高太史鳧藻集

Gāo tàishǐ Fúzǎo jí 高太史鳧藻集

The Wild-Duck-and-Algae Collection of Grand Historian Gāo by 高啟 (撰)

About the work

Gāo tàishǐ Fúzǎo jí 高太史鳧藻集 in five juǎn is the SBCK printing of the prose collection of Gāo Qǐ 高啟 (1336–1374). The title Fúzǎo jí — literally “wild duck and water-algae” — is the author’s own self-deprecating designation, alluding to the Shījīng image of small, floating, decorative things; this is the principal early-Míng prose collection of Gāo and the natural companion to his verse KR4e0029 Dàquán jí. The collection comprises lùn and jì (juǎn 1), xù (juǎn 2–3), zhuàn, zàn, zhēn, míng, fù, tí, bá, píngshǐ (juǎn 4), and miscellaneous prose with mùzhìmíng, āicí, shūjiǎn (juǎn 5). The closing piece is the Wèi fūrén Sòngshì mùzhìmíng 魏夫人宋氏墓誌銘 — the tomb-inscription for the mother of Wèi Guān 魏觀, Sūzhōu prefect — written shortly before Gāo’s execution in the Wèi Guān affair. The parallel WYG five-juǎn recension is KR4e0040; the SBCK base reproduces an earlier line of transmission from a manuscript held by Gāo’s wife’s family of Zhōus of Sūzhōu.

Prefaces

Lǐ Zhìguāng 李志光 (Lǒngxī 隴西), Gāo tàishǐ zhuàn 高太史傳, Hóngwǔ 8 / yǐmǎo (1375) second month — written one year after Gāo’s execution, this is the principal contemporary biographical witness, identifying Gāo’s circle of jiéjiāo 結交 friends as Wáng Yí 王彝, Yáng Jī 楊基, Dù Yín 杜寅, Zhāng Xiàn 張憲, Zhāng Yǔ 張羽, Zhōu Zhǐ 周砥, Wáng Xíng 王行, Sòng Kè 宋克, Xú Bēn 徐賁, and the xié 俠 figure Ráo Jiè 饒介之. Lǐ stresses that Gāo “studied above the Jiànān poets and disdained anything after the Kāiyuán and Dàlì periods” — i.e., the high Táng — and that his ability to enter the lineage of Cáo, Liú, Lǐ, Dù was foreclosed only by his early death.

Anonymous editor (the SBCK source text records only “Master Gāo, named Qǐ, of Gūsū” — not dated), Gāo tàishǐ Fúzǎo jí xù 高太史鳧藻集序 — a Hóngwǔ-period or early-Yǒng-lè preface anchored on Sū Zhé 蘇轍’s dictum that “prose is the form of vital breath; prose cannot be learnt, but breath can be cultivated” (蘇文定公曰文者氣之所形文不可以學而能氣可以養而至善). The preface gives the textual history: the editor visited Sūzhōu and obtained the manuscript through Gāo’s wife’s nephew Zhōu [Lì] 周立.

Abstract

Gāo Qǐ’s prose, by the Sìkù editors’ assessment (KR4e0040 Tíyào), is overshadowed by his verse but stands as one of the very few surviving witnesses to a deliberate cultivation of the pre-táigétǐ 臺閣體 model in the early Míng. Closer to Sòng than to HóngXuān (i.e. the post-Hóngwǔ / pre-Xuān-dé) gǔwén tradition; the Tíyào describes him as “born at the end of Yuán, not far from Sòng, still retaining the discipline of the qiánbèi” 前輩軌度. The collection was not separately printed in Gāo’s lifetime; Zhōu Chén 周忱 (the Sūzhōu xúnfǔ 1430s–1440s) first obtained a manuscript from Gāo’s wife’s family; Zhèng Shìáng 鄭士昂 of Qiántáng (jiānchá yùshǐ) obtained another copy in Zhèngtǒng 9 (1444) and had it cut by the jiàoshòu Zhāng Sù 張素 with a Zhōu Chén preface. This Zhèng cut is the parent of the present SBCK printing; the WYG recension descends from the Jīn Tán 金檀 (Tóngxiāng) Yōngzhèng wùshēn (1728) re-cut which corrected the Zhèng cut against an earlier manuscript and is paired in print with Jīn Tán’s annotated edition of the verse. The last piece in the collection — the Wèi fūrén Sòngshì mùzhìmíng 魏夫人宋氏墓誌銘 — is the last datable composition by Gāo and the principal documentary connection to the Wèi Guān affair that ended his life; the Míng shǐ notes its composition as evidence in the case.

Translations and research

• F. W. Mote. The Poet Kao Ch’i, 1336–1374. Princeton: PUP, 1962. Standard biography; ch. 7 on Gāo’s prose and the closing months of his life.
• L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Entry on Gāo Qǐ (vol. 1, pp. 696–698).
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).

Other points of interest

The SBCK Fúzǎo jí preserves the Lǐ Zhìguāng 李志光 Gāo tàishǐ zhuàn of 1375 — the earliest biographical sketch of Gāo, written by an acquaintance one year after his execution — which the WYG Fúzǎo jí KR4e0040 also reproduces. Lǐ’s list of Gāo’s jiéjiāo friends is the principal documentary list of the Sūzhōu circle decimated by the Hóngwǔ purges. The Qīng emperor Hónglì 弘曆 (Qiánlóng) found Gāo’s opening lùn — the Wēiài lùn 威愛論 (on the application of awe vs. love in government) — politically inconvenient and composed his own counter-lùn (Yùzhì dú Gāo Qǐ Wēiài lùn 御製讀高啟威愛論), which the WYG editors place ahead of the table of contents in KR4e0040.

Links

• Gao Qi (Wikipedia)
• Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition (parallel WYG)
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).