Tàibái shānrén màngǎo 太白山人漫藁
Loose Manuscripts of the Mountain-Man of Tài-bái by 孫一元 (撰)
About the work
The collected writings of Sūn Yīyuán 孫一元 (1484–1520), zì Tàichū 太初, hào Tàibái shānrén 太白山人 (after his early dwelling on Tàibái shān) — a wandering bùshì (did-not-take-office) Shǎnxī poet possibly of Ānhuàwáng (the 1510 rebel-prince) descent who finished his life as one of the Tiáoxī wǔ yǐn 苕溪五隠 (Five Recluses of Tiáoxī, at Chángxīng, Húzhōu) with Liú Lín (劉麟, KR4e0155). 8 juǎn: titled màn (loose) because the poems are chùérchéngshēng (touched and so the sound is made) — without programmatic purpose. The Sìkù recension is the Chóngzhēn Húzhōu Zhōu Bǎirén 周伯仁 8-juǎn cut, assembled from the Wúxīng Zhāngshì 吳興張氏 and the Yánghú 陽湖 běn. The earlier Míngshǐ yìwén zhì records Tàibái shānrén gǎo in 5 juǎn; many additional poems survive scattered in friend-collections (Mín Yuánqú 閔元衢’s Ōuyú mànlù catalogues several uncollected pieces).
Tiyao
Tàibái shānrén màngǎo in 8 juǎn — by Sūn Yīyuán of the Míng. Yīyuán, zì Tàichū, self-called Qínrén; some say he was a grandson of Ānhuàwáng. Once dwelled on top of Tàibáishān, hence called Tàibái shānrén; also once westward entered Huáshān, southward entered Héng (south); eastward climbed Dàishān; also southward entered Wú; with Liú Lín, Wú Chōng, Lù Kūn, Lóng Ní styled Tiáoxī wǔ yǐn (Five Recluses of Tiáoxī); late married into the Shī family, eventually died at Wúxīng (Húzhōu). Liú Lín composed prose for his tomb-tablet. Yīyuán’s talent-ground transcendent-superior; critics even compared him to Wáng Měng the Eastern-Jìn statesman Wáng Měng — what he made as poetry, páiào línglì (precipitous-grand, sweeping-and-fierce); often much bēizhuàng jīyuè zhī yīn (sad-strong, agitated-and-rising sound); reading it extremely kàngjiàn (firm-and-strong), to-be-praised. Zhū Yízūn even said his bànxiāng (incense-thread) is on Huáng Tíngjiān. Holding-the-discussion, although not avoiding being slightly excessive — yet when Qínshēng (Shǎnxī sound) was competing-and-resounding, [Yīyuán] was able to jiǎorán bású (strikingly-prominent and rising-above-the-vulgar) like this. He can also be called one who alone walks his intent. Míngshǐ yìwén zhì records Yīyuán’s Tàibái shānrén gǎo in 5 juǎn; this běn is Chóng-zhēn-era Húzhōu’s Zhōu Bǎirén cut, in total 8 juǎn — surely from the Wúxīng Zhāngshì běn and the Yánghú běn combined-collected. The original-record at the end of juǎn 8 still flagged bǔyí (supplements) certain pieces, but inside the juǎn did not have — surely at the time there was intent to search-and-visit but did not get [them]. Mín Yuánqú’s Ōuyú mànlù records Yīyuán’s lost-poems: one piece Sòng Xǔ Xiàngqīng shī seen in Xǔshì pǔ; two Tí Wáng Bóyǔ yuántíng seen in Wūqīng zhèn zhì; four Hé Wú Gānquán shī, one Chóngyóu shī, one Jūnmǎhuáng shī seen in true-trace; one Yǐnmǎ Chángchéng kū shī seen in Lú Zhìān’s recorded supplement, continued at Jì Xuānfú’s family obtained 14 poems; also says **Bào Zhì-… **‘s family has his poetry-transcript about 1000+ pieces — then the dispersed-and-lost is also many. Compiled and presented in the first month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Sūn Yīyuán’s Tàibái shānrén màngǎo is the principal documentary anchor for early-Jiā-jìng wandering reclusiveness in the Míng biéjí tradition. His geographic wandering — Tàibái (Shǎnxī) → Huáshān → Héngshān (Húnán) → Tàishān → WúHúzhōu — and final residence at Tiáoxī (Chángxīng, Húzhōu) as one of the Wǔ yǐn (Five Recluses) with Liú Lín (KR4e0155) and Wú Chōng, Lù Kūn, Lóng Ní is one of the most clearly-documented mid-Míng yǐnshì (recluse) circles. The Tiáoxī wǔ yǐn documentary record across Liú Lín’s and Sūn’s collections (with Wén Zhēngmíng’s Shénlóu tú of KR4e0155 as the visual record) is one of the most coherent retirement-circle archives in the entire division.
The Sìkù judgement is unusually positive on Sūn: bànxiāng zài Huáng Tíngjiān (his incense-thread is on Huáng Tíngjiān) — quoted from Zhū Yízūn — places Sūn in the Jiāngxī school style line, away from the dominant Qínshēng (Shǎnxī / Lǐ Mèngyáng) school of his region. The jiǎorán bású (striking-and-rising-from-the-vulgar) judgement is a deliberate counter-statement to the QiánQīzǐ’s archaicism.
The possible Ānhuàwáng (Prince Ānhuà) ancestry — left as huò yuē (“some say”) in the Sìkù note — connects Sūn possibly to the 1510 rebellion-and-execution of that imperial-cadet line; this would explain his programmatic refusal of office and his life-long wandering. The Sìkù preservation does not press this point.
The textual losses — Mín Yuánqú’s catalogue of lost poems and Bào Zhì-… family’s 1000+-poem manuscript — flag substantial textual loss beyond the WYG 8-juǎn recension.
CBDB id 34651 confirms 1484–1520.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Sūn Yī-yuán.
- Míng shǐ j. 298 (Yǐn-yì zhuàn) — Sūn Yī-yuán biography.
- Daniel Bryant, The Great Recreation: Ho Ching-ming (1483–1521) and His World (Leiden: Brill, 2008) — for the Qián-Qī-zǐ periphery.
- Anne Burkus-Chasson, The Gallery of Eccentrics (Harvard, 2010) — for the Sōng-jiāng / Hú-zhōu reclusive milieu.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The Tiáoxī wǔ yǐn (Five Recluses of Tiáoxī) — Sūn Yīyuán + Liú Lín + Wú Chōng + Lù Kūn + Lóng Ní — at Chángxīng (Húzhōu) is one of the most coherent mid-Míng reclusive-circle records preserved across multiple biéjí in the Sìkù (Liú Lín’s Qīnghuì jí KR4e0155 and Sūn’s present Tàibái shānrén màngǎo together preserve it). The possible Ānhuàwáng ancestral connection makes the documentary record one of the cleaner mid-Míng imperial-cadet-descent / reclusive-life survivals.