Qīngcūn yígǎo 青村遺稿
Bequeathed Drafts of Qīngcūn by 金涓 (撰), compiled by 金魁 (輯)
About the work
A single-juǎn posthumous poetry collection by Jīn Juān 金涓 (style-name Déyuán), a late-Yuán recluse and Neo-Confucian scholar of Yìwū who taught at Qīngcūn 青村 (whence the title). Jīn studied under Xǔ Qiān 許謙 — the last of the four great Jīnhuá Neo-Confucians of the Yuán — and was a fellow student of Sòng Lián 宋濂 and Wáng Wěi 王禕. His original collection was forty juǎn but was already lost by the early Míng. The surviving one-juǎn text is a recompilation undertaken by his sixth-generation descendant Jīn Kuí 魁 and seventh-generation Jīn Jiāng 江. The collection’s notable absence: a 190-rhyme hé Wáng Wěi shī (responsive to Wáng Wěi) cited and admired by Sòng Lián is not preserved here, implying that even what survives is far less than the original.
Tiyao
Qīngcūn yígǎo, 1 juǎn. By Jīn Juān of the Yuán. Juān, style-name Déyuán, was a man of Yìwū. His original surname was Liú; the ancestors changed it to Jīn to avoid the taboo on Qián Wǔsù wáng Liú’s name. He studied under Xǔ Qiān, then took further instruction from Huáng Jìn. Sòng Lián and Wáng Wěi were both his fellow students. He repeatedly declined recommendation and held a teaching post at Qīngcūn. His writings comprised a literary collection of 40 juǎn, already lost in the early Míng. The present version is the work of his sixth-generation descendant Kuí and seventh-generation Jiāng and others, who gathered the scattered pieces and stitched them up. His poetic frame is clear and harmonious, supple and concise; it lacks the unrestrained energy of an unbound talent, but its register chimes self-balancedly with elegant standard. He once composed a hé Wáng Wěi shī of one hundred and ninety rhymes, much praised by Sòng Lián, but it is not in this collection — so what is preserved here is at most one in a thousand of what he wrote. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng forty-second (1777), tenth month. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Qīngcūn yígǎo is the tiny surviving fraction (the tíyào estimates “at most one in a thousand”) of the literary production of Jīn Juān, a major Wùzhōu Neo-Confucian recluse-teacher of the late Yuán. The collection’s documentary value is therefore principally as a witness to the Jīnhuá learning lineage — Xǔ Qiān → Jīn Juān (and Sòng Lián, Wáng Wěi as fellow-students) — which is the most prestigious Yuán Neo-Confucian lineage in Eastern Zhèjiāng. Jīn’s prose magnum opus and his most famous single piece (the 190-rhyme exchange with Wáng Wěi praised by Sòng Lián) are both lost. The composition window is presumed to run from c. 1340 to Jīn’s death (catalog gives fl. 1368). The Ming-era surname change story is a useful historical anchor: it puts the Liú → Jīn substitution in the WǔYuè kingdom era.
Translations and research
- The Jīnhuá Neo-Confucian lineage (Xǔ Qiān → Sòng Lián etc.) has substantial Chinese-language treatments. Wing-tsit Chan and Hoyt Tillman discuss Xǔ Qiān in English; Jīn Juān himself rarely treated independently.
Other points of interest
The surname etymology (Liú → Jīn under the WǔYuè taboo on Qián Liú) is a frequently-cited example of dynastic taboo-driven onomastic change.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1217.7, p473.