Táng Yúshì shī 唐愚士詩
Poems of Táng Yú-shì by 唐之淳 (撰)
About the work
Táng Yúshì shī 唐愚士詩 in 1 juǎn, with the appendix Kuàijī huáigǔ shī 會稽懷古詩 in 1 juǎn (= 4 juǎn in the catalog meta). Author: Táng Zhīchún 唐之淳 (1350–1401), zì Yúshì 愚士 (he went by his zì), native of Shānyīn 山陰 (Shàoxīng, Zhèjiāng), son of Táng Sù 唐肅. In early Jiànwén the throne ordered the literary officials to compile the Jiànjiè lù 鑑戒錄; Fāng Xiàorú 方孝孺 recommended Táng, who was appointed Hànlínyuàn shìdú 翰林院侍讀 and jointly headed the shūjú (book-bureau) with Fāng; he died in office. Míng shǐ (Lièzhuàn 285, Wényuàn) appends his biography to Wáng Xíng 王行. The collection’s principal contents are not from the Jiànwén years but from a Hóngwǔ 20 (1387) northern campaign tour as tutor to Lǐ Jǐnglóng’s 李景隆 son in Féng Shèng’s 馮勝 expedition: poetic fù on Yān, Jì, Qín, Zhōu landscapes and antiquities, distinguished — the Sìkù editors say — by qìgé zhìshí (forceful, substantial style) and free of late-Yuán xiānnóng (slim-luxuriance) habits. The Kuàijī huáigǔ shī appendix is 30 five-character gǔshī on Shàoxīng antiquities (Shùnmiào 舜廟, Yǔmiào 禹廟, etc.), each headed by a brief preface, modelled on Ruǎn Yuè 阮閱, Zēng Jí 曾極, and Zhāng Yáotóng 張堯同. Late at the end is a parallel set of 30 héshī (matching poems) by Dài Guàn 戴冠 of Chángzhōu — these are cōubó chéngpiān (forced into shape) and bù jí Zhīchún yuánchàng (not equal to Táng’s originals); kept only because they are in the old recension.
Tiyao
Táng Yúshì shī in 1 juǎn, with Kuàijī huáigǔ shī in 1 juǎn appended — by Táng Zhīchún of the Míng. Zhīchún, zì Yúshì; he too went by his zì. Native of Shānyīn; son of [Táng] Sù. In early Jiànwén, an edict commanded the literary officials to compile Jiànjiè lù; Fāng Xiàorú recommended him; he was appointed Hànlínyuàn shìdú and jointly headed the book-bureau with Xiàorú; died in office. Míng shǐ Wényuàn zhuàn appends his biography to Wáng Xíng. Xú Zhēnqīng’s 徐禎卿 Jiǎnshèng yěwén 翦勝野聞 records the fable that Tàizǔ of the Míng put Zhīchún in a cloth bag and had him carried at night over the palace wall to revise the Shíwáng cè texts — this matter is wild-and-strange and not classical, surely a wěixiàng (back-alley) commoner’s tale, made up because of Zhīchún’s quick literary thought. Zhāng Qín’s 張芹 Yízhōng lù 遺忠錄 says: in the Hóngwǔ era someone recommended him; he declined; Cáo Guógōng Lǐ Jǐnglóng 曹國公李景隆 had his son take Táng as tutor; in marching campaigns to all quarters, [the son] went together [with Táng]; passing through Yān, Jì, Qín, Zhōu, surveying former-dynasty remains, taking up brush and composing fù — overshadowing his contemporaries. Examining Míng shǐ’s Lǐ Wénzhōng 李文忠 biography: Lǐ Jǐnglóng inherited the Cáo Guógōng patent in Hóngwǔ 19 (1386); no record of his northern-campaigning. Only the Féng Shèng 馮勝 biography records that in Hóngwǔ 20 (1387), with Fù Yǒudé 傅友德, Lán Yù 藍玉, Zhào Yōng 趙庸 and others, in northward campaign; Cháng Mào 常茂, Lǐ Jǐnglóng, Dèng Zhèn 鄧鎮 all went along — that year is dīngmǎo 丁卯, agreeing with what is recorded in the present collection’s Yùníngxuān jì 寓寧軒記 (“Hóngwǔ dīngmǎo”) — that must be the time. The collection is only what was made in dīngmǎo 丁卯 and wùchén 戊辰 (i.e., Hóngwǔ 20–21, 1387–88) — apparently not a complete recension. Also: poetry and prose alternate in the compilation, and yet the whole is titled shī (poems) — this is also not standard format. We suspect that what was at the time miscellaneously recorded as a manuscript is preserved as this one zhì; later people copied and transmitted it, so the order is jumbled. His poetry, although not yet sieved (jīnlì bìng cún — gold and gravel preserved together), has qìgé zhìshí and is free of late-Yuán xiānnóng habits. The frontier compositions, on mountain-and-river products, particularly serve to support investigation. Kuàijī huáigǔ shī in 1 juǎn is from his early years: 30 five-character ancient-style poems with brief prefaces under each title, modelled on the example of Ruǎn Yuè, Zēng Jí, and Zhāng Yáotóng. Pieces such as that on the Shùnmiào not adopting the Dìlì zhì’s “elephant-ploughing” tale, and on the Yǔmiào not adopting the Yǔxué cángshū tale, all show yǒu shí (good judgement). This juǎn originally circulated separately; but the leaves are sparse, so we now attach it to the back of the collection. At the end are appended Dài Guàn’s 戴冠 of Chángzhōu 30 héshī — generally cōubó chéngpiān, not equal to Zhīchún’s originals — kept because they were in the old text. Compiled and presented respectfully in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The catalog meta records dates: 1350–1401; followed here. (CBDB id 555798 has no birth-year or death-year, so the catalog is the working source.) Táng died in office in early Jiànwén — late 1401 / early 1402 — escaping the proscription that consumed his colleague Fāng Xiàorú and the rest of the Jiànwén loyalist circle later in 1402.
The Sìkù editors’ careful kǎozhèng — cross-checking Míng shǐ j. 126 (Lǐ Wénzhōng / Lǐ Jǐnglóng) and j. 129 (Féng Shèng), and triangulating with the Yùníngxuān jì’s “Hóngwǔ dīngmǎo” date — establishes that the principal northern-campaign poetry was composed in 1387–88 on the Féng Shèng bĕi-zhēng expedition, with Lǐ Jǐnglóng a junior subordinate. This is also the only known dated compositional window for Táng’s surviving poetry; the editors infer that the WYG recension is a fragment from these two years rather than a complete biéjí.
The textual apparatus is one of the cleaner cases of Sìkù-era source-critical work: the editors use literary anecdote (the Jiǎnshèng yěwén nocturnal-bag-over-the-palace-wall tale) only to dismiss it as a wěixiàng (alley) fable; cross-check the Zhāng Qín Yízhōng lù recommendation-story against Míng shǐ military chronology; and arrive at a tightly bounded compositional date.
The Huìjī huáigǔ shī sub-collection — 30 paired gǔshī on Shàoxīng antiquities, modelled on Sòng-era Yáozhī 堯之 and Yányī xiànzhì 嚴衣縣志 traditions — is independently known and was at one time circulated apart from the main collection.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Notice of Táng Sù and Táng Zhī-chún.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
- Míng shǐ j. 285 (Wén-yuàn 1) — Wáng Xíng biography, Táng Zhī-chún appended.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ explicit dismissal of the Xú Zhēnqīng Jiǎnshèng yěwén “cloth-bag-over-the-palace-wall” tale is a small but instructive case of late-Qiánlóng kǎozhèng method: a literary anecdote, however vivid, is dismissed when it cannot be cross-grounded in official record.