Fùgǔ shī jí 復古詩集
Antiquity-Restoring Verse Collection by 楊維楨 (撰), edited by 章琬 (編)
About the work
A six-juǎn poetic collection of Yáng Wéizhēn 楊維楨, compiled by his disciple Zhāng Wǎn 章琬 (sobriquet Lóngzhōu shēng) in Zhìzhèng 24 jiǎchén (1364) — sixteen years after the earlier Wú Fù 吳復 Tiěyá gǔ yuèfǔ compilation (KR4d0586). The contents are stylistically marked: qíncāo (lute-pieces), gōngcí (palace verses), yěchūn (wild-spring), yóuxiān (wandering-immortal), xiānglián (boudoir) — together with gǔ yuèfǔ. The title “Fùgǔ” (Restoring Antiquity) reflects the Sìkù compilers’ observation that all the forms gathered are those that contemporary taste had set aside; Yáng’s program was therefore to restore them. Zhāng’s original preface counts 200 (Zhāng’s new gathering) + 300 (Wú Fù’s earlier) = 500 pieces; the WYG recension preserves only 152, indicating substantial later abridgement. The Sìkù compilers further note that the recension contains many xiānglián pieces not found elsewhere, and that overlapping gǔ yuèfǔ pieces (about ten dozen) preserve different readings and titles from the earlier Wú Fù KR4d0586 version. The Sìkù compilers explicitly prefer this 1364 recension’s readings as Yáng’s later authorial revisions over the 1346 Tiěyá gǔ yuèfǔ readings.
Tiyao
Fùgǔ shī jí, 6 juǎn. By Yáng Wéizhēn of the Yuán. Contains qíncāo, gōngcí, yěchūn, yóuxiān, xiānglián etc., with gǔ yuèfǔ mixed in. This is the work edited by his disciple Zhāng Wǎn — because all the forms it contains are those the times set aside and did not practise, it is therefore titled Fùgǔ “Restoring Antiquity”. Zhāng’s preface says he gathered Yáng’s earlier and later compositions of 200 pieces, with the 300 of Wú Fù’s earlier compilation — making it 500 in all. But the present recension has only 152, the numbers not matching: perhaps later persons have abridged it, and this is not a complete book. Among them the xiānglián poems are not found in other versions. The gǔ yuèfǔ pieces overlap with the [Wú Fù compiled] Tiěyá yuèfǔ in dozens of cases, with slight variations. For example Shí Guīcāo: “The mountain man broke a mountain flower” — but the yuèfǔ version still has the preceding lines “High and high the lonely bamboo ridge; on top stands the new-bride stone”; “Mountain head dawn — the stone bride” — the yuèfǔ version reads “year by year on the mountain head she sings the stone bride”; and Fēngsuì qǔ has the upper-two and lower-two lines reversed between the two versions. The yuèfǔ version also gives different titles for some pieces: Běiguō cí in this version is Qūguī cí; Qíngōng qǔ is Sāngyīn qǔ; Héhuān cí is Shēng héhuān; Kōngsāng qǔ is Gāolóu qǔ — examples of this kind not few. — Because Wú Fù compiled the Tiěyá yuèfǔ in Zhìzhèng 6 (1346) and Zhāng compiled this collection in Zhìzhèng 24 (1364), nearly twenty years apart: presumably Yáng had revised the old drafts again, and Zhāng follows the revision. So we should follow the revised version, not stick to the early drafts. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng forty-sixth (1781), tenth month. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Fùgǔ shī jí is the principal documentary anchor for Yáng Wéizhēn’s late-period (post-1346) authorial revisions of his earlier yuèfǔ. The Sìkù compilers’ explicit declaration of preference for this version’s readings over the 1346 Tiěyá gǔ yuèfǔ (KR4d0586) is a paradigmatic statement of textual scholarship preference for an author’s last word — significant in late-imperial textual practice. Composition window: from c. 1330 (the earliest gǔ yuèfǔ in Yáng’s mature period) through to 1364 (when Zhāng compiled this collection). The xiānglián “boudoir” pieces — found only in this collection — make this an important supplement to the Tiěyá yuèfǔ main corpus. The collection’s emphasis on the “set-aside” forms (qíncāo, yóuxiān, xiānglián) anchors Yáng’s poetic program as a deliberate revival of an entire system of pre-Sòng or early-Sòng form-classes, not just yuèfǔ.
Translations and research
- Sūn Xiǎo-lì 孫小力 (2007), Yuán-mò Tiěyá pài yánjiū — the standard Chinese-language study of the Tiěyá movement, treats this collection alongside KR4d0586.
- The textual comparison between KR4d0586 (1346) and KR4d0587 (1364) is a frequently cited example in Yuán-period textual scholarship.
Other points of interest
- The 500 → 152 piece reduction in transmission is one of the more dramatic abridgement-cases in the late-Yuán biéjí corpus.
- The xiānglián (boudoir-verse) form was widely cultivated in late Táng / early Sòng (Hán Wò 韓偓) and lost favor in the SòngYuán; Yáng’s revival of it is documented in this collection more prominently than elsewhere.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1222.2, p123.