Yíān wénxuǎn 頤庵文選
Selected Writings from the Yí-Hut by 胡儼 (撰)
About the work
Yíān wénxuǎn 頤庵文選 in 2 juǎn (1 juǎn poetry, 1 juǎn prose) — a Míng-era selected anthology, not the complete biéjí. Author: Hú Yǎn 胡儼 (1361–1443), zì Ruòsī 若思, native of Nánchāng 南昌 (Jiāngxī). At end of Hóngwǔ as jǔrén appointed Huátíng jiàoyù 華亭教諭; in early Yǒnglè elevated Hànlín jiǎntǎo 翰林檢討 and put on duty in the cabinet alongside Xiè Jìn 解縉 (解縉) and others; promoted Guózǐ jìjiǔ 國子祭酒. In Hóngxī 1 (1425) added Tàizǐ bīnkè 太子賓客 with retirement; lived in retirement at home for twenty years before dying. Hú was the most learned generalist of the early-Míng cabinet — xiàngwěi (calendrical-astrology), zhānhòu (divination), lǜsuàn (musical pitch and mathematics), yībǔ (medicine and divination) — wú bù tōngxiǎo (none in which he was not penetrating). At court he was a guǎngé sùrú (Hall-and-Pavilion senior Confucian); the great court compositions mostly came from his hand; chief editor of Tàizǔ shílù and the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. The Sìkù editors note that his yìlùn gàngzhí (rough-direct argument) was not tolerated by his colleagues, so he spent long years at the Guóxué without exhausting his use. The poetic style is close to the Sòng Jiāngxī school — cízhǐ gāomài, jìtuō shēnyuǎn (high-and-vigorous diction, deep-and-distant lodging) — somewhat distinct from the San Yáng (the Three Yángs’) hépíng ānyǎ (peaceful-and-elegant) court style. The prose was learned from Xióng Zhāo 熊釗, who studied with Yú Jí 虞集 (the great late-Yuán literary master) — so Hú’s lineage goes Yú Jí → Xióng Zhāo → Hú Yǎn, with yuányuán jí zhèng (foundation extremely orthodox). The original Yíān jí in 30 juǎn (per Míngshǐ Yìwénzhì) is not extant; the present 2 juǎn is a later xuǎnběn (selection). The original prefaces collected at the head are by Qúxiān 臞仙 [Zhū Quán 朱權, the Níng wáng], Xióng Zhāo 熊釗, Hú Guǎng 胡廣, Zōu Jí 鄒緝, and Yáng Shìqí 楊士奇 (楊士奇).
Tiyao
Yíān wénxuǎn in 2 juǎn — by Hú Yǎn of the Míng. Yǎn, zì Ruòsī, native of Nánchāng. At end of Hóngwǔ, as jǔrén appointed Huátíng jiàoyù. In early Yǒnglè, elevated Hànlín jiǎntǎo and put on duty in the cabinet together with Xiè Jìn and others; promoted Guózǐ jìjiǔ. Hóngxī 1 (1425) added Tàizǐ bīnkè and retired; lived in retirement at home twenty years and then died. The events are detailed in his biography in Míng shǐ. Yǎn’s learning was gāibó (extensive); in xiàngwěi, zhānhòu, lǜsuàn, yībǔ there was nothing he did not penetrate. At court he was called a guǎngé sùrú; the great court compositions mostly came from his hand. He compiled the Tàizǔ shílù and the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, both as zǒngcái guān. But his rough-direct argument was not tolerated by his fellows, so he stayed long in the Guóxué without ever fully exhausting his use. His poetry is rather close to the Sòng Jiāngxī school: high-and-vigorous diction, deep-and-distant lodging — its atmosphere a little distinct from the Sān Yáng’s peaceful-and-elegant. The prose is défǎ (took its method) from Xióng Zhāo; Zhāo studied with Yú Jí; teacher-and-receiver mutually inheriting; foundation extremely orthodox. So his vigour is cānglǎo (deep-and-mature), able to zhuīzōng (track-the-trail) of the zuòzhě (great writers); in the early Míng a school of his own. Míng shǐ Yìwénzhì records Yíān jí originally in 30 juǎn; this collection’s poetry and prose each only 1 juǎn — clearly a later man’s selection, not the complete recension. Yet cháng dǐng yī luán (tasting one piece of meat from the cauldron, one knows the broth) — it is also enough to know the outline. Compiled and presented respectfully in the third month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Hú Yǎn is a fifth catalogued Yǒnglè dàdiǎn / Tàizǔ shílù chief editor in the immediate sequence (with KR4e0083 Xiè Jìn, KR4e0084 Wáng Chēng, KR4e0086 Liáng Qián, KR4e0087 Wáng Hóng), and the only one of the five to live to natural-cause retirement and 20 years of retirement scholarship; dies aged 83 in 1443. CBDB id 34479 (1360–1443) gives 1360 — the catalog meta gives 1361; the existing person notes follow the catalog where it appears in this division (e.g. for Yáng Shìqí); here I follow the standard Míngshǐ count of 1361.
The intellectual lineage Yú Jí 虞集 → Xióng Zhāo 熊釗 → Hú Yǎn is one of the cleaner YuánMíng literary-transmission lines preserved in the Sìkù tíyào — Yú Jí being the great late-Yuán Hànlín literary master.
The principal limitation of the present text is documentary: the original Yíān jí in 30 juǎn (per Míngshǐ Yìwénzhì) is no longer extant; this is a 2-juǎn later selection (xuǎnběn) of unknown editor. The five surviving prefaces — particularly the Qúxiān preface (= Zhū Quán 朱權, the Níng wáng, an important early-Míng literatus-prince) — are themselves significant Yǒng-lè-era literary documents.
The Wáng Hóng preface to Hú Yǎn (cited in the KR4e0087 tíyào) is the literary-historiographic complement to the present collection: Wáng’s analysis of the late-Yuán decline frames Hú’s poetic mode as the corrective.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Major notice of Hú Yǎn.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí), §47.2 (Yǒng-lè dà-diǎn).
- Míng shǐ j. 147 — Hú Yǎn biography.
Other points of interest
The five-author preface cluster (Zhū Quán, Xióng Zhāo, Hú Guǎng, Zōu Jí, Yáng Shìqí) — preserved at the head of the WYG selection despite the loss of the original 30-juǎn corpus — is one of the more substantial early-Yǒng-lè / Hóng-xī-era preface assemblages preserved on a single early-Míng biéjí.