Xīdàn yuán shījí 希澹園詩集
The Verse Collection of the Garden of Aspiring to Tranquility by 虞堪 (撰)
About the work
Xīdàn yuán shījí 希澹園詩集 in three juǎn is the verse collection of Yú Kān 虞堪, zì Kèyòng 克用, alternate zì Shèngbó 勝伯, native of Chángzhōu 長洲 (Sūzhōu prefecture) but with paternal lineage in Xīshǔ 西蜀 (western Sìchuān). Seven-generation descendant of Yú Yǔnwén 虞允文 (the Sòng minister who defeated the Jīn at Cǎishí in 1161) and grand-nephew of Yú Jí 虞集 (1272–1348, the great Yuán literary giant). The seven-generation Sìchuān-to-Sū-zhōu lineage is the principal genealogical anchor: Yú Jí himself signed his works XīShǔ Yú Jí. Yú Kān lived in retirement at Sūzhōu through the Yuán Zhìzhèng era — the inscription on Zhào Mèngfǔ 趙孟頫’s painting (Wángsūn jīn dài Yùtáng xiān / Zì huà Tiáoxī sì Wǎngchuān / Rúcǐ qīngshān hóngshù lǐ / Kě wú shí mǔ zhǒngguā tián) — taken by the Sìkù editors as shēn fěng (deep satire) of Zhào’s serving two surnames (Sòng and Yuán) — fixes him in the Yuán yímín sensibility. But the catalog records him as Míng: in the mid-Hóngwǔ years he served as Yúnnánfǔ xué jiàoshòu 雲南府學教授, dying in office. The Sìkù editors’ implicit comparison is to Qiú Yuǎn 仇遠 (Yuán figure who served Mongol jiàoyù) — both yímín who eventually accepted state-school teaching posts. The catalog meta dynasty-assignment to Yuán is corrected here to Míng.
Tiyao
The Xīdàn yuán shījí in three juǎn — by Yú Kān of the Míng. Kān, zì Kèyòng, alternate zì Shèngbó, native of Chángzhōu. In mid-Zhì-zhèng he lived in retirement and did not serve; therefore his inscription on Zhào Mèngfǔ’s painting in juéjù form reads: “Wángsūn jīn dài Yùtáng xiān / Zì huà Tiáoxī sì Wǎngchuān / Rúcǐ qīngshān hóngshù lǐ / Kě wú shí mǔ zhǒngguā tián” (The royal grandson now in the Yùtáng [court] immortal-place; self-painting Tiáoxī as if Wǎngchuān; in such green hills and red trees, can one not have ten mǔ of melon fields?) — deeply satirising his serving two surnames. Yet Kān, in mid-Hóngwǔ, was eventually employed as Yúnnánfǔ xué jiàoshòu, dying in office — exactly the same pattern as Qiú Yuǎn 仇遠 entering Yuán service. The original copy titles it Yuán Yú Kān — not factually. Kān’s lìjí (registered domicile) is Chángzhōu; but in the collection the Yánjū gāoshì tú gē 巖居高士圖歌 has the line “wǒ yì běn shì Qīngchéng rén” (I too am originally a Qīngchéng man — i.e., Sìchuān); the Huà shānqū 畫山曲 has “jiāshān wànlǐ gé Shǔdào / zhèng nán xíng” (My home-mountain ten-thousand lǐ away, across the Shǔdào, exactly difficult to travel); Zhū Zhòngshū 朱仲叔’s Shānshuǐ yǐn 山水引 has “XīShǔ shūshēng” 西蜀書生; and the XīShǔ èr juéjù 西蜀二絕句, Sānxiá yáo 三峽謠, Lǚhuái shī 旅懐詩, Yì Jǐnguān shī 憶錦官詩, Sòng Zhāng Shìgāo guī Mǐnzhōng shī 送張士臯歸閩中詩, Cìyùn Lù gāoshì jiàn jì shī 次韻陸高士見寄詩 — all express Shǔ zhī gùxiāng zhī sī (homesickness for Shǔ); and the Chéngdū shǐjūn Wáng Jìyě xíshàng shī 成都使君王季野席上詩 was even composed in Shǔ. Examining the Sòng shǐ: Yú Yǔnwén was originally a Shǔ man, and Yú Jí also always signed himself XīShǔ; Kān is Yǔnwén’s seventh-generation descendant and Jí’s cóngsūn 從孫 (grand-nephew). We suspect he was a liúyù (sojourner) at Chángzhōu, and his back-and-forth with Shǔ was not severed. This collection has at the end a self-postface saying dīngwèi suì dōngzhì qián yī rì (the day before winter-solstice in the dīngwèi year); examining: dīngwèi = Yuán Zhìzhèng 27 (1367) — so all are works of the Yuán era. From entering Míng onward, no further pieces are seen. It is transmitted that after Kān’s death the brush-ink he left behind still filled several boxes; his descendants did not study and casually placed [the manuscripts] in the house — and over time they were lost. So what he had dispersed must also have been many. The verse is much tíhuà (inscribing-painting) work; and meeting the late-Yuán zàoshí (turbulent time), there is at times yōushí gǎnshì (grieving-time, sensing-events) language. The ancient form’s qìgé is fairly high; the modern style’s yīnjié xiéwǎn (harmonious-roundabout cadence) — only the seven-character regulated kèyì yù xiào Huáng Tíngjiān (carefully wishing to imitate Huáng Tíngjiān), but his cáilì is shallow-thin and ultimately not close. But by and large wǎnyuē xiùyì (graceful-yielding, refined-uninhibited), with rich qíngyùn (feeling-resonance), without the contemporary nóngyàn (dense-charming) habit — one may call it juānjuān dúlì (slim-slim, standing alone). The world also has a separate copy of Kān’s verse titled Gǔyè gǎo 鼓枻稿; cross-checking with this collection — its piānshù duōguǎ (piece-counts more-and-less) are all the same; only the front-and-back arrangement differs slightly. Either it is Kān’s original, or later persons separately titled it for circulation — neither can be settled. We now attach a record of its title here and do not record it separately. Compiled and presented respectfully in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 42 (1777).
Abstract
Yú Kān’s lifedates are not securely fixed. CBDB id 34423 records fl. 1383 only. The closing self-postface (dīngwèi / 1367) and the subsequent Yúnnánfǔ jiàoshòu service (in mid-Hóngwǔ) place his active years c. 1340s–1380s. The CBDB fl. 1383 fits the documented Yúnnánfǔ service period (Yúnnán was incorporated under Míng administration in 1382).
The major Tíyào contribution is the dynasty re-classification from Yuán to Míng. The argument is structural: although Yú Kān’s surviving verse is overwhelmingly Yuán-period (closing dīngwèi / 1367), and although his Zhào Mèngfǔ painting-inscription is yímín-positioned, his eventual Hóngwǔ-era acceptance of the Yúnnánfǔ jiàoshòu office makes him a Míng official. The Sìkù editors’ parallel to Qiú Yuǎn is calibrated: like Qiú Yuǎn (who served Mongol jiàoyù posts), Yú Kān’s yímín posture in the early phase was followed by accommodation. The implicit comparison with KR4e0049 Táo Zōngyí and KR4e0054 Zhèng Qián is unmistakable.
The Sìchuān-lineage genealogical anchor is the principal substantive finding: Yú Kān’s cīyáo wěi (lineage-thread) through Yú Yǔnwén (Sòng) → Yú Jí (Yuán) → himself is the canonical late-imperial example of a Sìchuān gentry lineage maintained through prolonged Sūzhōu sojourn. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, follows the Sìkù placement; Sòng shǐ and Yuán shǐ together give the seven-generation chain.
The textual notice — that a parallel copy circulating as Gǔyè gǎo 鼓枻稿 differs only in arrangement and not in content from the present collection — is preserved by the Sìkù editors but not separately catalogued.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Brief notice of Yú Kān (under Yú Jí, vol. 2, p. 1639).
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
Yú Kān’s Zhào Mèngfǔ tíhuà juéjù — “Royal grandson now in Yùtáng court / self-painting Tiáoxī as if Wǎngchuān / In such green hills and red trees / Can one not have ten mǔ of melon fields?” — is one of the most-cited Yuán-period yímín poetic reproaches of Zhào Mèngfǔ’s serving the Yuán. Yú Kān’s own subsequent acceptance of Hóngwǔ-era office complicates the yímín-positioning conventionally inferred from this verse.
Links
- Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).