuán-shǐ lacks a biography of Hóu Kè-zhōng. Principal source: Yuán Juè’s preface in Qīng-róng jū-shì jí.
- Studies of disability and literary tradition occasionally reference Hóu.
Other points of interest
The pairing of disability (blindness) with classical-philological mastery in Hóu Kèzhōng’s career — completing a substantial Yì-commentary at age 90 — is one of the most remarkable cases of Yuán-Confucian intellectual achievement. The Xiéyīn gé experiment is also one of the most striking Yuán-period poetic-formal innovations, anticipating modern interest in constraint-based composition.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1205.4, p451.