可傳集

Kěchuán jí 可傳集

The Collection That Can Be Transmitted by 袁華 (撰), 楊維楨 (刪定)

About the work

Kěchuán jí 可傳集 in one juǎn is the strict selection of Yuán Huá 袁華’s verse made by his teacher Yáng Wéizhēn 楊維楨 in Zhìzhèng guǐmǎo (1363). The title Kěchuán — literally “[that which] can be transmitted” — is Yáng Wéizhēn’s own coinage and bears a calibrated literary-historical claim: Yáng’s preface explicitly invokes Dù Fǔ’s famous line “xīnshī jùjù jìn kān chuán” (new poems, every line worthy of transmission) and argues that of the Táng’s hundred-and-twenty-plus named poets, those of “transmission-worthy” rank with Dù Fǔ are scarcely one or two in ten. Yáng’s Tiěyá 鐵崖 selection of Yuán Huá’s many hundred poems is calibrated by this Táng-standard severity; only the pieces meeting the kěchuán standard are admitted. The collection thus stands as both a poetic selection and a documentary witness to the Tiěyá master’s actual editorial method. Companion to the larger KR4e0056 Gēngxuézhāi shījí.

Tiyao

The Kěchuán jí in one juǎn — by Yuán Huá of the Míng. Huá has the Gēngxuézhāi shījí, already entered in the catalog. This copy is the one shàndìng (cut-and-fixed) by Yáng Wéizhēn in Zhìzhèng guǐmǎo (1363). Huá was Wéizhēn’s pupil. At the front there is Wéizhēn’s preface saying: “Among those of my Tiěmén 鐵門 who are said to be able to compose poetry — north and south, in all over a hundred persons — when we look for those of the rank of Zhāng Xiàn 張憲 and Yuán Huá, we find fewer than ten.” The title of the collection is also Yáng Wéizhēn’s bestowal — so the praise was extreme. Yet Wéizhēn discussing verse with Lǐ Wǔjǔ 李五舉 also said: “Plum is single in the sour; salt is single in the salty. Eating plum and salt, the taste is constantly attained outside the salty and the sour. Now Huá’s pieces are merely single in salty and sour — that is all.” So his statement is self-contradictory. Now looking at the verse, by and large it is diǎnyǎ yǒu fǎ (canonical-elegant, with method) — sweeping away the nóngxiān (dense-fine) habits of late Yuán and opening the chūnróng (spring-leisurely) line of the early Míng. Wéizhēn’s remark stands for what one might call the Sīkōng Tú 司空圖 wèiwài zhī wèi (taste-beyond-taste) doctrine, raised in the high-discussion register. In truth, single in sour and salty — is it not still better than the so-called táigétǐ of the Hóngxī Xuāndé era, which had no sour and salty at all to taste? One should not take Wéizhēn’s word and dismiss Huá lightly. Huá’s Gēngxuézhāi gǎo — its juǎn and zhì (volumes and folios) are more abundant; many transmit it in the world. This collection — the Míngshǐ Yìwén zhì does not record. The Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù records it but does not list its juǎn number — so Huáng Yújì 黃虞稷 also did not see it. Now, because this is what was shǒudìng (hand-fixed) by Yáng Wéizhēn — the qùqǔ (eliminating-and-taking) was quite strict — therefore for completeness we take one and for refinement we take one, recording both alongside the full collection. Compiled and presented respectfully in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).

Abstract

The Kěchuán jí is significant in three ways: (1) as a documentary witness to Yáng Wéizhēn’s Tiěyá / Tiěmén editorial activity — one of the very few cases where the master’s actual selection criterion can be read against the source from which he selected (compare also Yáng’s preface and píng in KR4e0035 Liú Yànbǐng jí); (2) as one of the principal critical anchors of the YuánMíng transition Wúzhōng literary network — Yáng explicitly names Zhāng Xiàn 張憲 alongside Yuán Huá as the two pupils of his hundred-plus Tiěmén circle who had attained transmission-worthy status; (3) as a calibrated test case for the Sìkù editors’ defense of an editorially selected and therefore stylistically narrowed literary corpus against the broader Sòngpài / fùgǔpài dismissal of the Tiěyá register as monotonous (single in salty and sour).

Yáng Wéizhēn’s Sīkōng Tú citation — wèiwài zhī wèi (taste-beyond-taste) from the Èrshísì shīpǐn 二十四詩品 — is one of the principal Yuán-period invocations of that critical doctrine; the Sìkù editors’ clever inversion — that single in salty and sour is still better than the tasteless táigétǐ — is a model of Tíyào-era pointed historical comparison. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, foregrounds the Yáng Wéizhēn / Tiěyá / Tiěmén school as one of the principal late-Yuán literary networks; the Kěchuán jí is one of the better-documented surviving pieces of that network’s pedagogical practice.

Translations and research

• L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Entry on Yáng Wéi-zhēn (vol. 2, pp. 1547–1553).
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí); §27.5 (Yuán-Míng transition literary networks).

Other points of interest

Yáng Wéizhēn’s Kěchuán coinage — based on Dù Fǔ’s “xīnshī jùjù jìn kān chuán” — became a recurring motif in mid-Míng biéjí selection practice; later editorial collections explicitly titled Kěchuán draw their authority from this Zhìzhèng 23 (1363) Yáng / Yuán prototype.

Links

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