Jīng huá lù 精華錄
Quintessential Selection (Selected Poems of Wáng Shìzhēn) by 王士禛 (撰)
About the work
A 10-juan selection of the best poetry of 王士禛 Wáng Shìzhēn (1634–1711, zì Yíshàng 貽上, hào Ruǎntíng 阮亭, Yúyángshānrén 漁洋山人) — the founder of the Shényùn 神韻 (“Spirit-Resonance”) school and the dominant poetic voice of the early Qīng. The selection was made under Wáng’s own supervision by his friend Lín Gǔdù 林古度 of Mǐn (Fújiàn) on the model of Yuán Zhěn and Bái Jūyì’s mutual selection-prefaces, choosing from Wáng’s much larger output (preserved in fuller form in the Daìjīngtáng quánjí 帶經堂全集). The original SBCK base-edition title is Yúyáng shānrén jīng huá lù 漁洋山人精華錄; the Sìkù recension shortens this to Jīng huá lù. The preface is by 錢謙益 Qián Qiānyì, signed Yúshān Méngsǒu 虞山蒙叟, dated approximately jǐchǒu (Kāngxī 8, 1669) — Qián then in his 88th year, two years before his death; this preface was inscribed Wáng a gǔ shī yī shǒu (“Ancient-style poem in one piece”) with which Qián publicly handed on the Yúshān (Chángshú) poetic mantle to the young Wáng — one of the great early-Qīng critical-passing-of-the-torch gestures.
Prefaces
Preface by 錢謙益 Qián Qiānyì (Yúshān Méngsǒu — “the Yú-mountain dim-old-man”), undated but written c. jǐchǒu (1669):
In the bǐngxū year of Wànlì (1606), those who joined me in passing the nángōng examination were: Wén Tàiqīng of Guānxī, Wáng Jìmù of Xīnchéng, and Zhōng Bójìng of Jìnglíng — all of them brave and brilliant gentlemen, contending for the rein in the literary precincts. Tàiqīng was broad and abstruse; Jìmù copious and unbridled — flashing in his bold launchings and pouring forth his diction. Tàiqīng once gave Jìmù a poem reading: “Yuánměi (Wáng Shìzhēn the elder) I love both his Kōngtóng and WángLǐ; you alone are master” — so the standard of his school. Bójìng, with a still and hidden grace, took the Shī guī and turned the ears and eyes of the age — so much so that today every superficial talent picking apart and razing knows no master but Zhōng (Xīng) and Tán (Yuánchūn). They divide the field with Wáng (Shìzhēn), Lǐ (Pānlóng), Xú (Wèi), and Yuán (Hóngdào). Meanwhile the Guānxī and Xīnchéng collection has stood alone in the QínQí region; the lower-Yangzi men have not passed by to inquire. Their three talents are bózhòng — brotherly equals — but the rise-and-sink of their posthumous reputations is utterly different — surely there is fortune and misfortune at work here, the sort that makes the ancients sigh deeply at solitude even after a thousand years. Jìmù has been dead more than thirty years; his great-nephew Yíshàng has come to fame again in poetry. Lín Gǔdù of Mǐn assessed and arranged Yíshàng’s collection, lifting up Jìmù as the xiānhé (the first river) and saying that family-learning and ménfēng (school-gate winds) have their own deep sources… [Qián then composes a long gǔ shī in praise of Wáng’s poetic project.] (Signed:) Yúshān Méngsǒu, Qián Qiānyì.
Abstract
The Jīng huá lù is the most-circulated early recension of Wáng’s poetry, made in the late 1660s and broadly reproduced through both SBCK and Sìkù. Wáng’s fuller poetic corpus appears in the Daìjīngtáng quánjí 帶經堂全集 (12 sub-collections totaling 50+ juan). The Qián Qiānyì preface is critically important: it was Qián’s last major poetic-critical statement before his death in 1664 (some traditions place the preface even later, into 1669 — the dating is contested), and it explicitly transmits the Yúshān (Chángshú) poetic line, anchored in the late-Míng Wànlì generation of Wáng Jìmù (Wáng Yánpó 王彥泛, Wáng Shìzhēn’s great-uncle), Wén Tàiqīng (Wén Cuì 文翠), and Zhōng Bójìng (Zhōng Xīng 鍾惺), to the young Wáng Shìzhēn.
The composition window for the included poems runs from c. 1658 (Wáng’s jìnshì year, his earliest dated mature poetry) through approximately 1700, when the Jīng huá lù was being given final form. Many of the Yángzhōu Hóngqiáo poems from Wáng’s prefectship at Yángzhōu (1660–1664) are included, along with the Qíxiá shān sequence and his famous Qiū liǔ shī sì shǒu (Four Autumn-Willow Poems).
The Shényùn 神韻 doctrine — the program for a poetics of indirection, suggestion, and miàowù spiritual resonance derived from Wáng Wéi and the Yán Yǔ 嚴羽 Cānglàng shīhuà tradition — is exemplified throughout the Jīng huá lù. Wáng’s mature critical position is articulated in the Yúyáng shīhuà 漁洋詩話, which served as the manifesto-companion to this poetic selection.
Translations and research
Lynn A. Struve, The Ming-Qing Conflict 1619–1683: A Historiography and Source Guide (Ann Arbor, 1998) — discusses Wáng’s later career.
Daniel Bryant, “Wang Shih-chen and the Theory of Spirit-Resonance,” in Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, vol. 1 (1986).
Richard John Lynn, “Orthodoxy and Enlightenment: Wang Shih-chen’s Theory of Poetry and Its Antecedents,” in The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism, ed. de Bary (Columbia UP, 1975).
Yán Dí-chāng 嚴迪昌, Qīng shī shǐ 清詩史 (Jiāngsū gǔjí, 1990) — Wáng Shìzhēn chapter.
Liú Shì-nán 劉世南, Qīng shī liú-pài shǐ 清詩流派史 (Wén-jīn, 1995).
Other points of interest
Wáng’s name 王士禛 was officially altered to 王士正 and later 王士禎 under the Yōngzhèng taboo (his personal name Zhēn clashing with 胤禛’s 禛); the Sìkù WYG uses 士禎. This explains why the same individual appears variously in the literature, in the WYG-Sìkù and in the SBCK with different graphical forms. The Sìkù compilers’ decision to abridge the original Yúyáng shānrén jīng huá lù title to Jīng huá lù in the WYG recension reflects the same Qiánlóng-era practice of softening late-Míng-loyalist names where possible — Yúyángshānrén being a hào with strong literati-recluse associations.
Links
- Wikidata Q1342988 (Wang Shizhen)
- ECCP 831–833 (Tu Lien-che)
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào