Huāxī jí 花谿集
Flower-Brook Collection by 沈夢麟 (撰), edited by 沈清 (編)
About the work
A three-juǎn prose-and-verse collection by Shěn Mènglín 沈夢麟 (1307–1399) of Wúxìng. The collection covers 424 pieces in all — a small fraction of what once filled multiple scrolls in the author’s home. The original was lost when his family was implicated in some early-Míng prosecution and his descendants were exiled to the northern frontier; the present recension is a Hóngzhì (1493) recovery by Shěn Qīng 沈清 — Shěn Mènglín’s fifth-generation grand-nephew, a Xíngbù lángguān — who collected fragments from local family libraries during a southern judicial circuit. The print bears a Hóngzhì 6 guǐchǒu (1493) preface by Péng Sháo 彭韶, Xíngbù shàngshū in retirement. Shěn Mènglín is a model intermediate-position case in the Sìkù’s typology of YuánMíng transition literati: he did not accept formal Míng office but did accept compositional service to the new dynasty as examiner. The Sìkù compilers explicitly rank him: above pure compromisers, below pure Yuán yílǎo like Dīng Hènián (KR4d0557), and in the same rank as Yáng Wéizhēn 楊維楨 and Hú Xíngjiǎn 胡行簡.
Tiyao
Huāxī jí, 3 juǎn. By Shěn Mènglín of the Yuán. Mènglín, style-name Zhāoyuán, was a man of Wúxìng. He passed the Hòu Zhìyuán jǐmǎo (1339) provincial selection; appointed Wùyuánzhōu xuézhèng; transferred to magistrate of Wǔkāng; in the late Zhìzhèng era he resigned and retired into seclusion. In the early Míng he was summoned as xiánliáng and declined; he was responsively engaged as jiàowén (examiner) in Zhèjiāng and Fújiàn three times, and as tóngkǎo of the huìshì (metropolitan) examination twice. Tàizǔ called him “old examiner” — but, knowing his determination could not be bent, did not press him with office. He died at almost ninety. Mènglín, as a qiáncháo yílǎo (loyal survivor of the former dynasty), could not erase himself into voice-and-trace, fleeing into cloud-mountain and smoke-water — but he did emerge to participate in the new court’s examinations. This trajectory is similar to that of Yáng Wéizhēn and others compiling the Yuán shǐ, and Hú Xíngjiǎn and others compiling the ritual books: comparable in their footprint. Compared with Dīng Hènián and his cohort, they must be ranked one notch lower; but those who having undergone summons did not eventually accept office stand still one notch higher than those who changed integrity in pursuit of glory. We continue to place him under “Yuán” to credit his original aim. This collection was edited by his fifth-generation grand-nephew, the Jiāngxī ànchásī qiānshì Shěn Qīng — 424 pieces in all. Mènglín was related to Zhào Mèngfǔ by marriage and inherited Zhào’s poetic method; his seven-character regulated verse was the strongest, and he was called “Shěn Bājù” (“Shěn the Eight-Liner”) in his day. Liú Jī had wandered with him in youth and once sent him verses saying: “Dù Líng grown old — a thousand poems; / Táo Lìng come back — one wine-cup”. His writing and his person are fully visible therein. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng forty-third (1778), fifth month. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Huāxī jí is a significant biéjí in two respects: (1) it documents the intermediate-position literati class — neither pure Yuán yílǎo nor full Míng-collaborators — and the Sìkù compilers’ explicit ranking system for moral integrity within that class; and (2) it preserves verse and prose by a literatus whose poetic lineage runs directly through Zhào Mèngfǔ 趙孟頫 by marriage — making him a documentary anchor for the Zhào-family Wúxìng poetic culture. The Liú Jī correspondence (“Dù Líng grown old — a thousand poems; / Táo Lìng come back — one wine-cup”) is one of the better-known Yuán-period zèngshī expressions of mutual literary recognition, with Liú Jī here addressing Shěn Mènglín as a Dù Fǔ + Táo Yuānmíng synthesis. Composition window: c. 1340 (Shěn’s young maturity) through to 1399 (his death). The collection’s transmission case — original lost in family prosecution / exile, Hóngzhì recovery by a descendant on judicial circuit, Hóngzhì 6 (1493) print with Péng Sháo’s preface — is one of the better-documented mid-Míng recovery cases.
Translations and research
- Treated in studies of Wú-xìng late-Yuán / early-Míng literary culture (esp. the Zhào Mèng-fǔ family’s poetic lineage).
- Liú Jī’s zèng-shī (presentation verse) to Shěn is a frequently cited line in Liú Jī biographical studies.
- No substantial dedicated Western-language treatment located.
Other points of interest
- The Sìkù compilers’ explicit ranking — three categories of YuánMíng transition literati arrayed by integrity — is one of the clearer statements of late-imperial moral typology of dynastic-transition behavior.
- The “Shěn Bājù” sobriquet (“Shěn the Eight-Liner” — for his seven-character regulated verse) is a useful documentary anchor for Yuán-period literary nicknames.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1221.2, p43.