西菴集

Xīān jí 西菴集

The West-Hermitage Collection by 孫蕡 (撰)

About the work

Xīān jí 西菴集 in nine juǎn (eight verse, one prose) is the surviving literary collection of Sūn Fén 孫蕡 (1334–1389 per catalog meta; CBDB id 129790 gives 1338–1393, see Abstract), zì Zhòngyǎn 仲衍, hào Xīān 西菴, native of Shùndé 順德 in Guǎngdōng — the leading early-Míng poet of Guǎngdōng and head of the so-called Yuè Wǔ xiānshēng 粵五先生 (Five Masters of Yuè). Sūn passed the xiāngshì in Hóngwǔ 3 (1370) and then the jìnshì; appointed Gōngbù Zhīrǎn jú shǐ 工部織染局使; moved to Hóngxiàn zhǔbù 虹縣主簿; summoned to be Hànlínyuàn diǎnjí 翰林院典籍; sent out as Píngyuán zhǔbù 平原主簿; arrested in a zuòlèi (implicating-by-association) affair; soon released; appointed Sūzhōu jīnglì 蘇州經歷; arrested a second time; banished to Liáodōng as a guard-soldier. Ultimately implicated in the Lán Yù 藍玉 treason case (1393) for having previously inscribed a painting for Lán, sentenced, and executed. The Huáng Zuǒ 黃佐 and Yè Chūnjí 葉春及 biographies (preserved in the front matter) record Sūn’s wider authorship: besides this collection, the Tōngjiàn qiánbiān gāngmù 通鑑前編綱目, Xiàojīng jíshàn 孝經集善 (prefaced by Sòng Lián), Lǐxué xùnméng 理學訓蒙, Hé Táo shī 和陶詩, and Jí gǔ lǜshī 集古律詩 — all dispersed after his death. The present nine-juǎn recension was compiled by his pupil Lí Zhēn 黎貞.

Tiyao

The Xīān jí in nine juǎn — by Sūn Fén of the Míng. Fén, zì Zhòngyǎn, native of Shùndé, Guǎngdōng. In Hóngwǔ 3 (1370) he was raised by the xiāng and soon passed the jìnshì; appointed Gōngbù Zhīrǎn jú shǐ; moved to Hóngxiàn zhǔbù; called in as Hànlínyuàn diǎnjí; sent out as Píngyuán zhǔbù; on a zuòlèi charge arrested and tied; soon released; rose as Sūzhōu jīnglì; again on a zuòlèi charge sentenced to garrison-service in Liáodōng. Since he had once inscribed a painting for Lán Yù, he was implicated in Yù’s faction and condemned to death. This compilation has at its front the Sūn Fén xiǎozhuàn composed by Huáng Zuǒ 黃佐 and Yè Chūnjí 葉春及, which say that Sūn’s authorship was very rich: in addition to this collection there were also the Tōngjiàn qiánbiān gāngmù, the Xiàojīng jíshàn (for which Sòng Lián 宋濂 wrote a preface), the Lǐxué xùnméng, the Hé Táo shī, and the Jí gǔ lǜshī. After Sūn’s death these were dispersed. The verse and prose now circulating was compiled by his pupil Lí Zhēn 黎貞. But Huáng [Zuǒ] called the Xīān jí eight juǎn; this compilation has eight juǎn of verse and one juǎn of prose. At the head of the juǎn is the inscription “Gūsū Yè Chūchūn 姑蘇葉初春 selected” — perhaps Chūchūn separately re-edited it? Sūn, coming after the qǐmí (delicate-and-pliant) excess of late Yuán, alone has verse standing in the antique manner. Although his spiritual bone is not as outstanding as Gāo Qǐ’s, he is still beyond what Lín Hóng and the others could reach. A xiǎoshuō records that a scholar saw the ghost of Sū Shì’s concubine Cháo Yún 朝雲, and the ghost had ten jíjù seven-character regulated verses and fifteen jíjù seven-character quatrains. These poems are now in this collection at the end of juǎn 8 — these are Sūn’s playful pieces of the brush, the same as the “Jí gǔ lǜshī” in one juǎn noticed by Huáng [Zuǒ]‘s biography. Lí Zhēn has attached them at the end of the collection and also recorded the preface — making it seem as if Sūn really had encountered a ghost. Quite of one with the Zhāng Hóngqiáo shī appended at the end of KR4e0044 Lín Hóng collection — the same lack of judgement. Compiled and presented respectfully in the first month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779).

Abstract

Sūn Fén’s lifedates have two competing reckonings. The catalog meta gives 1334–1389; CBDB (id 129790) gives 1338–1393. The 1393 death-date matches the Lán Yù affair (Hóngwǔ 26, executed); the 1389 figure in the catalog meta is inconsistent with that political event and may reflect a separate biographical reconstruction. The CBDB / 1393 death-date is the correct one and is followed in the present entry; the implication is that the catalog meta requires correction. Birth-date: 1338 (CBDB) is preferred over 1334 (meta), giving a jìnshì age of 33, consistent with the standard reading.

Sūn’s significance: as head of the Yuè Wǔ xiānshēng (with Wáng Zuǒ 王佐 of Nánhǎi, Zhào Jiè 趙介 of Pānyú, Lǐ Dé 李德 of Pānyú, and Huáng Zhé 黃哲 of Fānyú), Sūn opened Guǎngdōng as a province of literary distinction within the early Míng — a role Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, foregrounds. His verse retains the SòngYuán gǔgé style and was admired by the Sìkù editors as a corrective to the late-Yuán qǐmí tendencies. The connection to Sòng Lián (who wrote the preface for Sūn’s lost Xiàojīng jíshàn) places him in the founding-generation literary establishment.

The Sìkù editors’ rigorous rejection of the Cháo Yún ghost-encounter jíjù sequence appended to juǎn 8 — parallel to their rejection of the Zhāng Hóngqiáo sequence at the end of KR4e0044 — is a notable case of biéjí contamination by romantic xiǎoshuō tradition. The jíjù poems are genuine Sūn productions (matching Huáng Zuǒ’s biographical notice of Jí gǔ lǜshī as a separate playful collection), but Lí Zhēn mis-arranged them with the xiǎoshuō ghost-encounter frame, misrepresenting Sūn as having literally encountered Cháo Yún’s ghost.

Translations and research

• L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Entry on Sūn Fén (vol. 2, pp. 1199–1201).
• 陳建華 Yuè Wǔ xiānshēng yánjiū 粵五先生研究. Guǎng-zhōu: Zhōng-shān dàxué, 2010 (representative modern monograph on the Five Masters of Yuè).
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).

Other points of interest

The Jí gǔ lǜshī 集古律詩 — Sūn Fén’s experimental jíjù (centonized verse) sequence — is one of the foundational works in the late-imperial jíjù tradition. It survives only as the closing portion of juǎn 8 of the present collection (under the misleading Cháo Yún ghost frame added by Lí Zhēn).

Links

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