Dàfù jí 大復集
Great-Recreation Collection by 何景明 (撰)
About the work
The collected works of Hé Jǐngmíng 何景明 (1483–1521), zì Zhòngmò 仲默, hào Dàfù 大復, of Xìnyáng 信陽 (Hénán) — the second principal of the QiánQīzǐ (Former Seven Masters), with Lǐ Mèngyáng (李夢陽, KR4e0150) forming the canonical LǐHé (Lǐ-and-Hé) pair that defined mid-Míng literary revolt against the táigé tradition. 38 juǎn: 3 fù + 26 verse + 9 prose + fùlù of biography and xíngzhuàng materials at end. Compiled posthumously by Kāng Hǎi (康海, KR4e0159) in Jiājìng guǐwèi (1523) — Kāng Hǎi’s preface dated Jiājìng 3 / jiǎshēn / 2nd month / jiǎzǐ (1524). The second preface by Wáng Shìzhēn 王世貞 is the canonical HòuQīzǐ (Later Seven Masters) genealogical statement: 北地李子…信陽何子 — Běidì (Lǐ Mèngyáng) and Xìnyáng (Hé Jǐngmíng) as joint founders.
Tiyao
Dàfù jí in 38 juǎn — by Hé Jǐngmíng of the Míng. Jǐngmíng, zì Zhòngmò, native of Xìnyáng. Hóngzhì rénxū (1502) jìnshì; office reached Shǎnxī tíxué fùshǐ. Record in Míngshǐ Wényuàn zhuàn. This collection has: fù 3 juǎn; poetry 26 juǎn; prose 9 juǎn; zhuànzhì xíngzhuàng etc. genres appended at the end. ZhèngdéJiājìng interval, Jǐngmíng with Lǐ Mèngyáng both proclaimed the learning of fùgǔ (return-to-antiquity); all-under-heaven uniformly followed them; literary forms had one transformation. Yet the two men’s tiānfèn (natural-portion) each separate; qǔjìng (path-taken) slightly different; what they esteemed also had differences. Therefore in the collection, the letters discussing poetry to Mèngyáng — back-and-forth interrogating-difficulty, yínyín (gnaw-gnaw) — two sides not yielding to each other. Since Xuē Huì (KR4e0175) had jùnyì zhōng lián Hé Dàfù, cūháo bù jiě Lǐ Kōngtóng (talent-elegant in the end pity Hé Dàfù; rough-bold does not understand Lǐ Kōngtóng), the critics often zuǒ Hé ér yòu Lǐ (left-Hé and right-Lǐ — i.e. preferring Hé over Lǐ). Speaking with even mind: mónǐ xījìng (imitating, narrow-path) — the two men’s shortcomings are roughly similar; but Mèngyáng’s xióngmài zhī qì (heroic-passing breath) and Jǐngmíng’s xiéyǎ zhī yīn (harmonious-elegant sound) each have their strengths — there is precisely no harm in lízhī shuāngměi (separating-them, both-beautiful). Jǐngmíng in the seven-character ancient-style deeply revered the Four Talents (WángYángLùLuò)‘s zhuǎnyùn zhī gé (turning-rhyme style); seen in the preface to his Míngyuè piān (Bright-Moon Piece). Wáng Shìzhēn’s discussion-of-poetry quatrains have: jiējì fēngrén Míngyuè piān; Héláng miàowù běn cóng tiān; Wáng Yáng Lú Luò dāngshí tǐ, mò zhú dāoguī wù hòuxián — yet rather did not take Jǐngmíng as right. In fact, seven-character beginning from the Hàn — rarely chángpiān (long pieces); Wèi Wéndì’s Yāngē xíng first made its own yīnjié (sound-measure); Bào Zhào’s Xínglù nán first separately formed biàndiào (variant tune); thereafter writers truly few; reaching Yǒngmíng onwards, chánlián huànyùn (cicada-chained, switching rhymes), wǎnzhuǎn yìyáng (winding-and-turning, suppressing-and-raising), the regulation-and-pattern began-to-form; therefore early-Táng down to Chángqìng mostly followed its rule; even Dù Fǔ’s various gēxíng — yúlóng bǎi biàn (fish-and-dragon, hundred transformations), not to be duānní (grasped-by-edges) — yet pieces like Xǐ bīngmǎ and Gāo Dūhù cōngmǎ xíng also do not discard this one tǐ. Wáng Shìzhēn’s discussion is to prevent the fúyàn túshì zhī bì (floating-and-gaudy, plastering-and-decorating defect) — that is permissible. But to take Jǐngmíng’s discussion as sufficient to mislead later-people is to chénggēng ér chuījī (be wary because of [hot] soup and so blow on the cold sauce — overcautious). Compiled and presented in the third month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Hé Jǐngmíng’s Dàfù jí is — with Kōngtóng jí (KR4e0150) — the canonical literary anchor of the QiánQīzǐ (Former Seven Masters) and the HóngzhìZhèngdé literary revolution. The Sìkù judgement is structurally unusual in its explicit refusal to side with either Hé or Lǐ: editors hold that Lǐ Mèngyáng’s xióngmài zhī qì (heroic-passing breath) and Hé Jǐngmíng’s xiéyǎ zhī yīn (harmonious-elegant sound) are separately-beautiful (lízhī shuāngměi) — neither is the senior partner. This is one of the most balanced editorial judgements on the LǐHé pair in the entire Sìkù biéjí tradition.
The Sìkù further pushes back against the post-Míng tradition (especially Wáng Shìzhēn’s discussion-of-poetry quatrains) of taking Hé Jǐngmíng’s preface to his Míngyuè piān — celebrating the WángYángLùLuò (Four Talents of Early Táng) zhuǎnyùn style — as a misleading model. The editors argue that the seven-character zhuǎnyùn tradition is rooted in Wèi Wéndì’s Yāngē xíng and Bào Zhào’s Xínglù nán, and that Wáng Shìzhēn’s caution amounts to chénggēng ér chuījī — “blowing on cold sauce because hot soup once burned you” (overcaution). This is one of the cleanest Sìkù defenses of a Hé Jǐngmíng technical-poetics position against later critics.
The textual provenance — Kāng Hǎi’s 1523–24 posthumous compilation, with second preface by Wáng Shìzhēn — is one of the cleaner QiánQīzǐ cross-references: Kāng Hǎi as the surviving QiánQīzǐ fellow (KR4e0159) preserving the dead Hé’s manuscripts is a documentary echo of the LǐHé circle’s liúfēng yúyùn (lingering-wind, leftover-resonance).
Daniel Bryant’s The Great Recreation (2008) is the standard modern English-language reconstruction of Hé Jǐngmíng’s world; his title Great Recreation renders the hào Dàfù.
CBDB id 34648 confirms 1483–1521.
Translations and research
- Daniel Bryant, The Great Recreation: Ho Ching-ming (1483–1521) and His World (Leiden: Brill, 2008) — the standard modern study.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Hé Jǐng-míng.
- Míng shǐ j. 286 (Wén-yuàn 2) — Hé Jǐng-míng biography.
- Yoshikawa Kōjirō, Five Hundred Years of Chinese Poetry, 1150–1650 (trans. John T. Wixted; Princeton UP, 1989) — for the fù-gǔ movement.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s defense of Hé Jǐngmíng’s Míngyuè piān preface and the WángYángLùLuò zhuǎnyùn (Four-Talents-of-Early-Táng switching-rhyme) tradition against Wáng Shìzhēn’s quatrain-tradition criticism is one of the most technically-detailed poetic-technical arguments preserved in the Míng biéjí tíyào tradition. The 36–year early death of Hé (at 38) is a documentary loss flagged in the Sìkù’s closing line.