Yúnyáng jí 雲陽集
Yún-yáng Collection by 李祁 (撰)
About the work
A ten-juǎn prose-and-verse collection by Lǐ Qí 李祁 (style-name Yīchū), a Yuántǒng 1 (1333) jìnshì from Cháling who held Hànlín and tíjǔ positions in the early Yuán Shùndì reign, then withdrew to retreat in Yǒngxīn after his mother’s death and the outbreak of rebellion. He never served the Míng. The structure: juǎn 1 lǜfù and gǔlǜ shī; juǎn 2 lǜshī and juéjù; juǎn 3–6 xù (in four sub-volumes); juǎn 6–7 jì (upper/lower); juǎn 8 mùmíng / biǎo / zhuàn; juǎn 9–10 zázhù (upper/lower). The volume’s print transmission is the work of the Míng qiānhù (1000-man military commander) Lǐ Zǐmào 李子茂 — who as a Míng officer had once rescued the wounded Lǐ Qí from a Yǒngxīn battlefield and continued to respect him; after Lǐ Qí’s death, Zǐmào cut the yíjí of ten juǎn in print. In the Hóngzhì era Lǐ’s fifth-generation grand-nephew Lǐ Dōngyáng 李東陽 (the eminent Míng grand-secretary) gathered remaining material and had the Jí’ān prefect Gù Tiānxī 顧天錫 re-cut the collection — the present WYG version. The tíyào compilers also note that an early-Qīng Cantonese monk Dàshàn 大汕 (a politically dubious Buddhist figure) had abridged the collection into 4 juǎn; the Sìkù compilers explicitly reject this abridgement as the work of a quánlì (power-and-profit) opportunist.
Tiyao
Yúnyáng jí, 10 juǎn. By Lǐ Qí of the Yuán. Qí, style-name Yīchū, biéhào Xīqú, was a man of Cháling. He passed the Yuántǒng 1 (1333) jìnshì, appointed yìngfèng hànlín wénzì, reposted Wùyuánzhōu tóngzhī, then JiāngZhè rúxué fù tíjǔ. He left office on his mother’s mourning. With the realm fallen into disorder, he then went into hiding in the Yǒngxīn hills. After the Yuán fell, he self-styled Bù’èrxīn lǎorén. He died at over 70. Qí’s verse is chōngróng héping, naturally striking the right register; his prose is also yǎjié with method. When he first passed the examination, the Yuán system divided Hàn and South-Hàn into the left register, Mongol and Sèmù into the right (note: under Yuán system right precedes left — Yuán shǐ Liáng Zēng zhuàn says: “When [the court] notified Annam that the new dynasty respects the right’s ceremonies, Mongol and Sèmù were the right register” — confirming this). Lǐ Qí was no. 2 in the left register; the no. 2 in the right register was Yú Què. Later Què died for principle, but Qí spent his life adrift in warfare. He once wrote the preface to Què’s Qīngyáng jí, regretting that he had not been able “to take charge of one barrier and die in self-sacrifice like Tíngxīn (= Què)“. He also said: “Those of the world who covetously cling to life and fear death, who bring themselves to humiliation, who shamelessly look on men with brazen face — the wreck of sīwén (this culture-tradition) is by this even more wholly swept to the ground.” So although Qí’s coming-and-going from office and his living-and-dying differed from Què’s, his devoted attachment to his old lord and his refusal to fail the Yuán in yì — the dàjié (great principle) is one and the same. In the Sòng’s Bǎoyòu 4 (1256) examination, Wén Tiānxiáng was zhuàngyuán, and Lù Xiùfū and Xiè Fāngdé were among that class; in this Yuán class, Lǐ Fǔ was zhuàngyuán and Lǐ Qí together with Yú Què were among them. Lǐ Fǔ did not disgrace Wén Tiānxiáng; Yú Què did not disgrace Lù Xiùfū; and Lǐ Qí did not disgrace Xiè Fāngdé. These two examination-classes mirror each other across the dynasties; it can be called a most splendid event in the history of the kēmíng. — When the Míng troops first reached Yǒngxīn, Lǐ was struck by a blade and lay rigid by the roadside; the qiānhù Lǐ Zǐmào, on hearing it was Qí, had him carried home and treated with rites. Though saved by luck, in the Hóngwǔ era when the old Confucian-scholars were summoned, Qí alone firmly refused to come out. Zǐmào respected him; after Qí’s death, Zǐmào cut his yíjí in 10 juǎn. In the Hóngzhì era, Qí’s fifth-generation grand-nephew Lǐ Dōngyáng gathered the leftover drafts and asked the Jí’ān prefect Gù Tiānxī to re-cut it — namely this version. In our dynasty’s Kāngxī, the Guǎngzhōu monk Dàshàn further abridged it as he saw fit, merging it to 4 juǎn. But Dàshàn, though styled an outside-the-fold (fāngwài) man, was actually of the power-and-profit set; his learning was insufficient to know the qùqǔ (correct judgment of what to keep or remove). So we record the original version, preserving its true face. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng forty-second (1777), fifth month. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Yúnyáng jí is the principal monument of one of the most striking YuánMíng transition documentary cases. The tíyào compilers’ synoptic argument is one of the more ambitious dàjié (high principle) arguments in the SKQS — explicitly framing the 1333 examination class (Lǐ Fǔ as zhuàngyuán, Lǐ Qí + Yú Què as second-rank graduates) as the Yuán parallel to the 1256 Sòng class (Wén Tiānxiáng + Lù Xiùfū + Xiè Fāngdé). The collection’s documentary load is substantial: Lǐ’s Qīngyáng jí xù — the preface to Yú Què 余闕’s Qīngyáng jí (also in the SKQS) — is a major mid-Yuán statement of loyalist yì and is widely cited. The transmission case — print by the Míng qiānhù who had once spared the author, re-cut by Lǐ Dōngyáng 李東陽 in the Hóngzhì era — is itself extraordinary as a documentary anchor for the late-Yuán / Míng cross-loyalty respect. The Sìkù compilers’ explicit rejection of the Kāngxī monk Dàshàn’s abridgement is also notable: it is a rare Sìkù-era public flag of a politically dubious editor’s interference. Composition window: from the 1333 examination through to Lǐ’s death in the late Hóngwǔ era (over 70 sui, so likely 1370s or later).
Translations and research
- The 1333 examination class as a Yuán parallel to the 1256 Sòng class is frequently treated in Chinese-language Yuán-Míng transition scholarship; e.g. Mèng Xiānchéng 孟憲承 and others.
- The Lǐ Qí / Yú Què correspondence is treated in studies of Yú Què’s Qīng-yáng jí.
- The Dàshàn editorial controversy is a documented incident in early-Qīng Buddhist political history; see studies of the Cantonese Cháng-shòu monastery.
Other points of interest
- The Lǐ Zǐmào → Lǐ Qí cross-loyalty rescue case is one of the better-documented YuánMíng transition human-interest events: a Míng officer recognizing and sheltering an Yuán loyalist whom he had unintentionally wounded, then later cutting his manuscripts in print.
- Lǐ Dōngyáng’s editorial role (Hóngzhì re-cut) makes this collection significant in studies of Lǐ Dōngyáng’s own family-historical orientation.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1219.7, p629.