Láihètíng jí 來鶴亭集
Crane-Coming Pavilion Collection by 呂誠 (撰)
About the work
A nine-juǎn (8 main + 1 bǔyí supplement) poetry collection by Lǚ Chéng 呂誠 (style-name Jìngfū) of Kūnshān, named after his garden pavilion where a second crane spontaneously joined the first he had kept. Juǎn 1 has many Guǎngnán (Lǐngnán) poems; juǎn 2 contains the Hóngwǔ xīnhài nánguī chóng dù Méiguān (1371 returning from southern banishment, recrossing Méi Pass): “Last year banished down to the southern sea; / ten thousand miles back — my temples already starred”. Hóngwǔ 4 = 1371 establishes that Lǚ had been exiled south to Guǎngdōng in 1370 and pardoned. The latest internal date is Hóngwǔ guǐyǒu = 1393 (in juǎn 8). The collection’s principal preface is by Yáng Wéizhēn 楊維楨, dated Zhìzhèng 7 dīnghài = 1347, characterizing Lǚ’s yuèfǔ gǔtǐ responses (the Shàngjīng yáo, Gōngguī yáo, Jiāngnán yáo sequences) as the most spirited contemporary continuation of his own Tiěyá yuèfǔ. A second preface by Zhèng Dōng 鄭東 (sobriquet Kūnyáng), dated Zhìzhèng wùzǐ shàngsì = 1348, identifies the four most prominent Kūnshān poets of the day — Guō Xīzhòng 郭羲仲 (Yì), Lù Liángguì 陸良貴 (Rén), Yuán Zǐyīng 袁子英 (Huá), and Lǚ Chéng — and describes Lǚ as his own former student. The original recension was lost; the present version has the Tiěyá preface but not most of the yuèfǔ it praises (the Shàngjīng etc.). The Tiānshùn 1459 postscript by Zhèng Wénkāng 鄭文康 — a descendant of Zhèng Dōng — explains that the surviving manuscript was the family’s zhāoběn (transcribed copy) of his great-grandfather Zhèng Dōng’s teaching set, copied in jǐchǒu (1349) and preserved 110 years.
Tiyao
Láihètíng shī, 9 juǎn, bǔyí 1 juǎn. By Lǚ Chéng of the Yuán. Chéng, style-name Jìngfū, was a man of Kūnshān. Skilled in poetry; his frame is qīnglì. With his fellow-townsmen Guō Yì, Lù Rén, and Yuán Huá he exchanged compositions. He once kept a crane in his garden; later a [second] crane came of itself and joined it, so he built the Láihè tíng and used the name for his collection. Examining the contents: juǎn 1 has many Lǐngnán poems; juǎn 2 has the Hóngwǔ xīnhài nánguī chóng dù Méiguān poem — “Last year banished down to the southern sea; / ten thousand miles back — my temples already starred”. Xīnhài is Hóngwǔ 4 (1371) — so in the early Míng he had been banished to Guǎngdōng and then pardoned home. The cause of his offense cannot be ascertained. In juǎn 8 there is a poem with a Hóngwǔ guǐyǒu (1393) cyclical year. Guǐyǒu is Hóngwǔ 26 (1393); the Yáng Wéizhēn preface was made in Zhìzhèng 7 dīnghài (1347) — by then it had been 47 years; Chéng was an old man indeed. The various sources all refer to him as Lǚ chùshì (lay scholar) without saying he served the Míng; so he is an Yuán yílǎo. The collection’s editor is unknown. Yáng Wéizhēn’s preface says he had once responded with Lǚ to his gǔ yuèfǔ from Shàngjīng to Jiāngnán yáo — a number of pieces; the present collection has none of these. So the original preface is preserved but much of the verse has been dispersed — it is not the original book. Also Gù Sìlì’s Yuán bǎijiā shī xuǎn says he also had Jìbáixuān, Zhúzhōu, Guītián drafts; the only thing now seen is this collection. Perhaps what Wéizhēn refers to is in those other [now-lost] collections. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng [40-something] year. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Láihètíng jí is a documentary anchor for late-Yuán Kūnshān poetic society and for the Hóng-wǔ-era exile of literati. The collection’s biographical case — Lǚ Chéng’s banishment to Guǎngdōng in Hóngwǔ 3 (1370) and pardon in Hóngwǔ 4 (1371) — is one of the better-known instances of early-Míng punishment of Yuán-loyalist chùshì, though the precise cause is not on record. Composition window: from c. 1340 (Lǚ’s mature engagement with the Yáng Wéizhēn / Zhèng Dōng circle) through to Hóngwǔ 26 (1393, the latest internal date). The Yáng Wéizhēn preface (1347) is the principal contemporary statement of mutual Tiěyá yuèfǔ practice; its preservation in spite of the loss of the named yuèfǔ pieces is a typical late-Yuán biéjí transmission state. The Zhèng Dōng preface (1348) is a documentary anchor for the late-Yuán Kūnshān “sìrén jí” (Guō Yì + Lù Rén + Yuán Huá + Lǚ Chéng) literary cohort.
Translations and research
- The Kūnshān late-Yuán poetic circle has been treated in Chinese-language scholarship; the Lái-hè-tíng jí is a standard primary source. See work on Yáng Wéi-zhēn’s late-Yuán Tiěyá circle.
- No substantial Western-language treatment located.
Other points of interest
- The Yáng Wéizhēn preface (1347) is significant evidence for the Tiěyá yuèfǔ circle as a wider movement extending into Kūnshān’s third-tier literati (i.e. beyond Yáng’s own immediate cohort).
- The Hóngwǔ exile case is a useful documentary anchor for early-Míng punishment of Yuán-loyalist chùshì in the southeastern coastal region.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1220.6, p569.