Qiáoyún dúchàng 樵雲獨唱
Solo Song of the Wood-Gatherer’s Cloud by 葉顒 (撰)
About the work
A six-juǎn poetry collection by Yè Yóng 葉顒 (style-name Jǐngnán, sobriquet Qiáoyún), a late-Yuán Jīnhuá recluse who refused all service. The title — “Solo Song of the Wood-Gatherer’s Cloud” — captures Yè’s self-positioning: the yúnqiáo “cloud-peak” residence on Jīnhuá’s Chéngshān 城山, his preferred companionship of qiáofū chúsǒu (wood-gatherers and grass-cutters), and his dúchàng “solo singing” without literary audience. The collection was edited by his grandson Yè Yōng 雍 and is structured straightforwardly by form: juǎn 1–2 gǔshī; juǎn 3–4 juéjù; juǎn 5–6 lǜshī. The original zìxù is dated Zhìzhèng jiǎwǔ (1354). The tíyào notes that the collection contains many poems composed after the Míng founding, so the xù’s 1354 date is an editorial mis-attribution: the tíyào hypothesizes that the original recension had an undated late preface which was contaminated by the earlier preface’s date.
Tiyao
Qiáoyún dúchàng, 6 juǎn. By Yè Yóng of the Yuán. Yóng, style-name Jǐngnán, was a man of Jīnhuá. His aspiration was high and clean; he built a hut on the eastern slope of Chéngshān, naming the place Yúnqiáo, and self-styled Yúnqiáo tiānmín (“Yúnqiáo Common-Man”). This collection is the work of his grandson Yōng. The front has Yè’s own preface saying: “the firewood-cassia old and the cloud-mountain high-cold; the tone-and-key ancient and the cliff-and-valley silent” — thus the title Qiáoyún dúchàng. There are two prefaces in all, both dated Zhìzhèng jiǎwǔ (1354). But the collection contains many pieces written after Míng’s rise, and the second preface is post-Míng-founding language. The suspicion is: the original second preface bore no year and month, and the transcribers wrongly took the first preface’s date and supplied it. Gù Sìlì’s Yuán shī xuǎn says: “the Liècháo shī jí (Qián Qiānyì’s late-Míng anthology) records Yè Qiáoyún 樵雲 with style-name Bókǎi 伯愷, who in the Hóngwǔ era passed the jìnshì and served as xíngrénsī fù, was let go, returned home”; but the Wǎn Lín Jīngshān shàngrén poem in this collection says: “In Dàdé gēngzǐ (1300) spring I and this man were born” — by the year-count, in Hóngwǔ wùshēn (1368) Jǐngnán would have been 69; his Dúlè gē says “Counting on my fingers this year I am 75” — and within the collection the poems are all high-aloof speech, never reaching to office-holding. Yuán Kǎi 袁凱’s preface says: “had the master been born several years later, into the míngshèng of our court and arrayed with the era’s jùnyì in office, his attainments would have been worth seeing — but he was not so, and we see only his words” — Yuán Kǎi’s preface is of the Chénghuà era and cannot be wrong. What the Liècháo shī jí draws on cannot be ascertained. The Zhèntsé biān further records Dōngshān Yè Yóng 葉顒 style Bóáng, who once as xiānggòng (provincial graduate) was shānzhǎng (head) of the Héjìng shūyuàn — this is another homonym. The discrimination is clear. Note: the Tàixué tímíng bēi (memorial-stele of the Imperial College) records under the Jiànwén gēngchén (1400) examination class a Yè Yóng who was also from Jīnhuá; gēngchén is Jiànwén 3, which after the Jiànwén erasure is reckoned Hóngwǔ 33 — the Liècháo shī jí must have erred on this basis. Sìlì himself did not see the full picture. His poetry writes the leisurely-comfortable mood, with some pieces verging on the tuítáng (tottering) — but his bosom is transcendent, with genuine self-attained interest. Where the celestial spring reaches, one need not seek by shéngxiāo (rope and chisel) measuring. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng forty-first (1776), twelfth month. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Qiáoyún dúchàng is a recluse-poet’s collection from late-Yuán Jīnhuá whose principal scholarly interest lies in (1) its uniqueness as a sustained “solo-singing” biéjí of a non-serving literatus and (2) the Sìkù compilers’ carefully argued exposure of a Míng-era false attribution. The Liècháo shī jí (Qián Qiānyì’s massive late-Míng poetry anthology) had mis-identified our Yè Yóng with a Jiànwén-era Yè Yóng of Jīnhuá; the Sìkù compilers patiently re-derive the correct biography from internal evidence (the Dàdé gēngzǐ birth and the 75-age datum) and from the Yuán Kǎi preface (Chénghuà era, also reliable). This is a paradigmatic instance of Sìkù-era textual scholarship discriminating homonyms across late-imperial bibliography. Composition window: from c. 1340 (Yè’s young maturity) through to c. 1375 (the 75-age datum is post-1368). The tíyào also flags the dating slip in the zìxù: the collection’s two prefaces both bear “Zhìzhèng jiǎwǔ = 1354” but the contents are post-Míng-founding. This is treated as a transcription error by later copyists.
Translations and research
- The Sìkù compilers’ homonym discrimination on this entry is a frequently cited example of high-Qīng textual scholarship; see e.g. various studies of Liè-cháo shī jí reliability.
- No substantial Western-language treatment located.
Other points of interest
- The zìxù’s 1354 date is editorial-transcriptional contamination; this is a useful instance of preface-date corruption in late-Yuán biéjí transmission.
- The full discrimination of three different “Yè Yóng” homonyms (our late-Yuán recluse; the Jiànwén 3 jìnshì; the Héjìng shūyuàn shānzhǎng) makes this tíyào a small classic of Qīng bibliographic discrimination.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1219.2, p45.