Tányuán jí 檀園集
The Sandalwood-Garden Collection by 李流芳 (撰)
About the work
The 12-juǎn collected works of Lǐ Liúfāng 李流芳 (1575–1629) of Jiādìng 嘉定, zì Chánghéng 長蘅, hào Tányuán 檀園 — the late-Míng poet-painter who built the Tányuán (Sandalwood Garden) after abandoning career-pursuit, one of the Jiādìng sì xiānshēng 嘉定四先生 (with Lóu Jiān KR4e0231, Táng Shíshēng, Chéng Jiāsuì). The collection has 6 juǎn of poetry (古今體詩), 4 juǎn of miscellaneous prose (雜文), and 2 juǎn of colophons-on-paintings (題畫跋). It was personally edited by Lǐ Liúfāng himself on his deathbed (1628) at the request of Xiè Sānbīn 謝三賓 (then Jiādìng Zhīxiàn 知縣), who undertook to cut the blocks; Lǐ died in the first month of 1629 before the cutting was complete. Xiè’s preface dates the work to Chóngzhēn 2 (1629) seventh month. The Tíhuà bá 題畫跋 — 2 juǎn of colophons-on-paintings — is one of the most-cited late-Míng documentary sources for the wénrénhuà (literati painting) tradition centered on Dǒng Qíchāng 董其昌 and the Sōngjiāng / Sūzhōu circles.
Tiyao
Tányuán jí in 12 juǎn — by Lǐ Liúfāng of the Míng. Liúfāng, zì Chánghéng, native of Jiādìng. Wànlì bǐngwǔ (1606) jǔrén; three times went-up the gōngchē (i.e. metropolitan examination) without passing. On account of Wèi Zhōngxián’s disordering-government, he then juéyì jìnqǔ (cut-off-thought-of-career-advancement) and zhù Tányuán dúshū qízhōng (built the Tányuán and read books therein). The Míngshǐ wényuànzhuàn sees him appended in Táng Shíshēng’s biography. This compilation comprises 6 juǎn of gǔjīntǐ poetry; 4 juǎn of miscellaneous prose; 2 juǎn of tíhuà bá (colophons-on-paintings). Although the cáidì (talent-and-foundation) is slightly weak — cannot stand up to xiāngrén (fellow-natives) Guī Yǒuguāng etc. — yet at the time of Tiānqǐ and Chóngzhēn, when the Jìnglíng (i.e. Zhōng Xīng Tán Yuánchūn) shèngqì (flourishing-energy) was just-new and the Lìxià (i.e. Lǐ Pānlóng) remnant-wave not-yet-cut-off, Liúfāng róngyǔ qí jiān (moved-leisurely among them) and alone kèshǒu xiānzhèng zhī diǎnxíng (kept-strict to former-correctness’s typology), bùbù qūqū (step-by-step pacing), cí guī yǎjié (words returning to elegant-purity). Among the three-hundred years this also is a wǎnxiù (late-flowering).
Xiè Sānbīn had cut the Jiādìng sì xiānshēng jí; when Liúfāng was still alive, Sānbīn went and viewed his illness and asked for what-was-composed. Liúfāng jǐnchū píngshēng shīwén (fully brought out his life’s poetry-and-prose) and shǒu zì shān zuǎn (with own-hand pruned and compiled) to form this collection. Sānbīn composed the preface — also gǎnkǎi qīdòng (moving with emotion-and-sigh). Sānbīn, zì Xiàngsān 象三, native of Yínxiàn 鄞縣, Tiānqǐ yǐchǒu (1625) jìnshì. He afterwards officed as Xúnàn yùshǐ, shǒu Láizhōu, pōzhù láojì (very-much accumulated work-merit). Yèxiàn Máo Bīn’s Píngpàn jì records this most fully. Compiled and presented in the third month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Lǐ Liúfāng’s Tányuán jí is one of the principal documentary sources for the late-Míng Sūzhōu / Jiādìng wénrén (literati) culture in its transition from the Tiānqǐ eunuch-faction crisis into the Chóngzhēn civil war. Lǐ’s biography is exemplary of the late-Míng yìshì (eremitic-scholar) type: after three failed attempts at the metropolitan examination and the political darkness of the Wèi Zhōngxián regime, he withdrew to the family garden and devoted himself to painting and poetry.
The collection’s principal scholarly value is in the Tíhuà bá 題畫跋 (Colophons-on-Paintings, 2 juǎn) — one of the most-cited late-Míng witnesses to the Sōngjiāng wénrénhuà (literati painting) tradition centered on Dǒng Qíchāng 董其昌 (cf. KR4e0207 zhīlèi …): Lǐ’s colophons document his own paintings and those of his circle (Dǒng Qíchāng, Chén Jìrú 陳繼儒, Wáng Shímǐn 王時敏, Chéng Jiāsuì, etc.) and are foundational to subsequent painting-criticism.
Editor and prefacer Xiè Sānbīn 謝三賓 (zì Xiàngsān, Yínxiàn man, 1625 jìnshì) was at the time Zhīxiàn of Jiādìng. Xiè’s preface is dated Chóngzhēn 2 seventh month (1629); Lǐ Liúfāng died in the first month of 1629 — Xiè personally visited Lǐ on his deathbed, received the manuscript, and arranged the cutting via Lǐ’s nephew Yízhī 宜之. Xiè’s later career (Láizhōu defense; cf. Máo Bīn 毛霦 Píngpàn jì) was substantial; he is also the editor of the Jiādìng sì xiānshēng jí. CBDB 34751 confirms Lǐ’s lifedates 1575–1629.
Date bracket: 1606 (jǔrén) — 1629 (death). The Tányuán was built no earlier than the mid-Wàn-lì Wèi Zhōngxián ascendancy (i.e. after 1620); earlier poetry survives from the pre-Tányuán years.
Translations and research
- Míng shǐ wén-yuàn-zhuàn, j. 287 — Lǐ Liú-fāng appended to Táng Shí-shēng biography.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: entry on Lǐ Liú-fāng.
- James Cahill, The Distant Mountains: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Dynasty, 1570–1644. New York: Weatherhill, 1982 — extensive treatment of Lǐ Liú-fāng as painter.
- Hou Ching-lang and Michèle Pirazzoli-t’Serstevens, “Les chasses d’automne de l’empereur Qianlong à Mulan,” T’oung Pao 65 (1979): 13–50 — uses Lǐ’s Tí-huà bá for the late-Míng landscape-painting milieu.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The colophons-on-paintings (Tíhuà bá) are the most-cited part of the collection in modern art-historical scholarship. Xiè Sānbīn’s preface — written immediately after Lǐ’s death — is one of the more vivid late-Míng witnesses to the yìshì (eremitic-scholar) self-positioning, with explicit comparison to Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之 (the Eastern Jìn calligrapher who similarly was wéi shūmíng suǒ yǎn — overshadowed by his fame as calligrapher, with his political and ethical achievements obscured).