Fàn Déjī shījí 范德機詩集
The Fàn Dé-jī Poetry Collection by 范梈 (撰)
About the work
The 7-juǎn surviving poetic collection of Fàn Pèng 范梈 (1272–1330), zì Hēngfù 亨父, also Déjī 德機 (whence the title), one of the Yuánshī sìdàjiā 元詩四大家 (the “Four Great Masters of Yuán poetry”: Yú Jí 虞集, Yáng Zài 楊載, Fàn Pèng, Jiē Xīsī 揭傒斯). Native of Qīngjiāng (modern Jiāngxī). The Yuán-period transmission was in 12 juǎn organized into six geographic gǎo (Yānrángǎo, Dōngfānggǎo, Yùzhānggǎo, Hòuguāngǎo, Jiāngxiàgǎo, Bǎizhànggǎo) reflecting Fàn’s successive postings; the received 7-juǎn recension is a Míng-period redaction of unknown editorial origin, organized by genre (五言古體 — 五言絕句·律詩 — 七言古體 — 七言絕句 — 七言律詩). The SBCK base reproduces the Zhìyuán gēngchén (1340) Yìyǒu shūtáng 益友書堂 imprint edited by Gě Yōng 葛雝 (zì Zhòngmù 仲穆) of Línchuān with school-collation by Sūn Cúnwú 孫存吾 (zì Rúshān 如山); the WYG block is a re-collation of this Yuán line with the Sìkù tíyào prepended.
Tiyao
Fàn Déjī shījí, 7 juǎn. By Fàn Pèng of the Yuán. Pèng’s zì was Hēngfù, also Déjī, a native of Qīngjiāng. He entered office by recommendation as Zuǒwèi jiàoshòu, was transferred to Hànlín biānxiūguān, went out as zhàomó in the Lǐnghǎi liánfǎngsī, and rotated through Jiāngxī and Húdōng circuits; he was then selected to serve as Hànlín yìngfèng and reassigned as Mǐnhǎidào zhīshì, but resigned in illness and returned home. In Tiānlì 2 (1329) he was appointed Húnán Lǐngběidào liánfǎngshǐ jīnglì but did not take up the post because his mother was old; the next year she died and he too perished in mourning. His writings include Yānrángǎo, Dōngfānggǎo, Yùzhānggǎo, Hòuguāngǎo, Jiāngxiàgǎo, and Bǎizhànggǎo — in total 12 juǎn; the present recension in 7 juǎn — it is unknown who carried out the consolidation. Yè Zǐqí’s 葉子奇 Cǎomùzǐ records that Pèng and Wēi Sù 危素 were walking together at dusk, stopped to shelter from rain in a bamboo grove, and produced the couplet “流螢夜深至…” (etc.) — Pèng was delighted, then said the lines were “too remote — suspected of being ghost-writing” — this is the Cāngshān gǎnqiū in the present collection. (Note: most recensions miswrite 閒 xián as 間 jiān; the original character is here restored.) The verse is qīngwēi miàoyuǎn “limpid, subtle, transcendent,” and so prized by poets; yet Pèng’s verse is also háodàng qīngqiú “expansive and clear-keen” — he mastered many manners and was not confined to one style. The Mǐnshū further records that while Mǐnhǎidào zhīshì he opposed the Wénxiùjú’s requisition of girls of good families as embroidery workers, composing the Mǐnzhōu gē to denounce the practice; the liánfǎngshǐ then memorialized to abolish it. The song is preserved in the collection — the event is praiseworthy but the poem is rather close to common speech, on a par with Shěn Zuòjié’s 沈作詰 Āi shàngōng gē, and should not be taken as representative of Pèng’s general manner. Jiē Xīsī’s 揭傒斯 preface to the collection runs: “Yú Bóshēng [Jí, 虞集] called Déjī ‘like a Táng copyist of Jìn manuscripts — finally not striking the original.’ I would revise the assessment thus: Fàn Déjī’s verse is like autumn-sky drifting clouds, clear-thunder rolling rain, its movements unpredictable; also like a recluse on an empty mountain abstaining from grain to study immortality, his thin bones jutting, his spirit-energy serene; also like a heroic eagle scanning the wilds, a lone crane crying out to its flock — looking in all directions seeing no one, the blue dome stretching ten-thousand lǐ.” Jiē’s argument, while deliberately overturning Yú Jí’s judgment, cannot avoid over-doing the simile; but Pèng’s verse-style is genuinely high, his rhetorical loom largely self-directed and never slavishly copying the ancients — the TánglínJìntiē line should not be taken as the final verdict. Respectfully collated, ninth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). General compilers: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅; general editor Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The principal monument of Fàn Pèng’s poetic output. Fàn was the third member, after Yú Jí and Yáng Zài, of the conventional YúYángFànJiē 虞楊范揭 quartet that early-Míng critics named as the canonical voices of Yuán shī. Yú Jí’s much-cited assessment that Fàn’s verse was “like Táng copying Jìn — finally not striking the original” (TánglínJìntiē) was challenged in Jiē Xīsī’s preface, preserved here, which substitutes a triad of more flattering similes; the Sìkù tíyào takes a middle line, treating Jiē’s defense as warranted in spirit but rhetorically overheated. The collection ranges from imitations of HànWèi gǔtǐ through qīyán lǜshī in the late-Táng manner, with several documentary pieces (the Mǐnzhōu gē on the seizure of embroidery girls; Sòng Zhāng liànshī; the Cāngshān gǎnqiū) that became standard anthology selections. The 12-juǎn Yuán original is lost. The earliest surviving recension is the Zhìyuán gēngchén 至元庚辰 (1340) Yìyǒu shūtáng 益友書堂 imprint compiled by Gě Yōng of Línchuān, which became the ancestor of all later recensions (SBCK base, Sìkù WYG, and the various Míng/Qīng re-cuts). Composition window: from Fàn’s earliest preserved compositions (post-c. 1290) to his death in 1330.
Translations and research
- Yuán-shǐ j. 181 (Fàn Pèng biography).
- Yoshikawa Kōjirō 吉川幸次郎. 1965. Gen Min shi gaisetsu 元明詩概說. Iwanami. Foundational Japanese survey of Yuán shī with extensive treatment of the sì-dà-jiā.
- Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema have repeatedly treated the Yuán sì-dà-jiā in their work on Yuán literary culture; Fàn Pèng’s Mǐn-zhōu gē is anthologized in standard Yuán-poetry teaching collections.
- Yáng Lián 楊鐮, 2003, Yuán-shī shǐ 元詩史 (Rénmín wénxué chūbǎnshè) — most thorough modern Chinese history of Yuán poetry; chapter on the sì-dà-jiā.
Other points of interest
The number of juǎn in the catalog meta (8 卷) does not match either the SBCK gāngmù table (7 卷) or the WYG recension (7 卷); the Sìkù tíyào explicitly addresses the divergence between the 12-juǎn Yuán transmission and the 7-juǎn received text. The Zhìyuán gēngchén (1340) Yìyǒu shūtáng colophon at the end of the SBCK gāngmù fixes the editorial date a decade after Fàn’s death.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1208.2, p67.
- Wikipedia, 范梈
- Yuánshǐ j. 181