Yánlíng jí 嚴陵集
Yán-líng Collection by 董弅
About the work
A 9-juǎn regional anthology of literature on Yánzhōu 嚴州 (also called Yánlíng 嚴陵 after the recluse Yán Guāng 嚴光, zì Zǐlíng, of the Eastern Hàn), in modern Jiàndé 建德 (western Zhèjiāng). Compiled by Dǒng Fén 董弅 (hào Guǎngchuān) of Dōngpíng during his tenure as Yánzhōu prefect. The original compilation is prefaced Shàoxīng 9 (1139); a fourth-quarter Southern-Sòng updater (probably Qián Wénshī 錢聞詩 or Chén Gōngliàng 陳公亮 or another local official) added late-12th-century pieces — the Jùnxīhú jì of Qián Wénshī from Chúnxī 16 (1189), Chén Gōngliàng’s Chóngxiū Yán xiānshēng cítáng jì and Shū Ruìsù tú (Chúnxī yǐsì, 1185), and his Chóngxiū gòngyuàn jì (Chúnxī bǐngwǔ, 1186). So the received form was finalised in the late Southern-Sòng Chúnxī (1174–1189) era.
Structure: juǎn 1–5 are poetry from Xiè Língyùn 謝靈運 and Shěn Yuē 沈約 down to the early Southern Sòng; juǎn 6 closes the poetry with two fù; juǎn 7–9 are prose — bēi, míng, jì, and other genres relating to local sites.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Yánlíng jí in 9 juǎn — edited by Dǒng Fén of the Sòng. Fén was of Dōngpíng, son of Dǒng Yóu; self-styled “Guǎngchuān” — wishing to attach himself to a Dǒng Zhòngshū descent. In Shàoxīng he was prefect of Yánzhōu and so gathered the local poetry and prose from Xiè Língyùn and Shěn Yuē down to the early Southern Sòng. The first 5 juǎn are all poetry; juǎn 6 appends 2 fù after poetry; juǎn 7–9 are bēi, míng, tíjì, and other miscellaneous prose. Fén’s self-preface says: “I worked with my colleagues on the prefectural tújīng (illustrated gazetteer), searched out stelae and inscriptions, examined the records, and so recovered much hidden literature; also got the privately-held books of the local Yú Yànxiān family; with the jiàoshòu Shěn Sù further extensively collected and recorded; and so completed this collection.”
In the book, Sīmǎ Guāng’s Dúlè yuán Diàoyúān shī was originally composed in Luòyáng — included here because its opening line uses the Yán Zǐlíng allusion: this is a stretched borrowing-by-association, the bad habit of local gazetteers. Yet of the poems and prose preserved, Táng-and-before pieces are commonly available; the Sòng-period contributions — apart from a few men with full collections (zhuānjí) — include such names as Cáo Fǔ, Lǚ Xīchún, Chén Guàn, Zhū Yàn, Jiāng Gōngwàng, Jiāng Gōngzhù, Cài Zhào, Zhāng Bóyù, Qián Xié, Lǐ Fǎng, Hù Méng, Liú Chāngyán, Dīng Wèi, Fàn Shīdào, Zhāng Bǎoyōng, Zhāng Mín, Ruǎn Yì, Guān Yǒng, Lǐ Shīzhòng, Páng Jí, Sūn Miǎn, Wáng Cún, Féng Jīng, Diāo Yuē, Yuán Jiāng, Zhāng Jǐngxiū, Cén Xiàngqiú, Shào Yuán, Mǎ Cún, Chén Xuān, Wú Kějǐ, Yè Fěigōng, Liú Jīng, Jiǎ Qīng, Wáng Dá, Zhāng Shòu, Yú Pì, Diāo Kǎn, Ní Tiānyǐn, Zhōu Bāngyàn, Luó Rǔjí, Zhān Yuánzōng, Chén Gōngliàng, Qián Wénshī — some no longer recoverable by name, some still nameable but with collections lost; thanks to Dǒng Fén’s compilation a glimpse survives. This is a resource for those who would discuss the craft.
Only — Dǒng’s preface is dated Shàoxīng 9 (1139); yet juǎn 9 contains Qián Wénshī’s Jùn Xīhú jì of Chúnxī 16 (1189) — 51 years after Dǒng’s preface — and Chén Gōngliàng’s Chóngxiū Yán xiānshēng cítáng jì and Shū Ruìsù tú of Chúnxī yǐsì (1185), plus his Chóngxiū gòngyuàn jì of Chúnxī bǐngwǔ (1186) — 47–48 years after Dǒng’s preface. So a later hand has supplemented the book; it is no longer Dǒng’s original; but the additions are still by Sòng-period hands. Reverently submitted, fourth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date: the original 1139 compilation; final form by Chúnxī 16 (1189). The book is one of the principal Sòng regional anthologies — alongside the Huìjī duōyīng zǒngjí KR4h0028 of 1072, the Chéngdū wénlèi KR4h0045 of c. 1300, and the Wúdū wéncuì KR4h0057 of late Southern Sòng — that together document the Sòng habit of preserving local cultural heritage through prefectural-anthology projects.
Its principal documentary significance is the preservation of secondary Northern- and Southern-Sòng prose and verse by approximately 40 named writers whose individual collections are lost or fragmentary. The SKQS tíyào enumeration is unusually careful in identifying these men; the Yánlíng jí is the single most useful source for Yánzhōu / Tónglú prefectural literary prosopography in the Sòng period.
The book is also part of the Yán Guāng cult: the Yánlíng sites — Diàotái, Yánxiāncí, the Yánlíng wǔlíng — are sustained by the local-government cultural-recovery effort documented here. The cult of the Eastern-Hàn recluse Yán Guāng (Zǐlíng) is a major Sòng intellectual tradition (Fàn Zhòngyān’s “Yán xiānshēng cítáng jì” 嚴先生祠堂記 — included here in Dǒng Fén’s juǎn 9 — is the canonical Sòng tribute), and the Yánlíng jí is the principal documentary basis for that tradition.
Translations and research
- James M. Hargett, “Local Gazetteers and Local Topography in Sòng Times,” T’oung Pao 82 (1996): 405–442 — discusses the Yán-líng jí in the context of Sòng regional documentation.
- Wáng Dé-yì 王德毅, Sòng-dài fāng-zhì kǎo 宋代方志考 (Taipei, 1968) — Sòng prefectural gazetteer history.
- Chén Bó-hǎi 陳伯海, Táng-shī xué-shǐ gǎo — discussion of Táng poets in Sòng regional anthologies.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §53.5.
- ctext