Zìyí jí 自怡集
The Self-Solace Collection by 劉璉 (撰)
About the work
Zìyí jí 自怡集 in one juǎn (94 poems) is the surviving verse collection of Liú Lián 劉璉 (1348–1379), zì Mèngzǎo 孟藻, native of Qīngtián 青田 (Zhèjiāng); eldest son of Liú Jī 劉基 (Chéngyìbó 誠意伯, 1311–1375). In Hóngwǔ 10 (1377) appointed Kǎogōng jiān chéng 考功監丞 with concurrent shì jiānchá yùshǐ 試監察御史; sent out as Jiāngxī bùzhèngsī yòu cānzhèng 江西布政司右參政; died in office at age 32. The collection was compiled by his son Liú Zhì 劉廌 (the second-generation Chéngyìbó) and includes at the end the āicí 哀辭 by Wú Cóngshàn 吳從善 (Hóngwǔ 13 / 1380 Guóshǐyuàn biānxiū), which is the principal external biographical witness. The opening preface is by Huáng Bóshēng 黃伯生 (Qínfǔ jǐshàn 秦府紀善). The Sìkù editors’ assessment is unusually warm: they class Liú Lián as continuing his father’s verse tradition (the Líméigōng 犁眉公 of KR4e0005 Chéngyìbó wénjí) and credit him with surpassing the Sòng in his five-character ancient form.
Tiyao
The Zìyí jí in one juǎn — by Liú Lián of the Míng. Lián, zì Mèngzǎo, native of Qīngtián; eldest son of Chéngyìbó Liú Jī. In Hóngwǔ 10 (1377) he was Kǎogōng jiān chéng with concurrent shì jiānchá yùshǐ; sent out as Jiāngxī bùzhèngsī yòu cānzhèng; died in office at age 32. This collection was edited by his son [Liú] Zhì 廌. At the end is appended an āicí composed by Guóshǐyuàn biānxiūguān Wú Cóngshàn 吳從善 of Hóngwǔ 13 (1380), recording in detail Jī’s following Tàizǔ in raising troops; Lián in Nánshān days regulating the various cǎoqiè (brigands); requesting the establishment of Tányáng xúnjiǎn 談洋巡檢 to settle the source of fleeing brigands; and his thwarting of Shěn Lìběn 沈立本’s flattering attachment to the powerful minister. He praises [Liú Lián] only for cáilüè qìjié (talent-and-skill, moral-fibre) — not reaching his literary skill. At the front of the juǎn is the preface by Qínfǔ jǐshàn Huáng Bóshēng 黃伯生, who says: “I once saw him meeting affairs gāngguǒ (firm-resolute), seated, repelling crooked-and-flattering, not bending, not ingratiating — fitting that his youthful sharpness should be so full inside; yet on reading his verse, lo, it is gentle-soft and chōngdàn (calm-light), with the genuine emotion of àijūn yōuguó (loving the ruler, worrying for the state), and yet he regards himself kǎnrán (feeling-empty), as if not yet sufficient — qí jì 庶幾 (almost) of him who has heard the Dào.” Now looking at this collection: only the seven-character regulated style somewhat enters the liúlì yuánměi (flowing-smooth and round-pretty) — not departing from the late-Yuán style; but these are only four pieces — clearly not where he liked to compose. As to the five-character ancient form, which occupies more than half of the collection — all of it has cízhǐ gāoyǎ (lofty-elegant in word-and-intent) and the yùnsī shēnzhì (deep-earnest in moving thought) is almost driving above the two Sòng [Northern and Southern Sòng], to continue [his father] Líméigōng 犁眉公’s [Liú Jī’s] various collections. One may say it is not unworthy of his father. Yet Míng people scarcely mention it — perhaps the more it was xūnfá (achievement-rank) shadowed? Compiled and presented respectfully in the third month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778).
Abstract
Liú Lián’s lifedates 1348–1379 are confirmed by CBDB (id 34419: 1348–1379). The 32-year lifespan and the death-in-office at Jiāngxī make this collection a yízǐ (orphan-son) compilation by his own son Liú Zhì (the second-generation Chéngyìbó; later the hereditary noble who would inherit the Liú Jī marquisate). The principal documentary anchor is the Wú Cóngshàn āicí of 1380 — composed by the founding-Hóngwǔ Hànlín establishment — which preserves the otherwise-undocumented Nánshān anti-bandit campaigns and the Tányáng xúnjiǎn establishment proposal.
The Sìkù editors’ literary-historical claim — that Liú Lián’s five-character ancient verse “drives above the two Sòng to continue Líméigōng’s [his father’s] various collections” — is significantly higher praise than is typically given to a zǐ (son) collection by a biéjí editor. The implicit argument: Liú Lián’s premature death at 32 has caused his literary work to be eclipsed by his father’s xūnfá (achievement-rank) and his son Liú Zhì’s inheritance of the marquisate; but his actual cái warrants a recovery as second-generation Líméigōng poetry. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, treats Liú Lián among the secondary early-Míng biéjí but follows the Sìkù in noting the unusual quality of the five-character ancient verse.
The literary-historical position: KR4e0005 Chéngyìbó wénjí and KR4e0006 Tàishī Chéngyìbó Liú Wénchénggōng jí preserve Liú Jī’s own corpus; the present KR4e0066 Zìyí jí is the second-generation continuation. The pattern of xūnfá nobility families maintaining a literary-collection tradition over generations is rare in the early Míng (more common from the Wànlì period onward).
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Notice of Liú Lián (under Liú Jī, vol. 1, pp. 932–938).
- Hok-lam Chan. Liu Chi (1311–1375): The Dual Image of a Chinese Imperial Adviser. Hong Kong: Hong Kong UP, 1967. Background on the Liú family.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The Tányáng xúnjiǎn 談洋巡檢 establishment proposal — preserved through Wú Cóngshàn’s āicí — is one of the very few documentary witnesses to early-Hóngwǔ frontier-administration practice at the ZhèjiāngJiāngxī border. Liú Lián’s proposal as Jiāngxī yòu cānzhèng in the mid-1370s anticipates the more famous frontier-administrative reforms of the Yǒnglè era.
Links
- Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).