Qīngchéng shānrén jí 青城山人集
Collection of the Hermit of Qīng-chéng by 王燧 (撰)
About the work
Qīngchéng shānrén jí 青城山人集 in 8 juǎn — the surviving poetic collection of Wáng Suì 王燧 (the catalog uses 燧; original preface uses 璲 — these are variant graphs and the tíyào notes both forms; zì Rǔyù 汝玉, hào Qīngchéng 青城; posthumous title Wénjìng 文靖), native of Chángzhōu 長洲 (Sūzhōu, Jiāngsū). In Hóngwǔ raised in the Zhèjiāng xiāngshì; by recommendation acting fǔxué jiàoshòu; reassigned Yìngtiān xùndǎo 應天訓導; promoted Hànlín wǔjīng bóshì 翰林五經博士; rose to Chūnfáng zànshàn 春坊贊善 (the same office as Liáng Qián (KR4e0086) — Wáng Suì appears in the Bóān jí’s tíyào also writing as Wáng Rǔyù in the preface to KR4e0084 Wáng Chēng’s Xūzhōu jí). At Hóngxī’s accession (1425) granted posthumous Tàizǐ bīnkè and the title Wénjìng 文靖. The author’s poetic manuscripts were largely scattered already in his lifetime; in Zhèngtǒng 12 (1447) his grandson Wáng Táng 王鏜 began the recompilation, which his in-law Huá Jìng 華靖 címóu 彥謀 then pruned and edited into 8 juǎn — this is the present text. The Jǐngtài 1 (1450) preface is by Wèi Jì 魏驥, then Nánjīng Lìbù shàngshū. Zhū Yízūn’s 朱彝尊 Jìngzhìjū shīhuà praises Wáng’s poetry as bù fèi míngsuǒ (without forced cogitation), purely in the Tángrén tonality; Xú Yònglǐ 徐用理 of Sūzhōu in his anthology of post-Yǒng-lè poets (330 men) put Wáng at the head of the volume.
Tiyao
Qīngchéng shānrén jí in 8 juǎn — by Wáng Suì of the Míng. Suì, zì Rǔyù, native of Chángzhōu. In Hóngwǔ raised in the Zhèjiāng xiāngshì; by recommendation acting fǔxué jiàoshòu; reassigned Yìngtiān xùndǎo; elevated Hànlín wǔjīng bóshì; office reaching Chūnfáng zànshàn. At the beginning of Hóngxī, gifted [the title] Tàizǐ bīnkè, posthumous title Wénjìng. His poetic manuscripts in his time were already much scattered. In Zhèngtǒng 12 (1447) his grandson Táng 鏜 first gathered them into a compilation; his in-law Huá Jìng 華靖 deleted-and-finalized into 8 juǎn — this is the present text. Zhū Yízūn’s Jìngzhìjū shīhuà praises his poetry as not requiring forced cogitation, jīnjīn Tángrén zhī diào (purely in the Táng-men’s tonality). Xú Yònglǐ of Wú [Sūzhōu], in his collected 330 post-Yǒng-lè poets, used Suì at the head of the juǎn. Now examining his poetry — sound-meter and colour-lustre all forcefully model the ancient form — quite close to the Gāo Bǐng 高棅 / Lín Hóng 林鴻 school; truly there is the suspicion of imitating-the-discussion but unable to biànhuà (transform). Yet at the end of the Yuán, the poetic style was mílì (extravagant); often the form was close to tiáncí (lyric-filling); Suì could resolutely take the Six Dynasties and Three Táng as model — also a zhuórán (eminent) and standing-apart man. We cannot use the later abuses of the Wáng [Shìzhēn] / Lǐ [Pānlóng] [Hòu Qī Zǐ] school’s deficiencies to prematurely judge an early-Míng person. Compiled and presented respectfully in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 42 (1777). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The author’s name has variant orthography 燧 / 璲 (both pronounced Suì); the catalog and tíyào use 燧, the Wèi Jì 1450 yuánxù uses 璲. The catalog meta has no birth-or-death dates; the yuánxù says Wèi Jì had not bowed to the Master for nearly fifty years before writing the preface (Jǐngtài 1 = 1450), so Wáng Suì had been dead at least some years; the Hóngxī posthumous title dates Wáng’s death to 1425 or shortly before. CBDB has multiple homonyms; none confidently identified for the early-Míng poet.
The collection is one of the principal documents of the Sūzhōu / Chángzhōu poetic school of the early Yǒnglè era — the school that the Sìkù editors place between Lín Hóng / Gāo Bǐng (the Mǐn school’s fǎnTáng ideology) and the later Hòuqīzǐ fùgǔ movement. The Sìkù editors’ historiographical defence — we cannot use the later abuses of the Wáng [Shìzhēn] / Lǐ [Pānlóng] school to prematurely judge an early-Míng person — is a clear formulation of the late-Qiánlóng anti-anachronism principle.
The same Wáng Suì appears as the head-preface author for KR4e0084 Wáng Chēng’s Xūzhōu jí (under his zì Rǔyù 汝玉) and as preface-author and friend in the Sòng Sìshū 宋侍書 anecdote in Jiǎng 蔣 the Jǐshìzhōng’s circle, locating him firmly in the early-Yǒng-lè Hànlín literary network.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Notice of Wáng Suì.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The transmission via the in-law Huá Jìng 華靖 (a private literatus, not a court official) — gathering and pruning the manuscript on the basis of family obligation rather than court patronage — is one of the cleaner cases of qínjiā (in-law / family-network) early-Míng biéjí recovery. The Jǐngtài 1 (1450) Wèi Jì preface explicitly says yīn xiānshēng méi ér yù bùméi xiānshēng zhī shàn (because the master is dead and [he] wishes the master’s goodness not to perish).