惟實集

Wéishí jí 惟實集

The Wéi-shí (Only-Substance) Collection by 劉鶚 (撰)

About the work

The seven-juàn (plus fùlù 1 juàn) collection of Liú È 劉鶚 (CBDB 35419, 1290–1364), zì Chǔqí 楚齊, native of Yǒngfēng 永豐 (modern Jiāngxī). Huáng-qìng-era recommended as Yángzhōu xuélù; rose through office to Jiāngzhōu zǒngguǎn and finally Jiāngxī xíngshěng cānzhèng 江西行省參政. While defending Sháozhōu 韶州 (modern Sháoguān, Guǎngdōng) against the Gàn (= Hóngjīn 紅巾 Red-Turban) rebels in the late-Yuán YuánMíng transition, Liú failed to break the siege and was captured; he refused to submit and died maintaining his integrity (kàngjié sǐ) — a major Yuán zhōngyì (loyalty-and-righteousness) martyr.

The Míng-period Yuánshǐ compilation overlooked Liú entirely — no biography was established. The Qīng-era Shào Yuǎnpíng 邵遠平 in his Yuánshǐ lèibiān supplemented Liú into the Zhōngyì zhuàn — but Shào’s coverage extended only to Liú’s martyrdom event, not his earlier career.

The collection was edited by Liú’s son Liú Suìshù 劉遂述**. Originally titled Jiùxī wénxiàn 鷲溪文獻; renamed Wéishí jí on the basis of family-teaching that “poetic-way values substance” (shīdào guì shí). Liú served in the Hànlín Academy as xiūzhuàn alongside Yú Jí 虞集, Ōuyáng Xuán 歐陽玄, Jiē Xīsī 揭傒斯 KR4d0497 — and these figures all wrote tíyǒng on Liú’s residence Fúyún shūyuàn 浮雲書院**. Ōuyáng Xuán’s preface to the prose-collection praises Liú as “good in all six forms” of poetry; Jiē Xīsī’s preface places Liú’s poetic gāochù (high place) “between Táo Yuānmíng and Ruǎn Jí” — though the Sìkù editors note that friends’-eulogy must always be slightly excessive.

Tiyao

The Wéishí jí, 7 juàn, fùlù 1 juàn, by Liú È of the Yuán. È, zì Chǔqí, [was a] Yǒngfēng man. [In] Huángqìng jiān (1312–1313), by recommendation [was] awarded Yángzhōu xuélù. Successively-officed [he] reached Jiāngzhōu zǒngguǎn, Jiāngxī xíngshěng cānzhèng. Guarding Sháozhōu, by the Gàn rebels’ city-encirclement, [he] forcefully resisted but [was] not able-to-prevail; [he was] captured. [He] resisted-the-integrity [and] died. His event [was] extremely liè (heroic-martyr).

At the Míng founding, [the] compiling-of-Yuán-shǐ missed in selection-and-recording — [it] did not establish a biography [for him] — together [his] name was lost. Recently Shào Yuǎnpíng composing the Yuánshǐ lèibiān, [he] for-the-first-time supplementarily-entered [Liú] into the Zhōngyì zhuàn. Yet [Shào’s note] also only reaches his dying-for-integrity event; his shēngpíng xínglǚ (lifelong career-conduct) already cannot be examined.

The collection [is] what his son [Liú] Suìshù compiled; originally named Jiùxī wénxiàn; its calling [it] Wéishí jí [is] likely originally [from] his family-instruction by-which [the saying] “poetic-way values substance” (shīdào guì shí) is the language. [Liú] È [held] office [as] Hànlín xiūzhuàn; with 虞集, 歐陽玄, 揭傒斯 and others travelled-together; what [he] dwelt — [the] Fúyún shūyuàn — the various people all had tíyǒng (inscribed-recitations).

[Ōuyáng] Yuán composed the preface to his prose-collection, calling his poetry [as] “good [in] all six forms”; [Jiē] Xīsī’s preface also says his gāochù (high place) [is] between Táo and Ruǎn. Although friends’ raising-and-praise expression by-formula [is] necessarily slightly-overflowing his measure, yet now examining his collection [the verse is] mostly luòluò bù qún (striding-alone, not-with-the-flock), no mǐyán wòchuò zhī qì (rice-and-salt — petty — wòchuò mean-and-fine qì) — can by-which see his lifelong.

[Liú]‘s two-persons’ [Ōuyáng Xuán’s and Jiē Xīsī’s] approving also not entirely emerging from biāobǎng (factional-marking). Moreover, [Liú] È personally defended fēngjiāng (frontier); kāngkǎi xùnguó (passionately died for the state); a-thousand-autumns ten-thousand-ages, [his] essence pierces the sānguāng (sun, moon, stars). Even-if his prose [were] slightly not-entered into format, also should by his person [be] honored. How-much-more [does the case of the] tǐcái gāoxiù (structure-and-form high-and-graceful), fēnggǔ qīngqiú (style-bone clear-and-firm) [verse] truly have what is zhuórán kě chuán (uprightly transmissible)?

[The] wàijí 2 juàn all contain previous-persons’ prefaces-records-elegies — is what his descendant [Liú] Yútíng and others re-edited. Now still appended to [the] collection’s end, by-which to supplement the historical-biography’s quēlòu (gap-omission).

Respectfully collated, twelfth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). 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 literary monument of Liú È (CBDB 35419, 1290–1364), the late-Yuán Hànlín official and major zhōngyì (loyalty-and-righteousness) martyr who died defending Sháozhōu against the Red-Turban rebels. Yuánshǐ failed to include him; the Qīng-era Yuánshǐ lèibiān by Shào Yuǎnpíng supplied a brief martyr’s biography but lacked his career details. The Wéishí jí preserves substantially more — both the literary-Hàn-lín record (under Yú Jí, Ōuyáng Xuán, Jiē Xīsī) and his late-Yuán provincial leadership at Jiāngxī xíngshěng cānzhèng.

The Sìkù editors’ principal claim is that the collection deserves preservation both for its martyr-significance (which alone would justify retention) and for its substantial literary merit — fēnggǔ qīngqiú (style-bone clear-and-firm), the contemporaneous endorsements of Ōuyáng Xuán and Jiē Xīsī confirming substantive (not merely factional) poetic quality. The wàijí (2 juàn) of biographical paratexts compiled by Liú’s descendant Liú Yútíng 劉于廷 was retained as supplement to the historical-biographical lacunae.

The Sìkù editors specifically frame the collection’s preservation as part of the imperial-Confucian bǔ shǐ quē (supplementing historical lacunae) project — using literary collections to recover biographical material lost from the Yuánshǐ.

Composition window: from Liú’s adult literary activity (after c. 1310) through his death in 1364.

Translations and research

• Shào Yuǎn-píng 邵遠平, Yuán-shǐ lèi-biān — Liú È in the Zhōng-yì zhuàn.
• John W. Dardess, Confucianism and Autocracy: Professional Elites in the Founding of the Ming Dynasty — broader context on late-Yuán Confucian-loyalist martyrs.

Other points of interest

The Liú È case is one of the model Sìkù editorial-policy demonstrations: a Yuán-period figure whose Yuánshǐ biographical record was lost but whose literary collection both supplements the historical record (the wàijí paratexts) and preserves substantial first-rank Hàn-lín-era literary work. The Sìkù editors’ framing — preservation justified either by martyr-significance or by literary merit, and here by both — articulates the dual-rationale Sìkù principle for biéjí preservation.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1206.4, p295.
• CBDB person 35419 (Liú È)