Yúgǔ jí 愚谷集
Fool’s Valley Collection by 李舜臣 (撰)
About the work
The literary collection of Lǐ Shùnchén 李舜臣 (1499–1559), zì Màoqīn 茂欽, hào Yúgǔ 愚谷, also Wèicūn jūshì 未村居士, of Lèān 樂安 (Shāndōng). Jiājìng 2 (1523, 癸未) jìnshì; office reached Tàipú sì qīng. The 10-juǎn WYG recension comprises 4 juǎn of poetry — Bùshǔ gǎo, Jīnlíng gǎo, Jiāngxī gǎo, Guītián gǎo (the four titles indicating the four phases of Lǐ’s career) — and 6 juǎn of prose. The cutting is the Kāngxī bǐngwǔ (1666) edition with Zhōu Liànggōng 周亮工 preface; Zhōu cut it during his Shāndōng tenure. In an era when the Lǐ Mèngyáng / Hé Jǐngmíng gōují túshì (hook-thorn-decoration) was at its height, Lǐ alone took pǔzhí (plain-and-straight) as his manner.
Tiyao
Yúgǔ jí in 10 juǎn — by Lǐ Shùnchén of the Míng. Shùnchén, zì Màoqīn, hào Yúgǔ, also hào Wèicūn jūshì, native of Lèān. Jiājìng guǐwèi (1523) jìnshì; office reached Tàipú sì qīng. The collection has 4 juǎn of poetry — called Bùshǔ gǎo, Jīnlíng gǎo, Jiāngxī gǎo, Guītián gǎo; 6 juǎn of prose. There is a Kāngxī bǐngwǔ (1666) preface by Zhōu Liànggōng — cut by Liànggōng during his Shāndōng tenure. The poetry-frame is yǎchì (elegant-cleanly) but somewhat cramped at the borders — its strength and weakness both reside in this. The prose is ancient-substantial and rather seems jǐnyán (cautious-and-strict) — sometimes the chǎnxuē (paring) is excessive. Hence Liànggōng’s preface records Wáng Shìzhēn’s criticism that the style is small-fine. Yet at the time of Běidì Xìnyáng (Lǐ Mèngyáng, Hé Jǐngmíng) school prosperous over the world — taking gōují túshì (hook-thorn and decoration-painting) as the standard — Shùnchén alone, with pǔzhí (plain-and-straight), preserved the ancient method. His xùjì (prefaces-and-records) much have mínglùn (famous arguments); the Xīqiáo yìshìzhuàng (Account of West-Bridge’s lost affairs) one piece — touching the spearhead of Zhāng Cōng 張璁 and Guì È 桂萼 — zhí shū bù huì (writing straight without taboo) — on the day the prose came out, the whole empire zǎshé (tongue-clicked, i.e. was awe-struck) — also surely a gāngzhèng zhī shì (upright resolute gentleman). According to the small-prefaces preserved in the collection, Shùnchén’s writings include Yì guà rǔyán 易卦辱言, Shī xù kǎo 詩序考, MáoShī chūbǐ 毛詩出比, Lǐjīng dú 禮經讀, Chūnqiū Zuǒzhuàn kǎolì 春秋左傳考例, Gǔliáng sānlì 榖梁三例, Zuǒzhuàn dú 左傳讀, Gǔwén kǎo 古文考, Sānjīng kǎo 三經考, Zhòuwén kǎo 籕文考, Liùjīng zhíyīn 六經直音 — today all not seen; yet they suffice to show his prose’s roots and bases. Compiled and presented in the third month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Lǐ Shùnchén of Lèān (1499–1559) is one of the more interesting Jiā-jìng-era literary figures: a Tàipú sì qīng (Court of the Imperial Stud chief) by official career, but in literary practice a deliberate pǔzhí (plain-and-straight) writer who stood apart from the dominant Lǐ Mèngyáng / Hé Jǐngmíng archaist movement. His Xīqiáo yìshìzhuàng — an account of “Xīqiáo” (Lǐ’s mentor) that zhí shū bù huì about the rites-faction enforcer Zhāng Cōng and his ally Guì È — was a political-prose intervention of considerable contemporary impact. Lǐ’s lost philological works (recorded in his collection’s xiǎoxù) cover the entire Five Classics + Zuǒzhuàn + Gǔliáng + MáoShī span and indicate that he was a serious jīngxué (Classical Studies) scholar; none of these survive.
Date bracket: 1523 (Jiājìng 2 jìnshì) — c.1559 (death). Lifedates not securely fixed; CBDB has multiple matches (id 10832 and 34698 with zero markers; id 103399 is a Sòng-period homonym; id 553020 [1545–1598] is a Lǐ Shùnchén of Korea — the famous admiral). Standard Míng reference works give 1499–1559 for this figure.
The WYG edition is itself based on the Kāngxī Zhōu Liànggōng Shāndōng cutting of 1666 — placing the collection’s textual history in the zhōngwǎn Míng → qīngchū yímín preservation chain.
Translations and research
- Míng shǐ j. 287 — Lǐ Shùn-chén appears in connection with Lè-ān literary figures.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
Lǐ’s documented Wǔjīng + Zuǒzhuàn + Gǔliáng + MáoShī philological corpus — though entirely lost — makes him one of the more substantial jīngxué (Classical Studies) figures among Jiā-jìng-era biéjí authors. The collection’s Xīqiáo yìshìzhuàng is an exceptional anti–rites-faction political prose.