Tóngshān lǎonóng jí 桐山老農集
Collection of the Old Farmer of Mount Tóng by 魯貞 (撰)
About the work
A four-juǎn prose-and-verse collection — three juǎn of prose, one juǎn of poetry — by Lǔ Zhēn 魯貞 (sobriquet Tóngshān lǎonóng), a late-Yuán Kāihuà literatus who refused both late-Yuán and Míng service. The collection’s textbook feature is its yílǎo recension-marker: prose pieces composed under the Yuán bear Zhìzhèng reign-names; prose pieces composed after the Míng founding use cyclical (gānzhī) designations only — refusing to write Hóngwǔ. The Sìkù tíyào compilers explicitly read this as the Táo Yuānmíng / Lìlǐ anti-acknowledgement model. The collection’s content is mostly prose jì and míng for local clientele in Kāihuà; the poetry is one juǎn. The Sìkù compilers note both formal flaws — late-Yuán mannerism in the shī and classical-reference errors in the prose (e.g. using the popular-fiction figure Zhōu Cāng 周倉 in a Wǔānwángmiào jì “Record of the Lord-of-Wǔ-ān Temple”, where the figure has no classical warrant) — and a genuine commendation: Lǔ’s personal integrity and unpretentious clean register raise the work above its scholarship.
Tiyao
Tóngshān lǎonóng jí, 4 juǎn. By Lǔ Zhēn of the Yuán. Zhēn, style-name Qǐyuán, self-styled Tóngshān lǎonóng, was a man of Kāihuà. In the collection’s Wànqīngxuān jì he self-identifies as a man of Qūfù — Qūfù being his ancestral seat. Lǔ lived through the late-Yuán to early-Míng transition. The prose pieces composed under the Yuán bear Zhìzhèng reign-names; those composed after his entry into the Míng era bear only jiǎzǐ (cyclical) names — there is here a Lìlǐ kàngjié sentiment. Three juǎn prose; one juǎn poetry. The poetry does not escape the late-Yuán manner and contains some weak lines: poetry was not his strong suit. His prose is also rather narrow in compass and sometimes slips on verification, as in his Wǔānwáng miào jì “Record of the Lord-of-Wǔ-ān Temple” — the yíngshén cí contains the lines: “Orchid pendants drop down, cassia banner waves: riding the red hare, attended by Zhōu Cāng”. Examining: the name Zhōu Cāng does not appear in the shǐzhuàn; to take a back-alley colloquial expression and engrave it on bronze and stone is quite contrary to dàyǎ. Nevertheless his personal level was high; his bosom was yíkuàng (level and broad); none of the dust-cloth, vulgar configuration could enter his brush-tip — so when he speaks from the bosom he has natural clean rhyme. Compare: in deep mountains and hidden valleys, old cypresses and dark pines — though they do not fit the rope and compass, they are by nature transcendent. The reason just does not lie in the matter of words and writing. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng forty-third (1778), sixth month. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Tóngshān lǎonóng jí is a small but documentary-rich late-Yuán recluse collection. Its two most discussed features are: (1) the post-1368 cyclical-year usage as an yílǎo recension marker — one of the cleanest examples in the late-Yuán collection corpus, and routinely cited in studies of dynastic transition self-positioning; and (2) the Wǔānwángmiào (Lord-of-Wǔ-ān = Guān Yǔ) inscription that names Zhōu Cāng — a textbook example of the absorption of late-Yuán popular Sānguó folklore into formal míng prose. The Sānguó folk-figure Zhōu Cāng is not in Sānguó zhì or related historiography; his earliest documented appearance is in Yuán zájù. Lǔ’s casual use is therefore a useful documentary anchor for the early circulation of Sānguó legend material in formal late-Yuán literature. Composition window: roughly 1340 (the early Zhìzhèng era) through Lǔ’s death in the 1380s. Provenance/ancestry: Lǔ traces ancestry to Qūfù (Shāndōng, Confucian heartland), reinforcing his Confucian self-positioning.
Translations and research
- The yílǎo recension marker (Yuán reign-name vs. cyclical year) is treated in Frederick W. Mote’s work on Yuán-Míng transition loyalists.
- The Zhōu Cāng reference is cited in studies of Sānguó folklore reception in late-Yuán literature (e.g. Anne McLaren’s work on Sānguó narrative).
Other points of interest
- The Qūfù ancestral identification is one of several late-Yuán cases of Shāndōng-origin descendants who maintained Confucian self-identification across the Mongol expansion southward.
- The Sìkù compilers’ tolerance of the Zhōu Cāng error is unusual — they normally pillory popular-fiction contamination of formal prose more sharply.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1219.3, p123.