Shānchuāng yúgǎo 山窻餘稿
Surplus Drafts from a Mountain Window by 甘復 (撰)
About the work
A single-juǎn posthumous remainder of the literary output of Gān Fù 甘復 (style-name Kèjìng), a late-Yuán Yúgān (Jiāngxī) recluse-poet who studied poetry under Zhāng Zhù 張翥 and disappeared from view after the Yuán fall. The text contains 49 prose pieces (wén) and 17 poems — preserved as a holograph in the Zhào Shípú 趙石蒲 family of Yúgān and first cut in print by Zhào’s grandson Zhào Hǔ 琥 in the Míng Chénghuà era (1465–1487). The tíyào compilers conjecture that the collection’s exceptionally high consistency (every piece is good) is best explained as Gān having himself chosen these as his most successful pieces to copy out by hand — making it effectively his own self-selection rather than a posthumous random salvage.
Tiyao
Shānchuāng yúgǎo, 1 juǎn. By Gān Fù of the Yuán. Fù, style-name Kèjìng, was a man of Yúgān. His poetry studied under Zhāng Zhù; although it does not match Zhù’s bountiful talent and full range across all forms, its mind-image is limpid and supple, transcendent in its mood. His five-character old-style retains the bequest of Wéi (Yìngwù) and Liǔ (Zōngyuán); his frame and rhyme appear in fact to be above Zhù’s. This is because talent has its leaning and high places of attainment have their unique reach. After the Yuán fell he went into hiding and ended his life there. His writings were dispersed and lost; only some holograph traces survived in the Zhào Shípú family of his hometown — in all 49 prose pieces and 17 poems. In the Chénghuà era of the Míng, Shípú’s grandson Hǔ first wrote them up and cut them in print, restoring them to circulation. Although the surviving pieces are not many, in poetic form and prose composition each piece is high and clean — making one suspect that Gān himself had selected his most satisfied pieces and copied them out in his own hand, so that each piece is worth reading: superior to those who fill scrolls by mixing pearls with rubble. Gù Sìlì’s Yuán shī xuǎn states that Hǔ’s print had a preface by Liú Xiàn calling Gān’s poetry “jùnyì qīngqí”. The present version has only Hǔ’s bá and not Liú’s xù: after the bǎn (woodblocks) were lost, the text was repeatedly recopied, and Liú’s preface was lost. But Gān’s collection’s worth of transmission is not affected by the presence or absence of the preface. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng forty-second (1777), eighth month. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Shānchuāng yúgǎo is the residue of a once-larger output by a Yúgān late-Yuán poet whose career as a student of Zhāng Zhù places him in the northern-school shī lineage of the late Yuán. The collection’s transmission route — through holograph fragments held by a single hometown family, then cut by a Míng descendant in the Chénghuà era — is typical of late-Yuán Jiāngxī literary survival, where most prose work was lost to the Red Turban warfare and only “shǒumò” (handwritten remainders) preserved tradition. The tíyào compilers’ hypothesis that the consistent quality indicates Gān’s own selection is plausible and would make the collection a small but high-quality self-anthology rather than a posthumous salvage. The composition window runs from c. 1340 (when Gān could have begun study under Zhāng Zhù) to c. 1380 (post-Yuán reclusion). The earliest preface by Liú Xiàn 劉憲 (cited by Gù Sìlì but lost in this recension) characterized Gān’s verse as jùnyì qīngqí “lofty-leaping, clear-and-unusual” — a useful supplementary judgment.
Translations and research
- Treated in studies of Zhāng Zhù’s poetic lineage; otherwise rarely the subject of dedicated treatment.
- No substantial Western-language treatment located.
Other points of interest
- The transmission case is a useful instance of late-Yuán Jiāngxī literary survival via shǒumò family holding.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1218.3, p535.