庸菴集

Yōng’ān jí 庸菴集

Yōng’ān Collection by 宋禧 (撰)

About the work

A fourteen-juǎn prose-and-verse collection of Sòng Xǐ 宋禧 (sobriquet Yōng’ān), a late-Yuán Yúyáo literatus who participated in the early-Míng Yuán shǐ compilation (writing the Wàiguó zhuàn from Korea onward) but refused permanent Míng office. The text is a Sìkù-era reconstruction. The early-Míng catalog Huáng Yújì 黃虞稷’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù records two separate works: Yōng’ān wénjí 30 juǎn and Yōng’ān jí 10 juǎn (the latter is the verse). Both were lost in independent transmission. The Sìkù compilers reconstruct from two sources: (1) a Zhèjiāng-submitted 10-juǎn poetry book (the Qiānqǐngtáng “10-juǎn” verse), and (2) the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn index entries (which provide additional prose and minor verse). The result is 10 juǎn verse + 4 juǎn prose = 14 juǎn, supplemented by two further verses from the Xīhú zhì and two prose pieces from the Yúyáo zhì. The Sìkù compilers note: in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn the prose pieces all bear Zhìzhèng (Yuán) dates with no Hóngwǔ-dated pieces; presumably the Hóngwǔ-era prose was much abridged by the Dàdiǎn editors.

Tiyao

Yōng’ān jí, 14 juǎn. By Sòng Xǐ of the Yuán. Xǐ was originally named Yuánxǐ, later changed to Xǐ; style-name Yuányì; Yōng’ān is his sobriquet; man of Yúyáo. In Zhìzhèng gēngyín (1350) he passed the Zhèjiāng qīngshì (provincial selection) and was assigned Fánchāng jiàoyù. He soon left and went home. In the early Hóngwǔ he was summoned to compile the Yuán shǐ; the Wàiguó zhuàn — from Korea onward — were all from his hand. With the book completed he did not receive office, asking to retire home. He was again summoned with Guì Yànliáng as joint examiner of Fújiàn. The Míng shǐ therefore lists him in the wényuàn (at the end of Zhào Xūn’s biography). But in the collection’s Tí Tóngjiāng diàoyǐn tú there is a line “*the huángguān (yellow-cap Daoist) drifts and recalls Hè Zhīzhāng; in age and sickness, pitying myself for the press of the jiǎnshū”; in Jì Sòng Jǐnglián (i.e. Sòng Lián) — “At the time the eighteen shì, coming and staying — each had a reason”; and Dài Liáng’s presentation verse to him also: “The Màixiù gē about-over, my hair already white; / Encountering people I still speak of the eastern Zhōu” — so he is of the line of Shěn Mènglín and Zhào Fǎng, not the Wēi Sù type. Xǐ’s learning’s source is from Yáng Wéizhēn; but where Wéizhēn’s talent runs sideways and his verse rises in qíjué wùào (strange-extreme, towering) energy crushing his generation — and imitators of Yáng’s style being called the Tiětǐ (Iron-style) — Xǐ’s verse is by contrast qīnghé wǎnzhuǎn, exclusively committed to zìrán (the natural), running between Bái Xiāngshān (Jūyì) and Lù Jiànnán (Yóu). His prose is also xiángzhān míngdá (full and clear) and does not violate lǐ. He may be called “Shàn xué Liǔ Xiàhuì mò rú Lǔ nánzǐ” (the best student of Liǔ Xiàhuì is the man of Lǔ — i.e. excelled the master). Huáng Yújì’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù records Yōng’ān wénjí 30 juǎn and again Yōng’ān jí 10 juǎn. Since Míng times there has been no printed bǎn, so transmission is extremely scarce. Now the Zhèjiāng submission is the verse collection — the Qiānqǐngtáng 10-juǎn book — and the prose collection has long been lost. Only the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preserves verse and prose under various rhymes, providing the outline. Compared with the Zhèjiāng version: the Dàdiǎn gives only four more seven-character juéjù and one cí; otherwise the Zhèjiāng version is more complete — perhaps at compilation time the Dàdiǎn editors abridged. The miscellaneous prose under each title bears a year and month; examining all are Zhìzhèng-period works; nothing from the Míng — also presumably some were left out. — But the world has no transmission, only by means of this can we see one bān (corner). We now base on the Zhèjiāng version with the Dàdiǎn and carefully cross-collate: 10 juǎn verse, 4 juǎn prose. Add 2 verses from the Xīhú zhì and 2 prose pieces from the Yúyáo zhì. Together title it Yōng’ān jí to preserve a single late-Yuán house. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng forty-sixth (1781), ninth month. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

Yōng’ān jí is a Sìkù-era multi-source reconstruction of Sòng Xǐ’s once-substantial output (originally 30 juǎn prose + 10 juǎn verse per Huáng Yújì). The collection’s documentary load is twofold: (1) Sòng’s biographical placement among the moderate YuánMíng transition figures — those who served on the Yuán shǐ compilation but refused permanent office — is anchored by named correspondence in the verse (the Sòng Jǐnglián, i.e. Sòng Lián, exchange; Dài Liáng’s response); (2) Sòng’s authorship of the Yuán shǐ Wàiguó zhuàn (from Korea onward) makes the collection’s biographical material a key source for understanding the YuánMíng cultural account of foreign relations. The stylistic profile — Yáng Wéizhēn lineage by training, Bái Jūyì / Lù Yóu register in practice — is one of the more interesting individuated cases in late-Yuán lineage / register dissonance. Composition window: from c. 1340 (Sòng’s young maturity) through to c. 1380 (last Hóngwǔ-era activity).

Translations and research

• Sòng’s role as the Yuán shǐ Wài-guó zhuàn author has been treated in studies of Yuán-Míng historiography on foreign relations.
• The Sìkù reconstruction methodology (Zhèjiāng provincial submission + Yǒnglè dàdiǎn + provincial gazetteer supplements) is a paradigmatic case in late-imperial textual scholarship.

Other points of interest

• The collection’s stylistic dissonance — Yáng Wéizhēn lineage by training, Bái Jūyì / Lù Yóu register in practice — is one of the more interesting individuated cases of late-Yuán literary practice resisting the dominant Tiěyá register.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1222.5, p395.