Yùshān púgǎo 玉山璞稿
Rough-Jade Drafts from Yùshān by 顧瑛 (撰)
About the work
A single-juǎn collection of personal compositions by Gù Yīng 顧瑛 (1310–1369), the wealthy Kūnshān patron whose Yùshān cǎotáng 玉山草堂 hosted the principal literary circle of late-Yuán Wúzhōng. The collection is small but historically central: the Sìkù tíyào compilers’ opening biographical sketch makes Gù Yīng’s role explicit — by 40 he had transferred his estate to his son and devoted the remainder of his life to literary entertainment; his Yùshān hall, pond, gallery, music-women, paintings, antiques were the finest in Jiāngzuǒ; the fēngliú wéncǎi (literary style and elegance) of his circle dominated his time. The collection includes the personal poetry; four Bùxūcí (Pacing-the-Void songs, modelled on the Zhēngào Daoist hymnal); two short cí; two prose pieces (the Bàishítán jì and the Yùluán yī zhuàn — the latter being a zhuàn for a flute, written for Yáng Wéizhēn, imitating Hán Yù’s Máo Yǐng zhuàn and Sū Shì’s Géhuā style). The Sìkù judge that Gù’s writing is uneven but at its best clear and fluent; the Yùluán zhuàn is judged formulaic but the Bàishítán jì is praised as “shūqiào”.
Tiyao
Yùshān púgǎo, 1 juǎn. By Gù Yīng of the Yuán. Yīng had a second name Āyīng and a further name Déhuī; style-name Zhòngyīng; man of Kūnshān. In youth he was a qīngcái jiékè (free-spending host); at 30 he turned to zhéjié dúshū (to settled study), and in chànghé exchange with the realm’s leading figures. He was raised as màocái, assigned Huìjī jiàoyù; the Mobile Secretariat recruited him to its staff — he did not take any. At 40 he gave his estate entire to his son Yuánchén, built the Yùshān cǎotáng: pond and pavilion, music-and-courtesans, painting-and-antiques — the finest in Jiāngzuǒ. The fēngliú wéncǎi of his circle swayed his age. Later Yuánchén held office as Shuǐjūn fù dōuwànhù; after the Yuán fell, in keeping with the [Míng] precedent he was relocated to Línháo. Yīng accompanied him there. He died in Hóngwǔ 2 (1369). He had self-titled his portrait: “Confucian robe, monk’s hat, Daoist shoes; / The green hills of the world can bury my bones. / Speak of the old days’ chivalric energy: / Clothes-and-horse on the five-tombs streets of Luòyáng”. Marking the truth. Míngshǐ wényuàn zhuàn attaches Gù to the end of the Táo Zōngyí zhuàn. Yáng Xúnjí’s Sū tán says: “Āyīng was hàoshì ér néngwén; what he composed does not match his guests, but his cíyǔ are flowing and pretty, and at times genuinely moving — so he was able to zhōuxuán sāotán zhī shàng (move at the front of the literary altars) in his own day, not just by money.” Now reviewing his work: though born in the era when the late-Yuán poetic form was at its qǐmí (silken-effeminate) phase, he could not lift himself from the current — but his qīnglì qiānmián (clear-pretty, lingering-tangled) manner moves between Wēn Tíngyún and Lǐ Hè, and he has his own high resonance. He is not to be dismissed as merely shīyú (verse-leftover). The collection’s end appends four Bùxūcí, the form modelled on the Zhēngào; also two short cí; two prose pieces. The Bàishítán jì is rather strong-and-strict; the Yùluán yī zhuàn, composed for Yáng Wéizhēn on obtaining a flute and modelled on the Máo Yǐng and Géhuā exemplars, does not escape chényīn kējiù (formulaic cliché). Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng forty-sixth (1781), tenth month. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Yùshān púgǎo is a small but historiographically central late-Yuán biéjí. Its principal value is documentary: the SKQS tíyào’s biographical sketch of Gù Yīng is one of the most concise authoritative accounts of the late-Yuán Yùshān cǎotáng patronage system, and is the standard Sìkù-era account of late-Yuán Wúzhōng literary society. The Bùxūcí (Daoist Pacing-the-Void songs) modelled on the Zhēngào are an important documentary anchor for Yuán Daoist verse — Gù was a non-monastic Daoist sympathizer who participated in MáoshānShàngqīng material culture. The Yùluán yī zhuàn — a fictional biography of a flute presented to Yáng Wéizhēn — is a documentary anchor for the qíhuá zhuàn (mock-biography of objects) genre as practiced in late-Yuán Wúzhōng. Gù’s own role in the Yùshān cǎotáng — funding, hosting, and selectively writing — places him at the center of late-Yuán Wúzhōng literary geography. The poetic level is modest; his importance is institutional. Composition window: from c. 1340 (the founding of the Yùshān cǎotáng circle, after Gù’s age-40 turn) to his death in Línháo in 1369. The catalog dates 1310–1369 are confirmed.
Translations and research
- Yùshān cǎotáng has been treated extensively in Chinese-language studies of late-Yuán Wú-zhōng literary society — see Chén Gāo-huá 陈高华, Wáng Wényúan 王文源, and others on the Yuán Sūzhōu literary circle.
- The Western-language treatment is principally through art-historical studies of Ní Zàn (e.g. James Cahill, Hills Beyond a River on Yuán painting; David Sensabaugh on Yùshān as a literary-aesthetic site).
- Gù Yīng is a major figure in studies of Yuán-Míng transition cultural patronage.
Other points of interest
- The self-inscribed portrait verse (“Confucian robe, monk’s hat, Daoist shoes”) is one of the most cited late-Yuán self-statements and a documentary anchor for the syncretic religious self-positioning of late-Yuán literati.
- The tíyào compilers’ careful contextualization — that Gù was not merely a wealthy patron but actually a credible cíyǔ liúlì writer — is significant for the assessment of patron-writers as a class.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1220.3, p127.