海叟集

Hǎisǒu jí 海叟集

The Sea-Elder Collection by 袁凱 (撰)

About the work

Hǎisǒu jí 海叟集 in four juǎn is the literary collection of Yuán Kǎi 袁凱, zì Jǐngwén 景文, hào Hǎisǒu 海叟 (“Sea-Elder”), native of Huátíng 華亭 (Sōngjiāng, modern Shànghǎi). In the Hóngwǔ era promoted from jǔrén to Jiānchá yùshǐ 監察御史; pleading illness, retired and went home. Famously feigned madness during the Hóngwǔ purges and was therefore spared. His record is in Míng shǐ Wényuàn zhuàn. The collection’s transmission is exceptionally complicated, involving four major recensions: (1) the original Xiángzé Zhāngshì kèběn 祥澤張氏刻本, fixed by Yuán Kǎi himself, long dispersed; (2) Zhū Yīngxiáng 朱應祥 and Zhāng Pú 張璞’s Tiān-shùn-era Zàiyě jí 在野集 recension, which silently edited the text on political grounds (e.g., “gùguó piāolíng shì yǐ fēi” → “qùqù bēiqiū bù zì zhī”, apparently to suppress yímín allusions); (3) Hóngzhì-era Lù Shēn 陸深 Wǎyuè jí 瓦岳集 / Jìhuì jí 既晦集 (re-edited by Hé Jǐngmíng 何景明 and Lǐ Mèngyáng 李夢陽); (4) Lóng-qìng-era Hé Yuánzhī 何元之’s huózì (movable-type) print of one hundred copies; (5) Wàn-lì-era Zhāng Suǒwàng 張所望’s re-cut. The present WYG base is the Qīng-era Cáo Bǐngzēng 曹炳曾’s collation, taking the Zhāng Suǒwàng Wànlì cut as base text with reference to the Hé Jǐngmíng / Lǐ Mèngyáng line — the most reliable transmission. Hé Jǐngmíng in his preface to his recension judged Yuán Kǎi the chief Míng poet of the early reign (Míngchū shīrén yǐ Kǎi wéi guān 明初詩人以凱為冠) — placing him above Gāo Qǐ.

Tiyao

The Hǎisǒu jí in four juǎn — by Yuán Kǎi of the Míng. Kǎi, zì Jǐngwén, native of Huátíng. In the middle of Hóngwǔ from jǔrén on recommendation was made Jiānchá yùshǐ; pleaded illness and retired home. His career is in Míng shǐ Wényuàn zhuàn. The collection has an old Xiángzé Zhāngshì cut, fixed by Kǎi himself; long ago dispersed. In Tiānshùn, the Zàiyě jí selected and edited by Zhū Yīngxiáng and Zhāng Pú — they often changed [the text] by their own yì (intent). Such as the line “yānshù wēimáng dú yǐ lán” (smoke-trees faint and far, alone leaning on the railing) — changed to “yānshù wēimáng mèng lǐ shān” (…in dream’s mountain) — because the verse used the shān 山 / shān 刪 rhyme, and the character lán 欄 is in the hánhuán 寒桓 rhyme; not realising that the Hóngwǔ zhèngyùn had already combined the two categories into one — Kǎi was using the official rhyme, not a jiān (rhyme-clashing) error. “Gùguó piāolíng shì yǐ fēi” (the old country drifting alone, affairs already amiss) — changed to “qùqù bēiqiū bù zì zhī” (going and going, mourning autumn, not knowing oneself) — because Kǎi had already served Míng, [the editors] wanted to hide his qiáncháo zhī gǎn (former dynasty’s emotion). They did not know that according to Táo Zōngyí’s Chuògēng lù this verse was composed at the end of Zhìzhèng — using the Jīnlíng WángXiè yàn (the swallows of Jīnlíng’s Wáng and Xiè houses) event; the lower line itself makes it clear: not composed for the Yuán’s fall. As for “yǔshēng zhōngrì guò xiánmén” (rain-sound all day passes the leisure-gate) changed to “yǔshēng suíchù yǒu xiánmén” (rain-sound everywhere there’s a leisure-gate) — we know not what intent of editing they had! In the Hóngzhèng era Lù Shēn 陸深 obtained an incomplete copy of the old cut; with Hé Jǐngmíng and Lǐ Mèngyáng he again collated and fixed it — i.e. the printed Wǎyuè jí and Jìhuì jí. In Lóngqìng Hé Yuánzhī 何元之 obtained the Xiángzé old cut, with movable-type collated and printed 100 copies, transmitted it. In Wànlì Zhāng Suǒwàng 張所望 again re-cut it. This copy is what Cáo Bǐngzēng 曹炳曾 of the present dynasty collated, with Zhāng’s text as base and the Hé Jǐngmíng version cross-referenced, correcting its errors — the most complete of the various copies. Kǎi got his name with the Báiyàn shī 白燕詩 (White-Swallow verse); his time called him “Yuán Báiyàn” (Yuán White-Swallow). Lǐ Mèngyáng’s preface, however, says: “Báiyàn shī is the lowest yet most-transmitted; his loftier pieces have not been transmitted.” Now examining the whole collection, Mèngyáng’s word is correct. Hé Jǐngmíng’s preface says: “Among the early-Míng poets, Kǎi is guān (chief).” Now Kǎi’s ancient form mostly learns from the Wénxuǎn; his modern style mostly learns from Dù Fǔ. With Jǐngmíng’s persistent argument, this view is in sympathy. Yet it leaves no room for Gāo Qǐ and the others — so commentators do not accept it. Yet to set Kǎi galloping among Gāo Qǐ and the others, each having strengths and weaknesses, mutually winning and losing: placing him above them, [we] cannot; placing him below them, he is also unwilling. Lù Shēn’s Jīntái jìwén 金臺紀聞 records a verse by Gāo Qǐ to Kǎi: “Fresh-new is also like me, but heroic-vigorous is not like him” — but the words do not at all resemble Qǐ’s style; this is Dū Mù 都穆 and others’ fabrication. (Note: these two phrases are not in Gāo Qǐ’s collection; Shēn heard it from Mù; Mù heard it from Shǐ Jiàn 史鑑; Jiàn heard it from Zhū Yīngxiáng). Yet Shēn took the two lines as factual record — somewhat untenable.

Abstract

Yuán Kǎi’s lifedates are not securely fixed: CBDB returns several homonyms (id 313581 / 338653 / 359656 / 439006), none with confident dates. The catalog meta gives fl. 1349–1370. The career chronology — jǔrén under late Yuán, Jiānchá yùshǐ in mid-Hóngwǔ (likely 1370s), illness-retirement back to Huátíng, yángkuáng (feigned madness) during the Hóngwǔ purges — places his birth c. 1316–1320s and death late 14th c.

The textual transmission history is the principal scholarly interest of this collection. Five named recensions (Xiángzé Zhāngshì → Tiānshùn Zàiyě jí → Hóngzhì Lù Shēn → Lóngqìng Hé Yuánzhī → Wànlì Zhāng Suǒwàng → Qīng Cáo Bǐngzēng) are mapped explicitly by the Sìkù editors. The Tiān-shùn-era Zhū Yīngxiáng / Zhāng Pú redaction’s three named alterations — particularly the political suppression of gùguó piāolíng (old-country drifting) → qùqù bēiqiū (going-and-going, mourning autumn) — is among the cleanest documentary cases of mid-Míng editorial political-correctness on a Hóngwǔ-era biéjí. The Sìkù editors’ restoration of the original is a model of kǎozhèng method.

The Hé Jǐngmíng / Lǐ Mèngyáng (the Qián Qīzǐ 前七子) embrace of Yuán Kǎi — placing him above Gāo Qǐ — is the most consequential historical-aesthetic claim made about Yuán Kǎi: that he is the proto-fùgǔ model whose imitation of Wénxuǎn and Dù Fǔ anticipates the High-Míng fùgǔ movement. Lǐ Dōngyáng 李東陽’s earlier judgement that Yuán Kǎi “specifically studies Dù” (in Huáilùtáng shīhuà; cited at KR4e0044 Tíyào) anticipates the Qián Qīzǐ reading. The Sìkù editors’ careful adjustment — that Yuán is in a permanent comparative position with the Wúzhōng Sìjié, neither clearly above nor below — is the standard modern position. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, treats Yuán Kǎi among the leading early-Hóngwǔ poets.

The famous Báiyàn shī anecdote — the inferiority-but-most-popular verse — is itself an important documentary witness to mid-Míng anthologising practice.

Translations and research

• L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Entry on Yuán Kǎi (vol. 2, pp. 1611–1614).
• F. W. Mote. The Poet Kao Ch’i, 1336–1374. Princeton: PUP, 1962. Yuán Kǎi’s position in the Wú-zhōng circle.
• Daniel Bryant. The Great Recreation: Ho Ching-ming (1483–1521) and His World. Leiden: Brill, 2008. Hé Jǐng-míng’s reception of Yuán Kǎi.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).

Other points of interest

The famous yángkuáng (feigned-madness) episode — Yuán Kǎi survived the Hóngwǔ purges by pretending to have gone mad, allegedly eating dog-faeces in public to prove the deception — is one of the most-cited examples of early-Míng literati survival strategy. Yuán’s literary survival in the same generation as Gāo Qǐ, Wáng Yí, Wáng Xíng, Sūn Fén is, by this trick, almost unique.

Links

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