望雲集

Wàngyún jí 望雲集

The Cloud-Gazing Collection by 郭奎 (撰)

About the work

Wàngyún jí 望雲集 in five juǎn is the verse collection of Guō Kuí 郭奎 (d. 1364), zì Zǐzhāng 子章, native of Cháoxiàn 巢縣 (Hézhōu, modern Ānhuī). As a young man Guō was a personal student of the Yuán loyalist Yú Què 余闕 at Ānqìng — sharing this Ān-qìng-circle background with Liú Bǐng (KR4e0035) and others. Zhū Wénzhèng 朱文正 (Zhū Yuánzhāng’s nephew and adopted son, Dàdūdū of the early-Hóngwǔ Nánchāng fǔ) opened the Dàdūdū fǔ at Nánchāng; Guō served as cānmóu 參謀 of his army. When Wénzhèng was sentenced for treason (Zhìzhèng 24 / 1364, on charges of seeking to defect to Zhāng Shìchéng), Guō was implicated and executed. His record is appended in Míng shǐ Wényuàn zhuàn to Wáng Miǎn 王冕’s biography. The collection survives in five juǎn (37 five-character ancient poems, 13 cígēqǔ 詞歌曲, 109 five- and seven-character regulated verses, 44 páilǜ záshī 排律雜詩) plus three short letters at the end (per Jiājìng xīnmǎo / 1531 Wú Tínghàn 吳廷翰’s recension). Zhào Fǎng 趙汸 and Sòng Lián 宋濂 both wrote prefaces.

Tiyao

The Wàngyún jí in five juǎn — by Guō Kuí of the Míng. Kuí, zì Zǐzhāng, native of Cháoxiàn. As a youth he studied under the Yuán Yú Què; impassioned and of high purpose. Zhū Wénzhèng opened the Dàdūdū fǔ at Nánchāng; Kuí once served as cānmóu of his army; later when Wénzhèng was sentenced, Kuí was also implicated and executed. His record is appended in Míng shǐ Wényuàn zhuàn to Wáng Miǎn’s biography. Kuí, at the time of gàngē rǎorǎng (warlike disturbances), shouldered his sword and followed the army, fully experiencing dangers and obstacles — cāngliáng (desolate-cold) and jīchǔ (intense-bitter) emotion, expressed in verse. His five-character ancient form is rooted in the HànWèi, gaining considerable yíyì (received intent); his seven-character ancient form is at times close to Lǐ Bái 李白; his five-character regulated form is purely Táng; his seven-character regulated form is somewhat mixed with Sòng tones; his juéjù lie between Táng and Sòng. At the late-Yuán / early-Míng moment, one can call him a tǐngchū (towering-out) figure. Zhào Fǎng 趙汸 and Sòng Lián 宋濂 both wrote prefaces, praising him very highly — and these were not undeserved praises. At the end of juǎn 5 are appended three short letters. Note: when Wú Tínghàn 吳廷翰 re-cut this collection in Jiājìng xīnmǎo (1531), he only spoke of 37 five-character ancient poems, 13 cígēqǔ, 109 five- and seven-character regulated, 44 páilǜ záshī — and did not mention any wén (prose). So perhaps later people obtained his manuscripts and appended them? The jí contains Sòng Chén Kèmíng guī Chálíng shī 送陳克明歸茶陵詩, where the character 瑚璉 is rhymed in the level tone — this is the ancient sānshēng method. The ancient poem Shàngshān cǎi míwú 上山採蘼蕪 rhymes 素 and 餘 together; Liú Kūn 劉琨’s Zèng Lú Chén shī 贈盧諶詩 rhymes 璆 and 叟 together — this is just the precedent; not a luòyùn (fallen rhyme) error. Compiled and presented respectfully in the seventh month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778).

Abstract

Guō Kuí’s death-date 1364 is fixed by his execution alongside Zhū Wénzhèng in Zhìzhèng 24; his birth-date is unknown but presumably 1320s–1330s. CBDB (id 34389) records d. 1364, fl. 1360. The conjunction with Yú Què at Ānqìng is the principal biographical anchor: Guō, like Liú Bǐng, was personally trained in the Yú Què Ānqìng circle that became the literary-political talent pool drawn upon by Zhū Wénzhèng’s Nánchāng Dàdūdū fǔ. The Wénzhèng case of 1364 is one of the earliest internal purges of the rising Míng faction — predating the official Hóngwǔ founding by four years — and Guō’s execution as a Wénzhèngdǎng victim is a documentary fixed point for the political history of that decade.

The literary-historical interest is twofold: (1) the collection is the rare case of a biéjí in which the HànWèi, Lǐ Bái, Táng, and Sòng-influence registers all appear distinctly across the genres — the Sìkù editors’ generic analysis is unusually granular here; (2) the Zhào Fǎng preface — written by the YuánMíng transition Confucian-classical scholar (author of the Chūnqiū jízhuàn in KR1d) — places Guō in a HànWèi rìyǎ (Han-Wei elegance) lineage. Sòng Lián’s preface adds the political-loyalty frame.

The textual transmission via Wú Tínghàn 吳廷翰’s Jiājìng 10 (1531) Hézhōu recension is the parent of the WYG transmission. The closing three letters appended to juǎn 5 — which Wú Tínghàn’s recension did not include — are a later addition from a separate manuscript witness; the Sìkù editors’ careful note of this is one of the cleaner biéjí textual-history reconstructions.

Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, treats Guō Kuí among the secondary figures of the late-Yuán / pre-Hóngwǔ literary-political circle; the Yú Què school of Ānqìng is recognised in §27.5 (YuánMíng transition literary networks).

Translations and research

• L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Notice of Guō Kuí (vol. 1, p. 783, under Lǐ Wén-zhōng).
• John W. Dardess. Confucianism and Autocracy: Professional Elites in the Founding of the Ming Dynasty. Berkeley: UC Press, 1983. Pp. 165–175 on Zhū Wén-zhèng’s Nán-chāng circle.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí) and §27.5 (Yuán-Míng transition).

Other points of interest

The execution of Guō Kuí as part of the Wénzhèng purge of 1364 — four years before the formal Hóngwǔ founding — is one of the earliest documented elimination cases within the rising Zhū faction; the survival of his biéjí is therefore a rare documentary window onto the pre-Hóngwǔ casualties of factional consolidation, paralleled only by the Cuìpíng jí of KR4e0011 Zhāng Yǐníng (text not in source tree; see TODO.md).

Links

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