Wáng Shèrén shījí 王舍人詩集
Poetry Collection of Secretary Wáng by 王紱 (撰)
About the work
Wáng Shèrén shījí 王舍人詩集 in 5 juǎn — the poetry of Wáng Fú 王紱 (1362–1416), zì Mèngduān 孟端, hào Yǒushíshēng 友石生 / Jiǔlóng shānrén 九龍山人, native of Wúxī 無錫 (Bǐlíng, Chángzhōu, Jiāngsū). Summoned to the capital in Hóngwǔ; banished by association to garrison Shuòzhōu 朔州 (Shānxī); recalled in early Yǒnglè by recommendation for his calligraphy to attendance at the Wényuāngé 文淵閣; eventually appointed zhōngshū shèrén 中書舍人 (the source of Wáng Shèrén in the title); died in office. Wáng Fú is one of the great early-Míng painters — landscapes and ink-bamboo, said to follow his fellow-townsman Ní Zàn 倪瓚 (the Yuán-school great). The Sìkù editors’ literary judgement is that the poetry is jiétǐ shāoruò (somewhat weak in structural composition) but qīngyǎ yǒu yú (clear-and-elegant in surplus); the editors quote at length from Zhōu Liànggōng’s 周亮工 Shūyǐng 書影 (which praised more than 100 of Wáng’s couplets, naming him not inferior to the early-Míng GāoYángZhāngXú — Gāo Qǐ 高啟, Yáng Jī 楊基, Zhāng Yǔ 張羽, Xú Bēn 徐賁) and at the end correct Dū Mù’s 都穆 Nánháo shīhuà 南濠詩話 for selecting only the inferior jìbié qǔfùzhě (sending-off-to-marriage) quatrain that cāngfù miànmù bùzú yǐ jiàn Fú zhī cháng (looks like a vulgar man and is insufficient to show Wáng’s strengths). The collection is the edition compiled by Wáng Fú’s son Wáng Mò 王默, also titled Yǒushí shānfáng gǎo 友石山房稿; head prefaces by Zēng Qǐ 曾棨 and Wáng Jìn 王進; appended at the end xíngzhuàng and mùbiǎo (epitaph) by Zhāng Bǐngrú 章昞如 and Hú Guǎng 胡廣.
Tiyao
Wáng Shèrén shījí in 5 juǎn — by Wáng Fú of the Míng. Fú, zì Mèngduān, native of Wúxī, also biéhào Yǒushí shēng, also called Jiǔlóng shānrén. In Hóngwǔ summoned to the capital; soon implicated [in some affair] and banished to garrison Shuòzhōu. In early Yǒnglè, by recommendation for his skill at calligraphy he was put in attendance at the Wényuāngé; after a long time he was appointed zhōngshū shèrén; died in office. The events are detailed in his biography in Míng shǐ Wényuàn zhuàn. The collection is edited by his son Mò; another title is Yǒushí shānfáng gǎo. At the head are Zēng Qǐ and Wáng Jìn prefaces; appended at the end the xíngzhuàng and mùbiǎo by Zhāng Bǐngrú and Hú Guǎng. Fú was broadly learned, accomplished in calligraphy and painting; his landscapes, bamboo-and-rocks are fēngyùn xiāosǎ (graceful-and-untrammelled), miàojué yīshí (marvellous in their time); commentators say that he could continue [the line of] his fellow-townsman Ní Zàn. His poetry, although structurally a little weak, has surplus qīngyǎ (clear-elegance). Clearly because his shénsī (spirit-thought) is fundamentally pure — so although in long pieces and short ones he applies brush and ink as the mood takes him, not entirely calculating gōngzhuō (skill or clumsiness), he sheds the dust of the world and naturally accords with measure. Zhōu Liànggōng’s Shūyǐng says: “Wáng Fú: poetry and painting both beautiful. Recently I saw his collection of more than 100 pieces; in áolǜ (rules) not inferior to Gāo, Yáng, Zhāng, Xú: as in ‘Old enterprise briefly returned, instead it is like a guest in foreign land; on coming to one place at all it becomes home’, ‘To penetrate the immortals one must obtain the suspended-gourd technique; to leave the world I keep for now the spade-shouldering wind’, ‘Pond-grass colour, watching the slender rain; apricot-blossom blind-curtain, swaying in the light cold; the neighbour’s wine matures, inviting the spring society; the fishing-boat brings fish, helping the dawn meal’; ‘Birds among the ten-thousand trees in the shade are loud; people in the chaos-hills’ deepest places walk’ — all paired antithetically, fine in craft, fresh in meaning and free in tonality. The quatrain on Jìnglèxuān: ‘The front stream’s ice melts, green grows the waves; good rain hastens the flowers, passing toward evening. Last night’s wine not yet sobered, sleep not yet risen; half a window of red sun, bird-voices many.’ ‘Bamboo desk and rattan couch, small ink-screen; smoke-warm blind-curtain, seal-scented green; spending several days in the studio in yellow-plum rains, adding to it banana-green filling the courtyard.’ ‘Autumn voice already arrived in the plane-trees; dew-air cool, settling in the deep blue void; alone leaning on the railing waiting for the bright moon; purple flute-blowing scatters the jade-osmanthus wind.’ ‘Curtained tent stores spring-day, drunk-asleep; in stillness only with idleness it accords. Ordinary years and days, no mind to record; watching that plum-flowers come, again one year.’ Also painting bamboo to send to a friend: ‘I formerly sought you, knocked at the bamboo gate; in drink I once wrote a bamboo-grove poem. Since parting, several times I have remembered you in vain; mostly when, by the green lamp, listening to the rain.’ Not only is brush and ink skilful at bamboo and rock — this is also why Mèngduān’s painting has been treasured down to later generations.” Clearly because his collection is rare in transmission, Liànggōng therefore recorded the good lines to preserve them. His pǐntí (rating-and-titling) is fair. As for Dū Mù’s Nánháo shīhuà, which alone praises one quatrain on jìbié qǔfù (sending-off-to-marriage), this is a cāngfù miànmù (vulgar-old-man’s face) — not enough to show Fú’s strengths. Compiled and presented respectfully in the first month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Wáng Fú is principally important to art history as one of the great early-Míng ink-bamboo painters and the principal early-Míng inheritor of the Ní Zàn 倪瓚 manner; the Sìkù editors’ framing — that his bamboo-painting reputation is anchored to his poetic-cultivation, the painting prized because it stands in literati-tradition continuity — makes the present collection (one of the few preserved literary witnesses to the early-Míng Wúxī 無錫 / Bǐlíng 毗陵 painting circle) of more than literary interest. Catalog meta gives 1362–1416 and CBDB id 34474 confirms; followed here.
The transmission story is unusual in being preserved chiefly through a connoisseur’s anthology — Zhōu Liànggōng’s Shūyǐng (mid-17th cent.) — whose extended quotation forms the bulk of the Sìkù tíyào; the editors note that the collection’s transmission is pōxī (rather rare). Wáng’s sojourn-and-banishment career (Hóngwǔ-era summons → Shuòzhōu garrison-banishment → Yǒng-lè-era recall by calligraphy-recommendation → zhōngshū shèrén office → death in office) is consistent with the early-Míng pattern for technically-skilled but politically-unattached literati.
The connection to KR4e0084 Wáng Chēng (Wáng Mèngyáng) is purely homonymic — both were Yǒng-lè-era zhōngshū shèrén / jiǎntǎo and both in Xiè Jìn’s 解縉 cultural orbit, but Wáng Fú escaped the proscription that consumed Wáng Chēng.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Major notice of Wáng Fú as painter.
- James Cahill, Parting at the Shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle Ming Dynasty, 1368–1580. New York / Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1978. Standard art-historical treatment of Wáng Fú as inheritor of the Ní Zàn manner.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí) and §35 (painting).
- Míng shǐ j. 286 (Wén-yuàn 2) — Wáng Fú biography.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s extended quotation from Zhōu Liànggōng’s Shūyǐng is itself a notable case of Qīng-era pǐntí (rating) entering the canonical bibliographic tradition: Zhōu’s anthology of Wáng Fú’s couplets is preserved in lieu of the full poetic corpus.