Duìshān jí 對山集
Facing-Mountain Collection by 康海 (撰), 孫景烈 (編)
About the work
The literary collection of Kāng Hǎi 康海 (1475–1540), zì Déhán 德涵, hào Duìshān 對山, of Wǔgōng 武功 (Xīānfǔ, Shǎnxī) — zhuàngyuán of Hóngzhì 15 (1502); one of the QiánQīzǐ (Former Seven Masters); the principal Shǎnxī (Guānzhōng / Sīmǎ Qiān-style) prose master of mid-Míng. The collection went through four printings: (i) Zhāng Tàiwēi 張太微’s selection; (ii) Wáng Shìmào 王世懋’s selection; (iii) the Kāng-xī-era Mǎshì (Mǎ family) of Wǔgōng full-collection at Jiāngníng; (iv) the Qiánlóng xīnsì (1761) Sūn Jǐngliè 孫景烈 recension of 10 juǎn, based on Zhāng Tàiwēi but with additional pruning — the present WYG text. Kāng’s life was overshadowed by the Liú Jǐn affair: he intervened to free Lǐ Mèngyáng in 1508 and was later branded a Liú Jǐn associate, stripped of office (1510), and never reinstated.
Tiyao
Duìshān jí in 10 juǎn — by Kāng Hǎi of the Míng. Hǎi’s Wǔgōng xiànzhì is the model for gazetteer-makers up to today; separately catalogued in the History-section. His poetry-prose collection has gone through four printings — one is Zhāng Tàiwēi’s selection; one is Wáng Shìmào’s selection — mutually with cutting-and-taking. Our dynasty’s Kāngxī period — his fellow-townsman Mǎshì began gathering his complete collection and cutting it at Jiāngníng. This běn is from Qiánlóng xīnsì (1761), his fellow-townsman biānxiū Sūn Jǐngliè taking the stored Zhāng Tàiwēi běn and again adding cutting-and-pruning, then cutting. Hǎi because rescuing Lǐ Mèngyáng, thus lost-his-self to Liú Jǐn; on Jǐn’s defeat, sat-and-was-dismissed; then wished to fànglàng zìzì (release-and-wander, indulging-himself); singing-songs, choosing-courtesans — to literature did not again essentially-think; poetry especially tuízòng (collapsed-and-uncontrolled). Wáng Shìmào’s preface says his 5-7 character gǔlǜ mostly is shuàiyì zhī zuò (offhand work); also admiring Shàolíng (Dù Fǔ)‘s zhíshū xiōngyì (directly-extending heart’s-intent), or using contemporaries’ name-styles and juélǐ (rank-and-village); rhyme-to-it just-pressing — not gracefully-arriving-at yǎ. Zhū Mèngzhèn’s preface conveys Lǐ Wéizhēn’s words also saying Zhāng Tàiwēi běn of wǔfú yānshí (jade-of-Wǔ and Yán-stone) interspersed and confused, so Mǎshì’s added cutting rather wounded-with-redundant-mixed; this běn though late-coming, taking-and-rejecting careful-and-strict; on poetry especially exhausting force to prune. Compared to other versions specially is wánshàn (complete-and-good), enough to exhaust what Hǎi has-as-strength. Míng-people discussing Hǎi’s collection — judgements not unitary; should take Yú Rǔchéng’s prose surpasses poetry one line as bùyì zhī píng (unchangeable judgement). Cuī Xiān (KR4e0163) and Lǚ Nán 呂柟 all compared him to Sīmǎ Qiān — surely too much. Yet his yìqì wǎnglái xiāorán zìyì (released-breath coming-and-going, swift-and-natural, self-distinct) — surely is above Lǐ Mèngyáng and others’ gēbāo QínHàn (slicing-and-stripping QínHàn). Compiled and presented in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Kāng Hǎi’s Duìshān jí is one of the most consequential mid-Míng literary recoveries documented in the Sìkù. The Liú Jǐn affair — Kāng’s 1508 intervention to free Lǐ Mèngyáng (KR4e0150), with the consequent 1510 retroactive branding of Kāng as a Liú Jǐn associate after Liú’s fall — is the political shadow under which the entire literary output sits. The famous attribution to Kāng of the zájù drama Zhōngshān láng 中山狼 (Wolf of Zhōngshān) — read by tradition as Kāng’s allegorical attack on Lǐ Mèngyáng for ingratitude after Lǐ’s release — gives the documentary background a literary echo, though Kāng’s son Cén disputed the attribution.
The Sìkù judgement uses a unique multi-critic apparatus: Wáng Shìmào’s preface flags the shuàiyì (offhand) verse; Zhū Mèngzhèn quoting Lǐ Wéizhēn flags Zhāng Tàiwēi’s textual mixing; Yú Rǔchéng is invoked as the bùyì zhī píng — “the unchangeable judgement” — that Kāng’s prose surpasses his verse; Cuī Xiān (KR4e0163) and Lǚ Nán are cited (and gently dismissed) for their Sīmǎ Qiān comparison. The Sìkù editors finally side with the yìqì wǎnglái xiāorán zìyì judgement, ranking Kāng’s prose above Lǐ Mèngyáng and the QiánQīzǐ Qín-Hàn-slicing line. This is one of the cleanest intra-Qián-Qī-zǐ rank-ordering judgements in the entire division — and the Sìkù’s placement of Kāng (essentially a QiánQīzǐ member) above Lǐ Mèngyáng is structurally consequential.
The four-printing history (Zhāng Tàiwēi → Wáng Shìmào → Mǎshì → Sūn Jǐngliè) is one of the cleaner mid-Míng-to-Qián-lóng recension stratigraphies in this division. Sūn Jǐngliè is CBDB id 76189, 1706–1782.
CBDB id 34645 confirms 1475–1540 for Kāng Hǎi.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976, vol. 1, 692–94: major notice of Kāng Hǎi.
- Míng shǐ j. 286 (Wén-yuàn 2) — Kāng Hǎi biography (appended to Lǐ Mèng-yáng’s).
- Daniel Bryant, The Great Recreation: Ho Ching-ming (1483–1521) and His World (Leiden: Brill, 2008) — for the Qián-Qī-zǐ circle.
- Wilt L. Idema and Stephen H. West, Chinese Theater 1100–1450: A Source Book (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1982) — for the Zhōng-shān láng dramaturgical tradition.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The Sìkù placement of Kāng above his fellow QiánQīzǐ member Lǐ Mèngyáng in the prose-ranking — through the Yú Rǔchéng / Cuī Xiān / Lǚ Nán multi-critic apparatus — is one of the most consequential intra-school rank-orderings in the entire mid-Míng biéjí corpus. The fànglàng zìzì (release-and-indulge-oneself) post-dismissal life-style of Kāng — singing-songs, choosing-courtesans, retreating to sǎnqǔ and zájù drama — is a documentarily-anchored fall-from-favour career-arc that the Sìkù notes without moral censure.