Gēngxuézhāi shījí 耕學齋詩集
The Verse Collection of the Plough-and-Learn Studio by 袁華 (撰)
About the work
Gēngxuézhāi shījí 耕學齋詩集 in twelve juǎn (seven of ancient form, five of modern-style verse) is the principal verse collection of Yuán Huá 袁華, zì Zǐyīng 子英, born Yányòu 延祐 bǐngchén (i.e. 1316; per his own poem Zèng Mǐn Zhōngfú chūdù shī 贈閔中孚初度詩 — “tóng shēng Yányòu bǐngchén nián” 同生延祐丙辰年, “born the same year, Yányòu bǐngchén”); native of Kūnshān 崑山 (Sūzhōu prefecture); pupil of Yáng Wéizhēn 楊維楨 (KR4e0057 Kěchuán jí preface). In the early Hóngwǔ years Yuán served as Sūzhōu fǔ xué xùndǎo 蘇州府學訓導; later implicated in a zuòlèi (implicating-by-association) affair, arrested, and died in Nánjīng. The vast majority of the poems date from the Yuán: numerous datings within the collection (jiǎwǔ 1354, bǐngshēn 1356, jǐhài 1359, gēngzǐ 1360, yǐsì 1365, bǐngwǔ 1366, dīngwèi 1367) all fall in the Shùndì Zhìzhèng era; only one Guǐchǒu zhèngyuè fēngyǔ zhōng ǒuchéng 癸丑正月風雨中偶成 dates to Hóngwǔ 6 (1373). The Sìkù editors’ politically pointed observation: Yuán Huá presented himself as a Yuán yímín in this 1373 poem, but as a Sūzhōu fǔ xué xùndǎo he had already accepted Míng lù (state salary) and his yímín posture was therefore unwarranted.
Tiyao
The Gēngxuézhāi shījí in twelve juǎn — by Yuán Huá of the Míng. Huá, zì Zǐyīng, native of Kūnshān. Born at the end of Yuán. In the early Hóngwǔ he was Sūzhōu fǔ xué xùndǎo; later on a zuòlèi charge he was arrested and died in the capital. This collection comprises seven juǎn of ancient form and five juǎn of modern style; we do not know by whom it was edited. The Míngshǐ Yìwén zhì does not record it. Examining Yáng Wéizhēn 楊維楨’s preface to the KR4e0057 Kěchuán jí: Wéizhēn says “Huá from age twenty onward, in thirty years has accumulated no fewer than over a thousand poems; what I have selected makes such-and-such pieces”. We suspect this Gēngxuézhāi shījí is what is referred to as “over a thousand poems” — collected by later persons to transmit. In the early Míng, authors stood in rows; Huá was overshadowed by the great names of his contemporaries — so he and his verse are not well-known. In truth he is xián huá pèi shí (embracing flowers, wearing reality) — fully canonical, not what later forgers’ style could reach. We cannot belittle him merely because his transmission has not been wide. Huá’s Zèng Mǐn Zhōngfú chūdù shī 贈閔中孚初度詩 has the line tóng shēng Yányòu bǐngchén nián (born the same year, Yányòu bǐngchén) — calculating from the gānzhī, going down to Míng Tàizǔ Hóngwǔ 1 (1368) he was already 53. So in the collection the verses composed in the Yuán age are many: years marked jiǎwǔ (1354), bǐngshēn (1356), jǐhài (1359), gēngzǐ (1360), yǐsì (1365), bǐngwǔ (1366), dīngwèi (1367) — all fall in Shùndì Zhìzhèng. Only the Guǐchǒu zhèngyuè fēngyǔ zhōng ǒuchéng one piece was made in Hóngwǔ 6 (1373) — and quite reveals tones of sorrow and lament; perhaps he wished to attach himself to the Yuán yímín (Yuán bequest-people). But he had already eaten Míng lù — there was no need for such words. Compiled and presented respectfully in the second month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779).
Abstract
Yuán Huá’s birth-date is precisely fixed at 1316 by his own poem citing his birth as Yányòu bǐngchén (matching CBDB id 33392, b. 1316). His death-date is fixed by his arrest and death in Nánjīng under a Hóngwǔ zuòlèi (implicating-by-association) charge — likely connected to the same waves of Sūzhōu literati purges that took Gāo Qǐ (KR4e0029) in 1374 or in subsequent Hóng-wǔ-era purges of the 1370s. Yuán’s Sūzhōu fǔ xué xùndǎo post is parallel to Táo Zōngyí’s (KR4e0049) Hóng-wǔ-era public-education service.
The Sìkù editors’ political note — that Yuán’s 1373 Guǐchǒu zhèngyuè verse adopts a Yuán yímín posture (bēiliáng gǎnkǎi 悲凉感慨, “sorrowful and lamenting”), but Yuán was at that time a Míng salaried official and the posture is therefore disingenuous — is one of the more pointed biéjí Tíyào moments of political-historical critique. The Sìkù parallel with the analogous case of Táo Zōngyí (also a Míng salaried official who in some quarters has been read as a Yuán yímín) is implicit but unmistakable.
The collection is one of the more comprehensive surviving witnesses to a Wúzhōng poet of the YuánMíng transition who actually lived through both regimes: thirty years of Yuán Shùndì-era verse plus several decades of Míng-era verse, all from a single sustained literary life. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, follows the Sìkù placement of Yuán among the Míng biéjí. The matched KR4e0057 Kěchuán jí is the selection of about a hundred pieces approved by Yuán’s teacher Yáng Wéizhēn in Zhìzhèng guǐmǎo (1363) and represents the Yuán-period self-selection through Yáng’s filtering.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
Yuán Huá’s Gēngxuézhāi studio — “Plough-and-Learn” — names the Yán Qián jiā xué 顏淵家學 ideal of combining rustic livelihood with classical study. The studio-name epitomises the yìnshì (retired-scholar) self-positioning common to mid-14th-century Sūzhōu literati under both Zhāng Shìchéng and the early Hóngwǔ regimes.
Links
- Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).