Qílè shījí 畦樂詩集
The Garden-Plot-Pleasure Verse Collection by 梁蘭 (撰)
About the work
Qílè shījí 畦樂詩集 in one juǎn is the verse collection of Liáng Lán 梁蘭 (1343–1410, per CBDB id 34477), zì Tíngxiù 庭秀 (alternate zì Bùyí 不移), hào Qílè 畦樂, native of Tàihé 泰和 (Jiāngxī). Father of Liáng Qián 梁潛 (1366–1418), the prominent Yǒnglè–era yòu zànshàn 右贊善 and Tàihé literary heir. Liáng Lán lived in retirement and never held office, whence the self-styled hào Qílè (Garden-Plot-Pleasure). Through his pupil-and-relative Yáng Shìqí 楊士奇 (1366–1444) — to whom he was an yīnjiā (in-law family) and from whom Yáng learned verse — Liáng Lán is the immediate generational predecessor of the Yǒnglè–Xuāndé táigétǐ. The collection was compiled and prefaced by Yáng Shìqí himself in Hóngwǔ 31 (1398), while Liáng was still alive (Liáng died Yǒnglè 8 / 1410, per Yáng’s later mùzhìmíng). The original collection was cut as an appendix to Liáng Qián’s Bóān jí 泊菴集; the Sìkù editors re-separated the two collections, following the Shāngǔ jí hòu (Sòng Huáng Tíngjiān jí’s appendix-to-end-of-collection) tradition of Fátán jí 伐檀集. The recovered table of contents lists 234 ancient and modern style poems; the closing five-character ancient form notes seven pieces missing (quē qī shǒu 闕七首) — actual surviving count 227; two missing characters in titles and two in poem-bodies are preserved as gaps.
Tiyao
The Qílè shījí in one juǎn — by Liáng Lán of the Míng. Lán, zì Tíngxiù, alternate zì Bùyí, native of Tàihé. Father of the yòu zànshàn Liáng Qián 梁潛. Lived in retirement and did not serve; therefore self-styled Qílè. He was a yīnjiā (in-law-family connection) of Yáng Shìqí 楊士奇; Shìqí once studied verse from him. This collection is what Shìqí compiled. At the front there is Shìqí’s preface dated Hóngwǔ 31 (1398). Examining Shìqí’s Mùzhìmíng for Liáng [Lán], he died in Yǒnglè 8 (1410); so when this collection was compiled, Liáng could still see it. The old recension lists [the collection] after the Bóān jí 泊菴集 [of Liáng Qián] — using the precedent of the Shāngǔ jí 山谷集 [of Huáng Tíngjiān, with the appendix-printing of Fátán jí 伐檀集 by his father Huáng Shù 黃庶 attached at the end]. Now we have each as its own collection, separately recorded. The original table of contents lists 234 ancient and modern style poems; but within the five-character ancient form, seven are noted as quē (missing); the actual number is 227. The titles contain two missing-character locations; the verse contains two missing-character locations — no other copies to supplement. We now keep these as they are. Shìqí’s preface calls him “zhìpíng ér qìhé, shíyuǎn ér sīqiǎo” (will is even and qì is harmonious; knowledge is far and thought is artful) — “féngféngyān, mùmùyān” (gently resonant, profoundly still) — “the jiǎnjì (terse-quiet) does not fail to be shūxú (relaxed-slow); the shūdàng (loose-undulating) must return to the elegant” — “yōuróu ér què, jīqiè ér wǎn” (gentle-soft yet firm; harsh-cutting yet roundabout). Although Shìqí values his own teacher and his praise is somewhat yì (excessive), in the late-Yuán fányīn màndiào (dense-sound, slow-cadence) environment, Liáng alone preserves xiāorán (lightly aloof) the Táo [Yuānmíng] and Wéi [Yīngwù] manner — and is unashamed in face of the [great] authors. Compiled and presented respectfully in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Abstract
Liáng Lán’s lifedates 1343–1410 are confirmed by CBDB (id 34477). The Yáng Shìqí-pupil-teacher relationship is the principal documentary anchor: Shìqí’s preface (1398) and mùzhìmíng (1410+) together provide the closest external view of any early-Yǒng-lè biéjí author. The literary positioning — Liáng as the TáoWéi (Táo Yuānmíng and Wéi Yīngwù) classical-pastoral inheritor amid the fányīn màndiào of late-Yuán — places him explicitly outside the Tiěyá / Wúzhōng Sìjié / Mǐnzhōng Shízǐ lines and within the Tàihé Jiāngxī classical-retreat lineage that culminates in Yáng Shìqí’s táigétǐ.
The textual history is unusually well-documented: the original printing was bundled with Liáng Qián’s Bóān jí as a fùkè (appendix-cut) — following the precedent of Huáng Tíngjiān’s Sòng-era Shāngǔ jí which had his father Huáng Shù 黃庶’s Fátán jí attached at the end. The Sìkù editors’ separation of the two as distinct collections is a calibrated editorial decision following modern bibliographic convention. The seven missing five-character ancient pieces and four character-level gaps are preserved transparently in the WYG transmission.
The cultural-historical interest of Liáng as the bridge between the late-Yuán Tàihé Confucian-pastoral establishment and the early-Yǒng-lè táigétǐ is foregrounded in John W. Dardess, A Ming Society (1996), which uses the Liáng family as one of the principal documentary anchors for the Tàihé literary network. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, follows the Sìkù placement.
Translations and research
- John W. Dardess. A Ming Society: T’ai-ho County, Kiangsi, in the Fourteenth to Seventeenth Centuries. Berkeley: UC Press, 1996.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Notice of Liáng Lán (under Liáng Qián and Yáng Shì-qí, vol. 1, pp. 909–910).
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The teacher-pupil relationship Liáng Lán → Yáng Shìqí is one of the most important documentable late-Yuán / early-Míng generational verse transmissions, since Yáng went on to dominate Yǒnglè–Xuāndé court literary culture. Yáng’s literary-historical preference for TáoWéi pastoral classicism — and his subsequent shaping of the táigétǐ around that preference — can be traced through his preface to this collection back to Liáng Lán’s actual practice.
Links
- Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).