Qīngyáng jí 青陽集
The Qīng-yáng (Sunny-Hill) Collection by 余闕 (撰)
About the work
A 4-juǎn (catalog meta: 6 juǎn) collected works of Yú Què 余闕 (1303–1358), zì Tíngxīn / Tiānxīn. Sèmù; relocated from Wǔwēi to Héféi. Yuántǒng 1 (1333) jìnshì. Final office Huáinán xíngshěng zuǒchéng, defending Ānqìng against the rebels; took his own life when the city fell. The collection’s principal interest is fēitú wénzhāng (not merely literary): Yú’s four letters to Prime Minister Tuōtuō (Qiánlóng: Tuōkètuō 托克托) on the QíHuáng yùkòu (Qízhōu / Huángzhōu rebel-defense) strategy supply documentary evidence on the late-Yuán HuáiHé military situation. The poems “yǐ HànWèi wéi zōng, yōuróu chénhán, yú Yuánrén zhōng bié wéi yī gé” — “rooted in HànWèi, gentle and deeply soaked, a distinct manner among Yuán poets.”
Tiyao
Qīngyáng jí, 4 juǎn. By Yú Què of the Yuán. Què’s zì Tíngxīn, yīzì Tiānxīn. Sèmù. Family seat Wǔwēi. Father held office in Héféi, so the family settled there. Yuántǒng 1 (1333) jìnshì. Rose to Huáinán xíngshěng zuǒchéng, divisional commander defending Ānqìng. Chén Yǒuliàng took the city; Què cut his own throat and died. Posthumously xíngshěng píngzhāng; posthumous name Zhōngxuān; career fully in Yuánshǐ biography. Què entered office by wénxué; in all the Wǔjīng has zhuànzhù; zhuànlì (seal-and-clerical script) also fine, transmissible. And he resisted east-and-south, like Xǔ Yuǎn and Zhāng Xún — xiānhòu zhēngliè. His writings all concern current-day safety-and-danger. His four letters to the prime minister on the QíHuáng yùkòu strategy are especially deep-and-immediate. Had Què’s plan been adopted, whether Chén Yǒuliàng could have taken Jiāngdōngxī is uncertain. His second letter says: “In past, Tàihābùhā (Yuán Tàibùhuá; here corrected) and Mànjìhāyǎ (Yuán Mánzǐhǎiyá; here corrected) jointly attacked QíHuáng — the rebels almost destroyed — but then orders dispersed the various armies, leaving only Bùyántèmùěr (Yuán Bǔyántièmùěr; here corrected) garrisoned at Lánxī — the rebels then re-took the various prefectures along the river — truly rénmóu bùzāng (human strategy not good).” Checked against Bùyántèmùěr’s biography — clear that Prime Minister Tuōkètuō (Yuán Tuōtuō; here corrected) — though yǒu gōng to JiāngHuái — actually shí jiē luàn at the QíHuáng theater. His fourth letter says: “the Lánxī merit — Bùyántèmùěr of Píngzhāng was the chief — Mànjìhāyǎ of Zhōngchéng only made use of it” — Bùyántèmùěr’s biography also adopts this — so shìfēi zhī gōng, can be trusted to later generations. His verse takes HànWèi as model — yōuróu chénhán — a distinct manner among Yuán poets. Hú Yǎn’s 胡儼 Záshuō says: “Initially Wēi Tàipú 危太樸 (= Wēi Sù) was summoned by wénxué; the literati xiǎng wàng his fēngcǎi; someone asked Yú Wénjìnggōng (= Yú Jí): ‘what will Tàipú’s shìyè be?’ He said: ‘After Tàipú enters the capital, his words are mostly kuā (boastful); his shìyè I dare not judge. Must we find the man? — it would be Yú Què.’ Asked how he knew — said: ‘in Què’s prose, see it.’ Afterward Què in the end appeared as zhōngyì — and so we know the qiánbèi (former-generation) had a dìngjiàn (settled judgment).” So though prose was a side-effort for Què, xīnshēng (heart-voice) emanates — the shídù (perception and discernment) is intrinsically different — also enough to zhān qí shēngpíng (perceive his whole life). Respectfully collated.
Abstract
The Qīngyáng jí is the literary monument of one of the principal late-Yuán jiéyì (loyalty-martyrdom) figures. Yú Què’s defense of Ānqìng (1357–1358) against Chén Yǒuliàng is the central political event; his suicide rather than surrender placed him in the Yuán-loyalist canon — the Sìkù tíyào explicitly compares him to the Táng Sui-yáng martyrs Xǔ Yuǎn and Zhāng Xún. The collection’s distinctively yōuróu chénhán (gentle and deeply-soaked) poetic style stands apart from late-Yuán mainstream — Yú’s deliberate HànWèi orientation makes him another representative of the conservative archaic-revival current. The Qiánlóng-era name substitutions are again very dense (泰不華 → 泰哈布哈; 蠻子海牙 → 曼濟哈雅; 卜顏帖木兒 → 布延特穆爾; 脫脫 → 托克托). Hú Yǎn’s anecdote of Yú Jí’s prediction adds biographical color: Yú Jí, having met Wēi Sù and found him kuā (boastful), turned away and named Yú Què, then unknown, as the future man of substance — confirmed by the martyrdom decades later. Composition window: 1333 (jìnshì) to 1358 (death at Ānqìng).
Translations and research
- Yuán-shǐ j. 143 (Yú Què biography).
- Hok-lam Chan’s studies on Yuán-Míng dynastic transition.
- John W. Dardess, Conquerors and Confucians.
- Yáng Lián. 2003. Yuán-shī shǐ.
Other points of interest
The four letters to Tuōtuō are the principal late-Yuán Yú-Què-strategy documents and supply context Wéi the Yuánshǐ Tuōtuō zhuàn and the Bùyántièmùěr zhuàn; the tíyào directly notes the cross-reference.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1214.2, p361.
- Wikipedia, 余闕