Dōngwéi zǐ jí 東維子集
Collection of the Master of the Eastern Hinge by 楊維楨 (撰)
About the work
A thirty-juǎn prose collection by Yáng Wéizhēn 楊維楨 (1296–1370), the dominant Yuán literary figure of the southeast. The title is from one of Yáng’s principal sobriquets, Dōngwéi zǐ “Master of the Eastern Hinge”. The collection is overwhelmingly wén (prose) — xù, jì, zhuàn, bēimíng, bá, zàn — and is the principal companion to Yáng’s three poetic collections in the SKQS (KR4d0586 Tiěyá gǔ yuèfǔ, KR4d0587 Fùgǔ shī jí, KR4d0589 Lìzé yíyīn). The SBCK photoreproduction in our corpus is from a Míng-era recension printed by Wú Mèngbīn 吳孟賓 (sobriquet Shíhú 石湖) of Sōngjiāng; the Hóngwǔ-era preface by the Sōngjiāng official Sūn Chéng 孫承 of Huátíng anchors the print to the early Míng. The collection’s documentary load is unusually broad: as the leading literary arbiter of his generation, Yáng was commissioned for hundreds of prefaces and jì across the Wúzhōng region — these are the principal documents for understanding the late-Yuán Wúzhōng literary culture and its painting / antiquarian / patronage networks.
Tiyao
(The WYG SKQS edition contains the Sìkù compilers’ tíyào, which is not in the SBCK source. The SBCK source preserves Sūn Chéng’s Míng-era preface, which is the standard pre-Sìkù statement of Yáng’s late-life biography: born in Kuàijī (Zhūjì) but settled in Sōngjiāng / Huátíng for over twenty years after his retirement before age seventy. His residence the Cǎoxuán gé 草玄閣 still standing at the time of Sūn Chéng’s writing. He passed the Yuán jìnshì in his earlier years and refused Míng pìn (summons-by-letter), wandering freely among streams and hills. His prose has the qìgé of pre-Qín and the two Hàn — xù, jì, zhuàn, fù, shī, gē — encompasses all forms — bóyǎ bùqún.)
Abstract
Dōngwéi zǐ jí is the principal monument of Yáng Wéizhēn’s prose output and one of the most extensively documented late-Yuán literary corpora. Yáng’s role in the late-Yuán Wúzhōng literary geography — his Tiěyá yuèfǔ movement, his commissioning network, his pedagogical influence (he taught, prefaced for, or corresponded with virtually every named late-Yuán Wúzhōng biéjí author in this batch) — makes the collection foundational for late-Yuán literary historiography. The collection contains many of the principal documentary statements of Yáng’s positions on poetics — his prefatorial defenses of his gǔ yuèfǔ program. Several of the jì and xù are addressed to specific places in the Wúzhōng (Sōngjiāng, Huátíng, Sūzhōu) and constitute primary documentary anchors for the late-Yuán built environment.
The biographical-moral profile is significant: Yáng’s late-life decision to appear at the Hóngwǔ court for the Yuán shǐ compilation — but not to accept permanent office — places him in the Sìkù-compilers’ intermediate moral rank. The same rank as Shěn Mènglín (KR4d0582) and Hú Xíngjiǎn (KR4d0583), one below the absolute refusers like Dīng Hènián (KR4d0557) and one above the full collaborators.
Composition window: from c. 1320 (Yáng’s early maturity) through to 1370 (Yáng’s death after the Míng Yuán shǐ compilation). The latest internal evidence is the Hóngwǔ-era compositions.
Translations and research
- Yáng Wéizhēn is one of the most studied late-Yuán literary figures: substantial Chinese-language treatment by Sūn Xiǎo-lì 孫小力, Yáng Liǎn 楊鐮, and others.
- Western-language treatment: David Sensabaugh on Yùshān and the late-Yuán Wú-zhōng circle; Stephen H. West’s work on Yuán literary culture; Ronald Egan and others on Yuán poetics.
- John Dardess, Confucianism and Autocracy, treats Yáng’s Hóngwǔ recruitment and Sōngjiāng exile.
Other points of interest
- The Cǎoxuán gé 草玄閣 residence in Sōngjiāng — named after Yáng Xióng’s Tàixuán jīng drafting site — is documented in many of Yáng’s own prefaces and is one of the better-known late-Yuán literary residences.
- The CBDB record writes the name 楊維禎 (not 楊維楨); the catalog meta and most Yuán-era sources use 楊維楨; both forms are documented and the Sìkù uses the latter.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1221.5, p373.
- SBCK SB04n308.