鳴盛集

Míngshèng jí 鳴盛集

The Resounding-Flourishing Collection by 林鴻 (撰), 邵銅 (編)

About the work

Míngshèng jí 鳴盛集 in four juǎn is the verse collection of Lín Hóng 林鴻 (1341–1383), zì Zǐyǔ 子羽, native of Fúqīng 福清 (Fújiàn). The Sìkù editors place him at the head of the Mǐnzhōng Shízǐ 閩中十才子: Lín Hóng (chief), with Chén Liàng 陳亮, Gāo Tínglǐ 高廷禮 (i.e. Gāo Bǐng 高棅), Wáng Gōng 王恭 ((KR4e0045 / KR4e0046), Táng Tài 唐泰, Zhèng Dìng 鄭定, Wáng Bāo 王褒, Zhōu Yuán 周元, Wáng Chēng 王偁, and Huáng Yuán 黃元. Lín entered Hóngwǔ service on recommendation as Jiānglè xiàn xùndǎo 將樂縣訓導; promoted to Lǐbù Jīngshàn sī yuánwàiláng 禮部精膳司員外郎; resigned before forty and went home. His verse promoted the Tángyīn 唐音 standard — verse to be modelled on the high Táng — and is the founding manifesto of the Jìnān shīpài 晉安詩派 (Jìnān = Fúzhōu) that dominated mid-Míng Fújiàn poetry. Collected after his death by his fellow-townsman Shào Tóng 邵銅 (Tiān-shùn-era yùshǐ 御史, later Wēnzhōu zhīfǔ 溫州知府) and printed in early Chénghuà (1465+).

Tiyao

The Míngshèng jí in four juǎn — by Lín Hóng of the Míng. Hóng, zì Zǐyǔ, native of Fúqīng. In the early Hóngwǔ on recommendation he was appointed Jiānglè xiàn xùndǎo; rose to Lǐbù Jīngshàn sī yuánwàiláng; before reaching forty he resigned and returned home. His career is given in the Míng shǐ Wényuàn zhuàn. In the early Míng the masters of verse in the Mǐn region were: Chén Liàng of Chánglè, Gāo Tínglǐ [= Gāo Bǐng], Wáng Gōng and Táng Tài of Mǐnxiàn, Zhèng Dìng, Wáng Bāo, Zhōu Yuán of Yǒngfú, Wáng Chēng, and Huáng Yuán of Hóuguān — and Hóng was their head; they were called the Shí cáizǐ 十才子 (Ten Talents). His verse-theory took only the Táng yīn as master; his works prevailed in gédiào; this is the Jìnān shīpài 晉安詩派 ancestor. Lǐ Dōngyáng 李東陽 in Huáilùtáng shīhuà 懷麓堂詩話 says: “Lín Zǐyǔ’s Míngshèng jí specifically studies Táng; Yuán Kǎi 袁凱’s Zàiyě jí specifically studies Dù. Both can imitate vigorously — not just the wording and syntax, but the very titles they emulate. On opening the volume one’s eye is at first deceived into thinking these are old texts; but on careful tasting, when one looks for what truly issues from the fèifǔ 肺腑 and stands distinctly on its own — the fingers do not need to be bent down even once or twice.” So already in the Hóngzhèng era there were divergent opinions. Zhōu Liànggōng 周亮工’s Shūyǐng 書影 says: “In the Mǐnzhōng region the talents come out one after another, bīnbīn fēngyǎ (regularly elegant); one might call it a flourishing. Only the Jìnān school has had a transmission that has not yet stopped; they hold to Lín Yíbù and Gāo Diǎnjí’s [Lín Hóng and Gāo Bǐng] theory as if it were jīnkē yùtiáo (golden ordinance and jade article), strict not daring to violate it. When they compose a seven-character regulated verse it is as if from a single hand.” So the late-flowering [of the Mǐnzhōng school] is a public byword. Yet at the moment when Hóng inaugurated it, his verse was indeed chōngróng xiéyǎ (full and elegant, harmonious and refined), naturally chiming with the zhèngshēng — one cannot make a rule on Liáng’s [evil] grounds and abruptly censure him. Moreover, Gāo Bǐng still does not escape yōngyīn (commonplace tones); but Hóng has at moments abundant qīngyùn (clear resonance); we should not lump them together. This copy is the one edited by Hóng’s townsman Shào Tóng of Wēnzhōu prefecture in the early Chénghuà era. There is a postface by Tóng, saying: “I looked at the old manuscript and was moved to think — and thereupon collated carefully and supplied the missing portions.” However, items such as the Zhāng Hóngqiáo 張紅橋 chànghé shī cí affair — whether it occurred or not is uncertain. Even if a man of talent is dissolute, this could have happened; but there is no reason for them to be in the present collection. This must be Tóng picking from a xiǎoshuō (novel) and wantonly adding. The Mèngyóu xiān jì 夢遊仙記 piece — we suspect this too is an allegorical reference to the Zhāng Hóngqiáo affair. Looking at its title, it imitates Yuán Zhěn 元稹’s Mèngyóu chūn shī — the meaning can be grasped. Tóng has appended it at the end: this is most lacking in judgement. Yè Shèng 葉盛’s Shuǐdōng rìjì 水東日記 records that Tóng was yùshǐ in Tiānshùn, on a matter of memorial offended a quánjiān (powerful villain), and was demoted to zhīxiàn. So he was a man of zhēngzhēng (resolute) character. Perhaps a man who took qìjié (moral fibre) as his life-discipline did not have literary form as his accustomed strength? Compiled and presented respectfully in the seventh month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778).

Abstract

Lín Hóng’s lifedates 1341–1383 are confirmed by CBDB (id 34388). The catalog meta gives only “14th cent” — CBDB’s tighter dates are followed here. As the leading figure of the Mǐnzhōng Shízǐ 閩中十才子 — the second generation of the Mǐnzhōng shīpài founded by the KR4e0036 KR4e0037 Èr Lán brothers — Lín Hóng’s Tángyīn manifesto is one of the foundational documents of the early-Míng fùgǔ movement. His direct lineal heir is Gāo Bǐng 高棅 (whose Tángshī pǐnhuì 唐詩品彙 codifies the doctrine that high-Táng = zhèngshēng) — and through Gāo the Qiánhòu Qīzǐ of the 16th century traces its theoretical origins to Lín Hóng.

The textual reception is unusually contested: Lǐ Dōngyáng (1447–1516) judged Lín’s imitation excellent in surface form but lacking fèifǔ originality; Zhōu Liànggōng (1612–1672) traced the rigidified mid-Míng Jìn-ān-school formula back to Lín’s manifesto. The Sìkù editors mount a careful defence: Lín himself is chōngróng xiéyǎ; the later epigones’ formula-imitation is not Lín’s fault; and Lín retains qīngyùn not seen in his immediate successors. The editorial assessment of Shào Tóng’s 邵銅 1465+ recension — that Shào appended an apocryphal Zhāng Hóngqiáo chànghé sequence (a romantic-anecdote group attributed to Lín Hóng’s involvement with a Mǐn courtesan Zhāng Hóngqiáo) drawn from contemporary xiǎoshuō — is a careful piece of kǎozhèng that has been generally accepted by modern scholarship.

Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, places Lín Hóng at the head of the Shízǐ and traces the Jìnān shīpài lineage from the Èr Lán through Lín to Gāo Bǐng. The collection’s structural focus on Tiāngfēng 天風 (high heavenly resonance) verse is the principal contribution to the early-Míng fùgǔ programme.

Translations and research

• L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Entry on Lín Hóng (vol. 1, pp. 916–917).
• 陳慶元 Mǐn-zhōng shī-pài yánjiū 閩中詩派研究. Fú-zhōu: Fú-jiàn rén-mín, 2007. Ch. 2 on the Shí-zǐ generation.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).

Other points of interest

The Zhāng Hóngqiáo 張紅橋 chànghé shī cí group in the closing of the present collection — which the Sìkù editors carefully isolate as Shào Tóng’s late-Yuán-style xiǎoshuō fabrication wrongly appended to Lín Hóng’s manuscript — is a textbook case of biéjí contamination by romantic anecdote in Míng print culture; the editors’ principled rejection of the Mèngyóu xiān jì on the grounds of its echo of Yuán Zhěn’s Mèngyóu chūn title is a representative piece of Sìkù-era careful editorial argumentation.

Links

• Lin Hong (Wikipedia, Chinese)
• Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).