Cúnjiā shīgǎo 存家詩稿
Family-Preserved Poetry Manuscripts by 楊巍 (撰)
About the work
The poetry collection of Yáng Wēi 楊巍 (1517–1608), zì Bóqiān 伯謙, hào Mèngshān 夢山, of Hǎifēng 海豐 (Shāndōng). Jiājìng 26 (1547, 丁未) jìnshì; cumulatively officed to Lìbù shàngshū (Minister of Civil Office); posthumously Shǎobǎo. The collection’s autobiographical preface records: Yáng yòu xí jǔzǐ yè, bù zhī shī (“in youth practiced jǔzǐ essay-work, did not know poetry”); only in Jiājìng 34 (1555, 乙卯), when transferred out as Shānxī tíxué, he was dǎo (led) by his colleague Cáo Biàn 曹忭 to begin writing poetry. After retirement, he and the shānrén Lǚ Shíchén 呂時臣 xiāng chànghè (mutually exchanged verses), obtaining over 600 poems — which he entrusted to Xíng Tóng 邢侗 and Zōu Guānguāng 鄒觀光 to evaluate and preserve. The case parallels the Táng Gāo Shì 高適 case — both began poetry in middle-age. Wáng Shìzhēn (士禛, the Qīng) in Chíběi ǒután praised Yáng’s five-character poetry as jiǎngǔ dé Táo tǐ (“simple-and-ancient, got the Táo Yuānmíng style”) — Míngrén suǒ shǎo (“rare among Míng people”).
Tiyao
Cúnjiā shīgǎo in 8 juǎn — by Yáng Wēi of the Míng. Wēi, zì Bóqiān, hào Mèngshān, native of Hǎifēng. Jiājìng dīngwèi (1547) jìnshì; cumulatively officed Lìbù shàngshū; posthumously Shǎobǎo. Wēi yánglì zhōng wài (raised-aloft inside-and-out), in office had néng shēng (capable reputation). His self-colophon says: he yòu xí jǔzǐ yè, bù zhī shī; only in Jiājìng yǐmǎo (1555) when outside-supplemented Shǎnxī Nièpǔ tíxué, Cáo Biàn dǎo (led) him to compose poetry. After retirement, he xiāng chànghè with the shānrén Lǚ Shíchén, got over 600 poems; entrusted to Xíng Tóng and Zōu Guānguāng to evaluate and preserve them. His mid-age learning of poetry, with the Táng Gāo Shì’s case, is somewhat similar — and his natural-talent chāozhuó (surpassingly distinguished), zìrán bású (naturally raised-from-vulgarity); hence able-to not be stained by dust-and-rubble, alone-issuing qīngshēng (clear sound). Wáng Shìzhēn’s Chíběi ǒután praised his five-character as jiǎngǔ dé Táo tǐ (simple-and-ancient, got Táo’s style) — what Míngrén suǒ shǎo (Míng people had little of). He also raised his “qiánnián shìwǒ shānzhōngbìng; luòrì dú qí cōngmǎ lái; jì-de Rènjiā tíngzǐ shàng; liánqiáo huā fā gòng xiánbēi” (“Last year you visited me in my mountain sickness; setting-sun, alone you came riding a piebald horse; I remember at the Rèn family’s tíngzǐ — the liánqiáo (forsythia) flowers bloomed — we together held cups”) juéjù (quatrain). His shényùn qīngjùn (spirit-charm crisp-and-distinguished) with Shìzhēn’s lùnshī zōngzhǐ (poetry-discussing intent) being close, hence yóu shǎng zhī (especially appreciated). Other gāokuàng jiǎngǔ (lofty-and-spacious, simple-ancient) works are not few. Surely yǔ dāngshí cáozá zhī yīn (apart from the era’s chaotic-sound) far-distant indeed. Shìzhēn once xuǎndìng (selected-and-fixed) his poetry into 3 juǎn, entrusted to Xiè Chónghuī 謝重輝 to cut. Today [we] have not seen. This is Zōu Guānguāng’s shāndìng zhī běn (deletion-fixed běn). Compiled and presented in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Yáng Wēi of Hǎifēng is one of the more interesting cases of a late-blooming Míng biéjí author — a man who yòu xí jǔzǐ yè, bù zhī shī until age 38 sui. His personal shi-rén (poetry-friendship) with Lǚ Shíchén, his late-life cluster of over 600 poems, and the Wáng Shìzhēn (Qīng-era, of Yúyáng) endorsement of his five-character verse as jiǎngǔ dé Táo tǐ — these together place Yáng in a deliberately Wúpài (Wú school) opposed to the Hòu Qī Zǐ mainstream. Wáng Shìzhēn (QīngYúyáng)‘s xuǎn (selection) of 3 juǎn — entrusted to Xiè Chónghuī for cutting — is now lost; the surviving WYG recension is the Zōu Guānguāng shāndìng zhī běn in 8 juǎn.
Date bracket: 1547 (Jiājìng 26 jìnshì) — 1608 (death). Wáng’s poetic career was 1555–1608. CBDB 125335 confirms 1517–1608; catalog meta has no dates.
Translations and research
- Míng shǐ j. 225 — Yáng Wēi main biography.
- 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
The QīngYúyáng Wáng Shìzhēn’s appreciation of Yáng Wēi’s jiǎngǔ dé Táo tǐ is a clear forerunner of his own shényùn (spiritual-resonance) poetic doctrine; Yáng provides a Míng biéjí-anchor for the Qīng shényùn aesthetic.