Fánxiè shānfáng jí 樊榭山房集
Collection from the Mountain-Hut at Fán-xiè by 厲鶚 (撰)
About the work
The collected works of 厲鶚 Lì È (1692–1752, zì Tàihóng 太鴻, hào Fánxiè 樊榭), the leading mid-Qiánlóng Zhèxī school cí-lyricist and Sòng-poetry specialist. The SBCK reproduces the 20-juan Yángzhōu Xiǎolínglóngshānguǎn 小玲瓏山館 imprint from the Mǎ Yuèguǎn 馬曰琯 family library, with collation. The catalog meta gives the Sìkù-recension 10-juan form; the full SBCK reproduces the fuller 20-juan corpus. The title Fánxiè shānfáng takes its name from the Sìmíng mountain Fánxiè of Lì È’s ancestral Cíxī (Níngbō) origin — although Lì himself was born and lived in Qiántáng (Hángzhōu), the family had moved from Cíxī to Qiántáng in the early Kāngxī.
Prefaces
The SBCK opens with the Guó shǐ wényuàn zhuàn (the State History Literary Garden biography) of Lì È:
Lì È, a Qiántáng man of Zhèjiāng province. Jǔrén of the Kāngxī 59 (1720). From his youth he was poor, his nature solitary-precipitous and not casually agreeable. He began to learn the composition of poetry and at once had fine lines; in books there was nothing he did not look at — what he gained he all put into his poetry. So in his time there were many strange-stories and lost-incidents.
The Nèigé xuéshì Lǐ Fú, presiding at the Zhèjiāng examinations, encountered Lì’s paper in the screening; reading his Xiè biǎo (thanks-memorial), he said: “This must be a shīrén (poet)” — and at once enrolled him.
Lì traveled to the capital, especially favored in poetry by 湯右曾 Tāng Yòucéng shìláng. Examined for Lǐbù, he failed; Tāng wished to retain him and offer him a teaching position, but by the time the message came, Lì had already packed his bag and left the capital.
For more than a decade he repeatedly traveled by gōngchē (the imperial-recommendation cart). In Qiánlóng 1 (1736), the Zhèjiāng Governor-General Chéng Yuánzhāng recommended him to take the Bóxué hóngcí kē test; on the examination day he mistakenly wrote lùn (treatise) in the shī (poem) position, and again failed. His age was now great. The time of Bù quán (Personnel Bureau) re-screening was approaching; he again entered the capital, traveled to Tianjin, where his old friend Zhā Wéirén 查為仁 retained him at the Shuǐxī zhuāng (Water-West Estate) for several months of feasting and verse; he did not enter the screening but returned home, dying at 61.
Lì sōu qí shì bó (sought the strange, was fond of breadth), residing at Yángzhōu’s Mǎ Yuèguǎn’s Xiǎolínglóngshānguǎn for several years, pursuing his exploration thoroughly. Sòng-period collections were what he saw most of; also seeking through shīhuà, shuōbù, shānjīng, dìzhì, he composed the Sòng shī jì shì 宋詩紀事 in 100 juan, the NánSòng yuàn huà lù 南宋院畫錄 in 8 juan. He also wrote the Liáo shǐ shí yí 遼史拾遺, the Dōngchéng zá jì 東城雜記, the Hú chuán lù 湖船錄 — all broadly-versed and substantially-detailed.
His ancestors were originally Cíxī men who moved to Qiántáng; so he still uses the Sìmíng Fánxiè as the name of his residence. His writings — the Fánxiè shānfáng jí in 20 juan — are yōu xīn jùn miào, kè zhuó yán liàn (deep-new and outstandingly subtle, carved and refined). His five-character work especially is masterful, taking the way of Táo, Xiè, Wáng, Mèng, Wěi, and Liǔ, yet also has his own zìdé zhī qù (self-gained flavor). He is also long in cíyú (lyric meter), excelling among the Southern Sòng schools.
Hangzhou prefecture gazetteer literary biography: … (continued biographical material)
Abstract
Lì È is the leading mid-Qiánlóng Zhèxī school cí-lyricist (third in the canonical line after 朱彝尊 and after 查嗣瑮’s generation) and the foundational mid-Qing Sòng-poetry historian. His Sòng shī jì shì 宋詩紀事 (100 juan, c. 1740s) is the standard Qing-period reference work on Sòng poetry — collecting biographical materials, poems, and critical evaluations of over 3,800 Sòng poets, drawing on Lì’s marathon reading at the Mǎ family’s Xiǎolínglóngshānguǎn library in Yángzhōu. The NánSòng yuàn huà lù (8 juan) similarly is the foundational mid-Qing Southern-Sòng court-painting reference.
Lì’s status as the yánjiū (research) center for Zhèxī cí — together with his cí-poetic accomplishment — set the canonical mid-Qiánlóng Zhèxī school identity, transmitted to the late-Qiánlóng generation of 沈德潛 Shěn Déqián’s circle.
Composition window: c. 1720 (Lì’s earliest verse) through 1752 (his death). The 20-juan recension reflects his late-life self-curation.
Translations and research
Stephen Owen, ed., The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 2010) — substantial.
Daniel Bryant, “The Rise of Cí Poetry,” in Cambridge History, vol. 2 — Lì as Zhè-xī school’s mid-Qing continuation.
Tobie Meyer-Fong, Building Culture in Early Qing Yangzhou (Stanford UP, 2003) — substantial discussion of the Mǎ family library and Lì’s residence.
Yán Dí-chāng 嚴迪昌, Qīng cí shǐ — Lì È chapter.
ECCP 454–455 (Tu Lien-che).
Other points of interest
The Mǎ Yuèguǎn / Mǎ Yuèlǔ brothers’ Xiǎolínglóngshānguǎn at Yángzhōu — where Lì resided for many years — was the leading mid-Qiánlóng private literary salon and the principal site of Zhèxī cí compositional activity. The Mǎ family was the great mid-Qiánlóng Yángzhōu salt-merchant patron-family; their library is documented in Tobie Meyer-Fong’s Building Culture and in Cynthia J. Brokaw, Commerce in Culture (Harvard, 2007).
Links
- Wikidata Q15999378 (Li E)
- ECCP 454–455