Méiān jí 眉菴集
The Eyebrow-Hermitage Collection by 楊基 (撰)
About the work
Méiān jí 眉菴集 in twelve juǎn is the verse and prose collection of Yáng Jī 楊基 (c. 1326–c. 1378), zì Mèngzǎi 孟載**, hào Méiān 眉菴, native of Jiāzhōu 嘉州 (Sìchuān; “I live further west of Mínshān; just where the Mínshān fāyuán 岷山發源處 is”) but resident in Wú (Sūzhōu) since his grandfather served in Jiāngzuǒ. One of the canonical Wúzhōng Sìjié 吳中四傑 with KR4e0029 Gāo Qǐ, KR4e0038 / KR4e0042 Zhāng Yǔ, and KR4e0043 Xú Bēn — together known as Gāo Yáng Zhāng Xú 高楊張徐. Career: Róngyáng zhīxiàn 榮陽縣令 (early-Hóngwǔ); demoted to Zhōnglí 鍾離 prison; spent quiet years at Jiāngníng and Jùqū 句曲; recommended back, rose through Jiāngxī xǐngmù bīn 省幕賓 to circuits in Húnán and Guǎngyòu; finally Shānxī ànchá shǐ 山西按察使. Ultimately demoted and died of overwork as a convict labourer (per Lǐ Zhìguāng 李志光’s biography of Gāo Qǐ which lists Yáng among the four). The collection was first edited by jiàoshòu Zhèng Gāng 鄭鋼 and cut early — but in a defective copy with mis-ordered and missing pieces. Zhāng Qǐáo 張企翺 (Wúzhōng, jìnshì, Guǎngdōng qiānxiàn 廣東僉憲) edited and re-arranged the text, restoring the original sequence and correcting errors, and re-cut as twelve juǎn with a preface of his own dated Chénghuà 20 / xià liùyuè jìwàng (1484).
Tiyao (drawn from the preface, since the WYG of this title was not available for review here; the SBCK base supplies the preface in full)
Zhāng Qǐáo 張企翺 (also written 張企翶), Méiān shījí xù 眉菴詩集序, Chénghuà 20 / sixth-month full-moon (1484), signed cì jìnshì fèngzhí dàifū Guǎngdōng shìbó tíjǔ qián Hànlín shì… [signature damaged]. The preface gives both the textual history and the placement: “When I was in bùyī [commoner’s clothes], I had long heard Yáng Mèngzǎi xiānshēng’s name. On entering the Hànlínyuàn as a shǐguān 史官 and being fèngchì zuǎnxiū 奉敕纂修 the DàMíng yītǒng zhì, I examined Master Yáng’s family — originally a Sìchuān man of Jiāzhōu; on his grandfather’s appointment in Jiāngzuǒ, he was born at Wúzhōng and his family stayed there. I have also recited his verse — ‘My home is further west of Mínshān, just at the source of Mínshān’ — and from this I knew that though he was born in Wúzhōng he was truly a Sìchuān man. Master was born at the end of Yuán and served in the early national [Hóngwǔ era] — a man of grand vision and chúnzhèng learning. First Róngyáng zhīxiàn; demoted again to Zhōnglí; quiet years at Jiāngníng and Jùqū; recommended again; bīnmù at Jiāngxī xǐng, again sent on mission to Húnán and Guǎngyòu; rose through successive posts to Shānxī ànchá shǐ. The zhì records that Master read several thousand words a day and was particularly skilled in verse. With Gāo Qǐ, Xú Bēn, and Zhāng Yǔ he was a shīyǒu — so the GāoYángZhāngXú designation comes from that time. The Méiān jí that Master composed contains five- and seven-character ancient and regulated verse, plus gēxíng páilǜ juéjù cíqǔ — collected by jiàoshòu Zhèng Gāng, already cut. The characters are often confused, the order is broken, the omissions especially serious — knowing scholars regretted it. Zhāng qiānxiàn of Wúzhōng [Zhāng Qǐáo] held the jìnshì and rose to Guǎngdōng qiānxiàn; from old he valued Master’s verse. At leisure he studied it carefully — supplementing the omissions, sequencing the chronology of his career, correcting the confused characters — fixing it as twelve juǎn, cut in fine print to broaden its transmission. His care was indeed deep.” This preface is also recorded by Xú Tài 徐泰 Shītán 詩談 and Hóu Yīyuán 侯一元 Méngcún wénjí 蒙存文集.
Abstract
Yáng Jī’s lifedates are not securely fixed by CBDB (id 28671 records the name without dates); the catalog meta gives “ca. 1334–1883” which is plainly a typo for 1334–1378 or similar. Standard scholarship (DMB; Wilkinson §28.4) places him c. 1326–c. 1378. His career arc is the standard Wúzhōng Sìjié fate: early service under the Hóngwǔ government with multiple demotions and recoveries, culminating in death as a convict labourer some time in the late 1370s. His Sìchuān origin is the principal note distinguishing him from the other three of the Sìjié, who were all Jiāngzuǒ natives by birth as well as upbringing.
The Zhāng Qǐáo 1484 recension is the parent of both the SBCK and (substantially) the WYG. Earlier the jiàoshòu Zhèng Gāng 鄭鋼 had made a defective cut from the manuscript circulating at Sūzhōu; Zhāng’s restoration is one of the better-documented mid-Míng biéjí re-editions, with his own preface explicitly describing the textual problems and methods. The Méiān jí preserves Yáng’s full output across verse and prose — though the title implies verse primarily, the twelve juǎn include miscellaneous prose and cí. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, places Yáng among the Wúzhōng Sìjié; F. W. Mote, Poet Kao Ch’i (1962), ch. 4, gives the standard Western treatment, including Yáng’s Sìchuān origins.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Entry on Yáng Jī (vol. 2, pp. 1505–1507).
- F. W. Mote. The Poet Kao Ch’i, 1336–1374. Princeton: PUP, 1962. Ch. 4 on the Wú-zhōng Sì-jié.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
Yáng Jī’s literary identity as a Sìchuān man resident in Wú is the principal documentary anchor for the long-resident-Wú branch of the Yáng lineage that later produced Yáng Shèn 楊慎 (1488–1559) of Xīndū 新都, Sìchuān (the Jiā-jìng-era literary giant). The two are not lineally connected, but the parallel of “Sìchuān-by-origin, Jiāng-zuǒ-by-residence” cultural Yáng-lineage is preserved in early-Míng prefaces to Yáng Jī’s collection.
Links
- Yang Ji (Wikipedia, Chinese)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).