Shíchū jí 石初集
Stone-Beginning Collection by 周霆震 (撰)
About the work
A ten-juǎn prose-and-verse collection by Zhōu Tíngzhèn 周霆震 (1292–1379) of Ānchéng (Jí’ān, Jiāngxī). The structure follows standard biéjí form: juǎn 1 five-character old-style verse; juǎn 2–3 seven-character old-style verse; juǎn 4 five-character regulated; juǎn 5 absolutes; juǎn 6 xù; juǎn 7 jì; juǎn 8 zhì / míng; juǎn 9 zhuàn / shuō / tíbá (part 1); juǎn 10 tíbá (part 2) / zàn / jìwén. The collection was edited by Yàn Bì 晏璧 of Lúlíng, who appended the author’s xíngzhuàng and zhìmíng as a back-matter. The tíyào explicitly compares the work to Wāng Yuánliàng’s 汪元量 Shuǐyún jí — i.e. it positions Shíchū jí as the “shīshǐ of the late Yuán”, a poetic history. Zhōu lived through both the Yuán heyday and its collapse and chronicled the late-Yuán warfare directly: his named pieces include Èryuè shíliù rì qīngbīng bī chéng “The Green Army Pressing the City, Second-Month 16th”, Gǔ jīnchéng yáo “Old Gold-Wall Ballad”, Lǐ Xúnyáng sǐjié gē “Song of Lǐ of Xúnyáng dying for principle”, Bīngqián gǔ nóng yáo “Ballad of Drumming the Peasants Before the Troops”, Dùjuān xíng “Cuckoo Ballad”, Guō Yùchéngzhài chéngguān “Passing through Yùchéng Stockade and Pass”, Xī jùn chénggāo rén shí rén “In the Western Commandery the Cities are High and the People Eat People”, Yánpíng lóngjiàn gē “Yánpíng Sword-of-the-Dragon Song”, Kòu zhì záyǒng “Miscellaneous Verses on the Bandits’ Arrival”, Kòu zì běi lái “The Bandits Came from the North”, Jūn zhōng kǔlè yáo “Ballad of Suffering and Pleasure in the Army”, Sùzhōu gē “Sùzhōu Song” — all on the experience of warfare and refugee life.
Tiyao
Shíchū jí, 10 juǎn. By Zhōu Tíngzhèn of the Yuán. Tíngzhèn, style-name Hēngyuǎn, was a man of Ānchéng. Because his ancestors lived at Shímén tiánxī he styled himself Shítián zǐ; he abbreviated this in his writings as Shíchū (“Stone-Beginning”). In youth he applied himself to learning, making the acquaintance of various Sòng yílǎo and absorbing their xùlùn. In the Yányòu era when the new examination system was instituted he sat twice and was not selected; he then closed his gate and concentrated on poetry and ancient prose. This collection was edited by Yàn Bì of Lúlíng, who also appended xíngzhuàng and zhìmíng at the back. Tíngzhèn was born in QiánZhìyuán 29 rénchén (1292) and died in Hóngwǔ èrshí nián jǐwèi [sic, slip — jǐwèi = Hóngwǔ 12 = 1379] at age eighty-eight. He saw with his own eyes both the heyday of the Yuán and its fall; thus his poetry mourns the times and is grieved by the disorder, with the most deeply felt anger. As in Èryuè shíliù rì qīngbīng bī chéng, Gǔ jīnchéng yáo, Lǐ Xúnyáng sǐjié gē, Bīngqián gǔ nóng yáo, Dùjuān xíng, Guō Yùchéngzhài chéngguān, Xī jùn chénggāo rén shí rén, Yánpíng lóngjiàn gē, Kòu zhì záyǒng, Kòu zì běi lái, Jūn zhōng kǔlè yáo, Sùzhōu gē and the like — these pieces all narrate the upheaval of war and refugee distress with deep pain and bitterness, so that in a later age one still seems to see the situation. As to Wāng Yuánliàng’s Shuǐyún jí — said by commentators to be the shīshǐ of the late Sòng — Tíngzhèn’s collection here is, surely, the shīshǐ of the late Yuán. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng forty-first (1776), tenth month. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Shíchū jí is a major documentary witness for the late-Yuán warfare in Jiāngxī as experienced from the inside by a Lúlíng-area literatus. The tíyào’s positioning of it as “the shīshǐ of the late Yuán” — paralleling Wāng Yuánliàng’s Shuǐyún jí for the late Sòng — is consequential for the reception of the collection: it has been treated by modern historians of the YuánMíng transition (notably John W. Dardess) precisely as a documentary anchor for the late-Yuán Red Turban warfare in Jiāngxī. The tíyào’s printed deathdate slip (Hóngwǔ 20 = 1387 versus cyclical jǐwèi = Hóngwǔ 12 = 1379 — preserved here as in the source) is a minor textual flag; CBDB and other reference sources give 1379, consistent with the 88-sui lifespan from the 1292 birth. Composition window: from the early Yányòu era (c. 1320–30, post-failure at the examinations) through to Zhōu’s death in 1379.
Translations and research
- Treated as a primary source in studies of the late-Yuán warfare in Jiāngxī; e.g. John W. Dardess on the late-Yuán transition; Cài Měi-biāo and others on Yuán shī-shǐ.
- The collection’s titles (e.g. Rén shí rén “the people eat people”) are routinely quoted in studies of famine and warfare in the 1350s–60s.
Other points of interest
- The Yàn Bì appendix of xíngzhuàng and zhìmíng is a useful biographical anchor for Zhōu, supplementing the sparse Yuánshǐ record. The tíyào slip in the deathdate (Hóngwǔ 20 / jǐwèi) is a noted textual problem.
- The collection is one of the earliest texts to use “shīshǐ” rhetoric for late-Yuán warfare — anticipating later Qīng-dynasty positioning of Wú Wěiyè’s late-Míng shīshǐ.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1218.2, p457.