Jùcí shījí 具茨詩集
Jù-cí Poetry Collection by 王立道 (撰)
About the work
The literary collection of Wáng Lìdào 王立道 (1510–1547), zì Màozhōng 懋中, of Wúxī 無錫 (Jiāngsū). Jiājìng 14 (1535, 乙未) jìnshì; office Hànlínyuàn biānxiū. The catalog lists 14 juǎn (5 juǎn poetry + 8 juǎn prose + 1 juǎn yígǎo). The original was 5 juǎn poetry + 7 juǎn prose + 1 juǎn appendix; later editors re-collected fragmentary surviving pieces — adding bǔyí and fùlù to the poetry section, an extra juǎn of lùnbiǎo prose, and a separate juǎn of yígǎo (surviving manuscripts). The Sìkù’s essay-by-Wáng on prose-theory — “Bīng has no fixed shape; by the orthodox, nine-tenths win; prose has no fixed body; by the strange, one-tenth succeeds; the Pángào style is one-tenth of the Six Classics — imitating it and merely similar is still not a cháng (constant), how much less the búlèi zhě (un-like ones)?” is read by the tíyào as a sharp critique of the Lǐ Mèngyáng circle’s ZhōuQín imitation program.
Tiyao
Jùcí shījí in 5 juǎn, wénjí in 8 juǎn, yígǎo in 1 juǎn — by Wáng Lìdào of the Míng. Lìdào, zì Màozhōng, native of Wúxī. Jiājìng yǐwèi (1535) jìnshì; office Hànlínyuàn biānxiū. His poetry is chōngróng dàndàng (full-leisurely, light-and-relaxed), not making qíxiǎn zhī yǔ (extraordinary-dangerous language); qǔfǎ zài zhōngTáng QiánLiú zhī jiān (his rule-taking is between Mid-Táng’s Qián Qǐ and Liú Chángqīng); only slightly tending toward wǎnruò (tender-and-weak). The prose is zònghéng zìxǐ (longitudinal-horizontal, self-pleased), rather close to Méishān (i.e. Sū Shì). His essay Lùn wén shū (Letter discussing prose) says: “Bīng wú chángxíng; yǐ zhèng shèng zhě shí zhī jiǔ; wén wú chángtǐ; yǐ qí shàn zhě shí zhī yī; Pángào zhī wén zé Liùjīng zhī shí zhī yī ěr; xiào ér sì zhě yóu wèikě wéi cháng, ér kuàng qí wàn bù lèi yě zāi?” His words deeply hit the affliction of his time’s Běidì (Lǐ Mèngyáng) circle’s mófǎng ZhōuQín (imitating ZhōuQín). Looking at what he composes — also identifiable. The original catalog records 5 juǎn poetry, 7 juǎn prose, 1 juǎn appendix. Today at the end of the poetry-collection is added bǔyí and fùlù of more than twenty pieces; after the 7-juǎn prose-collection are also added lùnbiǎo and other ten-plus pieces, into 1 juǎn — placed before the appendix; and after the appendix there is again separately listed yígǎo in 1 juǎn. Surely later-people scraped-together and made-into incremental additions — so they don’t correspond with the original catalog. Today [we] re-fix the order. As for the appended-on 1 juǎn containing chìmìng zhìzhuàn (edict-mandates, zhì-biographies) — most are yìměi (excess-praise) without kǎojù (textual-grounding); together they were [removed]. Compiled and presented [date cut off].
Abstract
Wáng Lìdào of Wúxī died young (only 38 sui) but left a substantial collection — 14 juǎn in the recompiled WYG recension — that the Sìkù tíyào values especially for its principled critique of the Lǐ Mèngyáng ZhōuQín imitation program. The often-cited passage from Wáng’s Lùn wén shū — “Pángào (the Pángēng and gào sections of the Shàngshū) prose is only one-tenth of the Six Classics; imitating it and merely similar is still not the constant, how much less imitations not-similar?” — is one of the most pointed contemporary critiques of the archaist Pángào imitation cult. Wáng’s poetry, the tíyào notes, looks to Mid-Táng (Qián Qǐ and Liú Chángqīng), and his prose to Sū Shì (Méishān), placing him squarely in a Tang-Sòng-pài-adjacent literary lineage — though without explicit affiliation. The 1-juǎn of fùlù — primarily chìmìng (edict-mandates) and zhì-biographies — was deemed yìměi (excess-praise) and removed by the Sìkù compilers.
Date bracket: 1535 (Jiājìng 14 jìnshì) — 1547 (death). CBDB 34712 gives 1510–1547; catalog meta has no dates; standard reference works confirm CBDB.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
- Míng shǐ (no main biography; biographical notices in Sū-zhōu and Wú-xī gazetteers).
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The Sìkù compilers’ explicit deletion of the 1-juǎn of chìmìng and zhì-biographies as yìměi without kǎojù is another transparent admission of Sìkù recension intervention in a Míng biéjí.