Dàizhì jí 待制集
The Dài-zhì (Hàn-lín Reader) Collection by 柳貫 (撰), edited by 宋濂 (編)
About the work
The 20-juǎn collected works (plus 1 juǎn appendix) of Liǔ Guàn 柳貫 (1270–1342), zì Dàochuán 道傳. The title takes Liǔ’s final office, Hànlín dàizhì, which he held for only seven months before his death (whence the shìchēng “Liǔ Dàizhì”). Liǔ was one of the Jīnhuá sìxiānshēng, alongside Huáng Jìn 黃溍 and Wú Lái 吳萊. The collection was assembled posthumously: Yú Què 余闕 obtained the draft material from Liǔ’s son Yǒu 卣 in Zhìzhèng 10 (1350) and entrusted the editing to Liǔ’s pupils Sòng Lián 宋濂 and Dài Liáng 戴良. Of an original ~1400 pieces in two collections, only 567 shī and 294 wén were retained for the present recension — fùlù 1 juǎn of miscellaneous gàochì, jìwén, xiàngzàn, xíngzhuàng, mùbiǎo. Yú Què, Wēi Sù 危素, Sū Tiānjué 蘇天爵 each provided prefaces; Sòng Lián a post-record. Liǔ’s teacher network (recorded in Sòng Lián’s xíngzhuàng) is one of the most carefully documented in late-Yuán literary history.
Tiyao
Dàizhì jí, 20 juǎn, plus 1 juǎn appendix. By Liǔ Guàn of the Yuán. Guàn’s zì was Dàochuán, a man of Pǔjiāng. In Dàdé 4 (1300) he was recommended as Jiāngshān xiàn jiàoyú. In Yányòu 4 (1317) he was made Húguǎng rúxué fùtíjǔ. In Yányòu 6 (1319) he became Guózǐ zhùjiào. In Zhìzhì 1 (1321) he transferred to bóshì. In Tàidìng 1 (1324) he transferred to Tàicháng bóshì. In Tàidìng 3 (1326) he went out as Jiāngxī rúxué tíjǔ. In Zhìzhèng 1 (1341) he was promoted to Hànlín dàizhì, concurrently Guóshǐyuàn biānxiūguān. He served only seven months and died — hence the shìchēng Liǔ Dàizhì. His biography is appended to that of Huáng Jìn in the Yuánshǐ. Although Guàn received the classics from Jīn Lǚxiáng, the guǐdù of his wénzhāng came from Fāng Fèng, Xiè Áo, Wú Sīqí, Fāng Huí, Gōng Kāi, Qiú Yuǎn, Dài Biǎoyuán, and Hú Chángrú; his historical learning and old institutional knowledge came from Móu Yīnglóng — fully recorded in the xíngzhuàng Sòng Lián wrote. The learning has its origins; therefore his prose is rooted in classical learning, deep and clear, expansive and unrestrained, running shoulder to shoulder with Huáng Jìn of Jīnhuá. In his early years he did not preserve his drafts; only after 40, when he traveled north to Yān, did he begin to collect them — first as the Yóugǎo 游稿; then came Xīyōnggǎo 西雝稿, Róngtáigǎo 容臺稿, Zhōnglínggǎo 鍾陵稿, Jìngjiǎnzhāi gǎo 靜儉齋稿, Xīyóugǎo 西游稿, Shǔshāngǎo 蜀山稿. In Zhìzhèng 10 (1350) Yú Què obtained the gǎo from Guàn’s son Yǒu, and because Sòng Lián and Dài Liáng were both Guàn’s pupils, entrusted them to edit it. Altogether 567 shī and 294 wén were obtained, ordered as 20 juǎn. Yú Què and Wēi Sù and Sū Tiānjué each prefaced it; Sòng Lián wrote the hòujì. Tiānjué’s preface further mentions a biéjí in 20 juǎn, but this biéjí is now no longer seen. From Sòng Lián’s hòujì, in addition to the 20 juǎn there remained 907 shī and 248 wén, transcribed as 20 juǎn and given to Liǔ’s son Yǒu for safekeeping — clearly these were the materials cut from the present recension, never published. By count, only four-tenths of the shī and six-tenths of the wén remain — so the selection must have been very precise. The 1-juǎn appendix mixes gàochì, jìwén, xiàngzàn, xíngzhuàng, mùbiǎo, etc., compiler unknown; the juǎn-head also reads “Liǔ Guàn zhù” — its absurdity is plain. The mùbiǎo in fact appears in Huáng Jìn’s collection but is here mis-attributed to Dài Liáng — particularly garbled. But it does record Liǔ’s life-events more fully than the Yuánshǐ biography, so we leave the old form as it stands.
Abstract
Dàizhì jí is the principal monument of one of the Jīnhuá sìxiānshēng and a key node in the literary transmission line that brought the Pǔ-jiāng-Sòng-loyalist tradition through Liǔ Guàn → Sòng Lián → Hóngwǔ administration. The carefully documented two-stage editorial provenance (Yú Què obtains draft → Sòng Lián and Dài Liáng select) is unusually rich for a Yuán biéjí. The triple-preface structure (Yú Què, Wēi Sù, Sū Tiānjué — three of the most consequential late-Yuán prose-and-history figures) and Sòng Lián’s hòujì together constitute a major sub-corpus of late-Yuán literary criticism. The teacher-list preserved in Sòng Lián’s xíngzhuàng (Fāng Fèng, Xiè Áo, Wú Sīqí, Fāng Huí, Gōng Kāi, Qiú Yuǎn, Dài Biǎoyuán, Hú Chángrú, Móu Yīnglóng) is the single most detailed inventory we have of a Yuán literatus’ formative reading-circle. Composition window: from Liǔ’s earliest preserved writings (after his 1300 recommendation, with the bulk surviving from after his c. 1310 move north) to his 1342 death in office.
Translations and research
- Yuán-shǐ j. 181 (Liǔ Guàn — appended to Huáng Jìn).
- Sòng Lián, Liǔ Dài-zhì xíng-zhuàng — preserved in the appendix.
- Yáng Lián. 2003. Yuán-shī shǐ.
Other points of interest
The fact that Yú Què — who would die in 1358 defending Ānqìng against Chén Yǒuliàng — was the patron who set the editorial project in motion adds an unusual late-Yuán political-cum-literary cast to the collection’s prefaces. Yú Què’s own collection KR4d0524 is also in the same WYG block.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1210.2, p177.
- Wikipedia, 柳貫