白雲樵唱集

Báiyún qiáochàng jí 白雲樵唱集

The Songs of the White-Cloud Woodcutter by 王恭 (撰)

About the work

Báiyún qiáochàng jí 白雲樵唱集 in four juǎn is the first of three verse collections by Wáng Gōng 王恭, zì Ānzhōng 安中, self-styled Jiēshān qiáo zhě 皆山樵者 (“Woodcutter Who Lives Where Mountains Are All Around”), native of Mǐnxiàn 閩縣 (Fúzhōu, Fújiàn); one of the Mǐnzhōng Shízǐ 閩中十才子 led by KR4e0044 Lín Hóng. The collection contains Wáng’s pre-1405 (pre-appointment) verse: the works composed while living in retreat in the Fújiàn mountains as the Jiēshān qiáo zhě. Together with KR4e0046 Cǎozé kuánggē 草澤狂歌 (also pre-Hàn-lín verse) and the now-lost Fèngtái qīngxiào 鳳臺清嘯 (post-Hàn-lín verse), the three constitute Wáng’s complete verse oeuvre. In Chénghuà guǐmǎo (1483), the Nánjīng Hùbù shàngshū 南京戶部尚書 Huáng Hào 黃鎬 of Chánglè searched for Wáng’s surviving manuscripts and obtained the present collection from the family of Huáng Rǔmíng 黃汝明 (Lìbù lángzhōng 吏部郎中, also of Chánglè), commissioning Huáng Rǔmíng to edit and arrange the verse into a front-and-back two-collection structure. At the head are the original Yǒnglè 3 (1405) preface by Lín Huán 林環 (joint preface for all three collections) and at the end the Jiēshān qiáo zhě zhuànzàn císhuō 皆山樵者傳贊辭說 by Lín Huì 林蕙 and others (likely added post-cut).

Tiyao

The Báiyún qiáochàng jí in four juǎn — by Wáng Gōng of the Míng. Gōng, zì Ānzhōng, native of Mǐnxiàn; self-styled Jiēshān qiáo zhě; one of the Mǐnzhōng Shízǐ. In the early reign of Chéngzǔ on recommendation as a rúshì (literatus) he was set to compile the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, then granted the post of Hànlínyuàn diǎnjí 翰林院典籍. His record is appended in Míng shǐ Wényuàn zhuàn to Lín Hóng’s biography. His verse comprises three collections: one is Fèngtái qīngxiào — works after he entered the Hànlín; this present collection and Cǎozé kuánggē are both pre-service works. After Gōng’s death they were obscured and not transmitted. In Chénghuà guǐmǎo (1483), the Nánjīng Hùbù shàngshū Huáng Hào searched for Wáng’s surviving manuscripts and first obtained this collection from the family of Lìbù lángzhōng Huáng Rǔmíng of Chánglè; he accordingly entrusted Rǔmíng to edit and arrange them, dividing them into front and rear collections. At the front of the juǎn is the original preface by Lín Huán of Yǒnglè 3 (1405) — a single preface for all three collections; in the preface the order of cutting takes this present collection first — so we know that in date it lies before Cǎozé kuánggē. At the end of the juǎn there are also the Jiēshān qiáo zhě zhuànzàn císhuō by Lín Huì and others — composed in the Yǒnglè era; these were added after the cutting. Gōng and his fellow-townsman Gāo Bǐng 高棅 were of equal fame; both summoned in bùyī (commoner’s clothes) into the Hànlín. But after Bǐng entered service, his verse turned to yìngchóu (occasional and exchange poems) and became careless, without further qīngsī (clear thought); whereas Gōng served only a short time before he submitted his petition and went home. Tracing his nature back, he was originally devoted to mountains and wilderness — and this collection was again made during his days of farming-at-home; so the diction is clear and outstanding, untainted by vulgar dust, capturing the yíyì 遺意 of the Dàlì Shízǐ 大歷十子 [the second-half Táng decade poets]. His géyùn (style and resonance) is far above Bǐng’s. At the time, when [the Shízǐ] were ranked first-and-second, Bǐng was placed third and Gōng fourth — perhaps that is what is called chǐ jū Wáng hòu (ashamed to stand behind Wáng [Bó], i.e., Wáng Gōng’s chagrin at being ranked below Gāo Bǐng)? Compiled and presented respectfully in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).

Abstract

Wáng Gōng’s lifedates are not securely fixed. CBDB returns many homonyms (id 126650 / 126651, etc., all Ming) without dates; the standard reference works place him c. 1340s–1410s. The Yǒnglè 4 (1406) Lín Huán preface to the present collection — describing Wáng as shén qīng tǐ qú, xūbìn rú xuě (clear-spirited, lean-bodied, hair and beard white as snow) when summoned to the Hànlín on recommendation — implies advanced age in 1406, suggesting birth in the 1330s or 1340s. The post-Hàn-lín retirement followed within a few years; the Fèngtái qīngxiào collection (of his Hànlín verse) was lost by mid-Míng. The death-date is not transmitted but post-Yǒng-lè 4 (1406) is the terminus post quem.

Wáng’s significance lies in the Sìkù editors’ calibrated defence: among the Mǐnzhōng Shízǐ, Gāo Bǐng (the canonical theoretical heir of KR4e0044 Lín Hóng) has the conventional first rank — but the Sìkù prefer Wáng Gōng’s géyùn and align his pre-service verse with the Dàlì Shízǐ mid-Táng decade-poet model rather than Gāo’s more programmatic High-Táng fùgǔ line. The Yǒng-lè-era preface frame (“the bright dawn’s calling has waited for Master long”) explicitly positions Wáng as a yìnshì 隱士 / hermit poet rather than a court literary man — making Báiyún qiáochàng jí a representative document of the early-Yǒng-lè aestheticisation of pre-service retreat.

The textual chain — Wáng Gōng → manuscript with Huáng Rǔmíng’s family (Chánglè) → Huáng Hào’s 1483 recovery and commissioned re-editing — is one of the better-documented mid-Míng biéjí recovery sequences. The companion KR4e0046 Cǎozé kuánggē survives via a Wú Mǐngjīng / Wāngshì of Xiùshuǐ manuscript line (per KR4e0046 Tíyào).

Translations and research

• L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Entry on Wáng Gōng (vol. 2, pp. 1397–1398).
• 陳慶元 Mǐn-zhōng shī-pài yánjiū 閩中詩派研究. Fú-zhōu: Fú-jiàn rén-mín, 2007. Ch. 2.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).

Other points of interest

Lín Huán 林環 (the zhuàngyuán 狀元 of Yǒnglè 4 / 1406, jìnshì) wrote his joint preface to all three of Wáng Gōng’s verse collections shortly after Wáng’s appointment to the Hànlín. The single preface — covering all three works in a unified literary-biographical frame — is a rare format that allowed the lost Fèngtái qīngxiào to be reconstructed in part from later Míng anthologists’ quotations.

Links

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