Jiǔlíng shānfáng jí 九靈山房集
Collection of the Nine-Numinous Mountain Studio by 戴良 (撰)
About the work
A thirty-juǎn prose-and-verse collection by Dài Liáng 戴良 (1317–1383), the most famous fellow-student of Sòng Lián 宋濂 in the Liǔ Guàn 柳貫 / Huáng Jìn 黃溍 Jīnhuá Yuán-period lineage of Hànlín prose masters. The collection’s defining structural feature is its organization by yóu (travel-period drafts): the latter juǎn are titled Yuè yóu gǎo “Yuè-Travels Drafts”, suggesting the geographic phases of Dài’s career as a refugee literatus along the Zhèdōng coast. The collection includes substantial biéjí prose: biàn, jiě, zàn, míng, zhēn, shuō, zhuàn, jì, xù, tíbá, mùzhì míng, jì wén. There is a separate Wài jí “Outer Collection” with one zàn and one preface (the Yúnlín xiānshēng shī xù — i.e. the preface to Ní Zàn 倪瓚’s poetry, KR4d0575 KR4d0576). The source preserved in our corpus is the SBCK photo-reproduction of the Zhèngtǒng jiǎzǐ (1444) cut, prepared by Dài Liáng’s great-great-nephew Dài Tǒng 戴統 under guidance from the Ní Xiè (Gōngshòu) 倪先生 (Zànshòu 暨陽姻友 — a kinsman). The Zhèngtǒng prefaces by Dài Tǒng (1445) and Guì Yànliáng 桂彥良 are preserved.
Tiyao
(The WYG tíyào is not in the SBCK source. The above is reconstructed from the Zhèngtǒng prefaces; the WYG version contains the standard Sìkù compilers’ tíyào. The chief points common to both are: Dài’s two great teachers Liǔ Guàn and Huáng Jìn; his unrealized career ambition transmuted into literary production after retreat; his major prose work being Chūnqiū jīngzhuàn kǎo (32 juǎn), prefaced by Sòng Lián but unprinted in Dài’s lifetime; and the Hé Táo jí “Responses to Táo Qián” as a separate cut.)
Abstract
Jiǔlíng shānfáng jí is the principal monument of Dài Liáng’s literary output and one of the most important biéjí of the YuánMíng transition. The collection’s documentary footprint is wide: Dài composed the major prefaces for Dīng Hènián (KR4d0557), Ní Zàn (KR4d0575 KR4d0576), and many others; he is also one of the principal correspondents named in the Hènián shī jí’s seven-character regulated section. Dài’s Hé Táo jí (responses to Táo Qián) — a separate one-juǎn work cut by the Hànlín yuàn — is also a significant document of late-Yuán Táo Yuānmíng reception. The Yuè yóu gǎo subsections (juǎn 24–29) anchor Dài’s coastal-Zhèdōng travel and reclusion period. The Wǔānwáng / zhōngyì documentary load includes the Shí xiàozǐ zhuàn, Cāngzhōu wēng zhuàn, Yuán Tíngyù zhuàn. The collection’s editorial recension was prepared by Dài’s family with the assistance of Ní Gōngshòu 倪公壽 — a kinsman — and printed only in Zhèngtǒng jiǎzǐ (1444), over 60 years after Dài’s death. Composition window: 1340 (the earliest pieces from Dài’s young maturity in the Jīnhuá lineage) through to 1383 (the time of his death). Dài’s Míng shǐ wényuàn biography is in the same chapter as Sòng Lián’s — making him the standard “anti-Sòng-Lián” / refusing-the-Míng counterpart figure in the Wùzhōu YuánMíng transition narrative.
Translations and research
- John Dardess, Confucianism and Autocracy, treats Dài Liáng as a Wùzhōu late-Yuán political figure.
- Treatment by Sūn Xiǎo-lì and others on the Liǔ-Huáng Jīnhuá lineage; Dài also a major node in studies of Sòng Lián and the Pǔyáng circle.
- Dài’s Yún-lín xiānshēng shī xù is the principal Yuán-period preface to Ní Zàn’s poetry and is widely cited in studies of late-Yuán painting-and-poetry circles.
Other points of interest
- Dài’s preface to Dīng Hènián (KR4d0557) is one of the most ambitious Yuán statements of West-Asian-Chinese cultural integration in literary terms; see the Hènián shī jí entry.
- The Hé Táo jí (separate one-juǎn response to Táo Qián, cut by the Hànlín yuàn) is a notable late-Yuán Táo-reception document.
- The Chūnqiū jīngzhuàn kǎo in 32 juǎn was never cut in Dài’s lifetime, even though Sòng Lián had written its preface; this is one of the better-documented unprinted-magnum-opus cases of the YuánMíng transition.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1219.5, p253.
- SBCK SB04n145.