張光弼詩集

Zhāng Guāngbì shī jí 張光弼詩集

Zhāng Guāngbì’s Poetry Collection by 張昱 (撰)

About the work

A seven-juǎn poetry collection of Zhāng Yù 張昱 (1289–1371, style-name Guāngbì), preserved in the SBCK photoreproduction. The collection is closely related to Kěxián lǎorén jí (KR4d0592) but is a different recension: where Kěxián lǎorén jí is the Zhèngtǒng 1 (1436) salvage by Yáng Shìqí (printed in 4 juǎn), the present Zhāng Guāngbì shī jí is an earlier 7-juǎn form from Zhāng’s own lifetime, preserved with a Míng Hóngwǔ 9 bǐngchén (1376) preface by Chén Yànbó 陳彥博 of Qiántáng. The Chén preface explains: Chén first met Zhāng at Hángzhōu in gēngzǐ (1360); revisited him in bǐngchén (1376), where the now-aged Zhāng presented two volumes of his verse — “All my drafts no longer exist, only these have travelled with me twenty years and not been lost”. This anchor — 1376 bǐngchén meeting in Hángzhōu — is striking because Zhāng died in 1371 per Yáng Shìqí’s preface to KR4d0592; the 1376 date in Chén’s preface to this Zhāng Guāngbì shī jí must be after Zhāng’s death (or — the more likely reading — Zhāng was alive until 1376 and the Yáng Shìqí preface to KR4d0592 has the wrong death year of 1371). The two prefaces are mutually inconsistent on Zhāng’s death year. The Yáng Shìqí preface to Kěxián lǎorén jí is also reproduced at the head of the present collection.

Tiyao

(The WYG SKQS edition would have the Sìkù tíyào; the SBCK source preserves the contemporaneous prefaces only. Chén Yànbó’s 1376 preface positions Zhāng as a jūnmù (military headquarters) staff officer who composed verse — “bīngē zhī qiū dài yǎ wáng zhī rì” (“the autumn of arms-and-spears, very nearly the day of yǎ fallen”) — yet whose register, though biàn (changed) by the times, remains anchored in shīrén zhī fēng. Yáng Shìqí’s preface — also at the head of this collection — repeats the Yú Jí poetic lineage claim.)

Abstract

Zhāng Guāngbì shī jí is a parallel surviving collection to Kěxián lǎorén jí (KR4d0592); the two together preserve the bulk of Zhāng Yù’s verse output. The 1376 Chén Yànbó preface — preserved only here — supplies important contextual biographical information not in the Sìkù tíyào or the Yáng Shìqí preface, notably the 1360 first-meeting at Hángzhōu and the 1376 visit at which Zhāng entrusted his verse collection. The mutual inconsistency between the 1376 Chén preface (in which Zhāng is alive) and Yáng Shìqí’s preface (which gives Zhāng’s death-age as 83 and the Sìkù tíyào interprets as death year 1371) is a textual problem; the more probable reading is that Zhāng survived to 1376 (i.e. death-year 1376, not 1371), and that Yáng Shìqí’s later (1436) preface has the wrong death year.

Composition window: from c. 1330 (Zhāng’s young maturity under the Yáng Wàngzhālè military command) through to c. 1376 (the Chén Yànbó preface). The 1360 Hángzhōu interaction with Chén Yànbó is one of the better-documented late-Yuán-to-early-Míng Hángzhōu literary network anchors.

Translations and research

• Zhāng Yù’s literary corpus is treated alongside Kěxián lǎorén jí (KR4d0592); the two collections constitute the surviving Zhāng Yù corpus.
• The Yú Jí poetic lineage claim is treated in studies of Yú Jí’s pedagogical legacy.

Other points of interest

• The inconsistent death year (Yáng Shìqí 1371 vs. implied Chén Yànbó post-1376) is a noteworthy textual problem; the inconsistency is preserved by the Sìkù tíyào compilers and is a useful documentary anchor for the limits of biographical accuracy in early-Míng prefaces.

Links

• SBCK SB24n395.