Yùshān míngshèng jí 玉山名勝集
Famed Scenes of Jade Mountain (Collection) by 顧瑛
About the work
A 8-juǎn + 1 juǎn wàijí topographical-and-occasional anthology, edited by Gù Yīng (顧瑛, 1310–1369, zì Zhòngyíng 仲瑛, hào Yùshān zhǔrén 玉山主人), the famous late-Yuán Kūnshān 崑山 patron of literature. The work organises into named-spots the prose, verse, jì and xù composed by the dozens of contemporary literary visitors who frequented Gù’s Yùshān cǎotáng 玉山草堂 estate, with each section headed by the personal name(s) of the person(s) who composed the spot’s inscription (tíé) and ordered chronologically thereafter. The spots include: 玉山堂 Yùshāntáng, 玉山佳處 Yùshān jiāchù, 種玉亭 Zhòngyùtíng, 小蓬萊 Xiǎo Pénglái, 碧梧翠竹堂 Bìwú cuìzhútáng, 湖光山色樓 Húguāng shānsèlóu, 讀書舍 Dúshūshè, 可詩齋 Kěshīzhāi, 醉雪齋 Zuìxuězhāi, 白雲海 Báiyúnhǎi, 來龜軒 Láiguīxuān, 雪巢 Xuěcháo, 春草池 Chūncǎochí, 絳雪亭 Jiàngxuětíng, 浣華館 Huànhuáguǎn, 柳塘春 Liǔtángchūn, 漁莊 Yúzhuāng, 書畫舫 Shūhuàfǎng, 春暉樓 Chūnhuīlóu, 秋華亭 Qiūhuátíng, 淡香亭 Dànxiāngtíng, 君子亭 Jūnzǐtíng, 釣月軒 Diàoyuèxuān, 拜石壇 Bàishítán, 寒翠所 Háncuìsuǒ, 芝雲堂 Zhīyúntáng, 金粟影 Jīnsùyǐng (etc.).
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Yùshān míngshèng jí in 8 juǎn + 1 wàijí juǎn — the Yuán Gù Yīng edited it. Yīng has the Yùshān púgǎo 玉山璞稿 (KR4d0574), already catalogued. The grandness of his estate’s ponds and pavilions was unrivaled in the southeast; one age’s prevailing talents mostly came to visit and feast. He thus gathered the resulting poetry and prose into this collection, each section keyed to a topographical name (dìmíng). [Categories then listed: as above.]
For each spot, the editor places first the inscription’s author (tíé zhī rén), then Gù Yīng’s own commemorative verse, with the prefaces, records, poems and cí-pieces appended thereafter. Of the late Yuán’s renowned literati, eight or nine in ten appear in this volume.
If we consider: the convivial assembly of Jīngǔ 金谷 and Lántíng 蘭亭 began the tradition of feast-and-poetry; the topographical multitude of Wǎngchuān 輞川 and Yúnxī 雲谿 began the tradition of poetic topography. Yet for sheer number of guests and abundance of compositions, nothing surpasses the present collection. Although it appears in a declining age — with men using literary refuge as an escape — the wéncǎi fēngliú (literary brilliance and refined manner) illumines the whole epoch; even centuries later, one seems still to behold them. To preserve this book is one of the eternal jiāhuà (fine talks) of the Garden of Letters.
Reverently submitted, fourth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún (note: SKQS source typesetter’s slip — 紀的 in the source for 紀昀), Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date. The estate flourished from Zhìzhèng 1 (1341), when Gù Yīng (then 32 suì) retired from worldly affairs to devote himself to the Yùshān cǎotáng project. Most of the recorded gatherings cluster in Zhìzhèng 8–16 (1348–1356); after the Long-Spear rebellions of Zhāng Shìchéng disrupted Wúzhōng in 1356 and especially after the Hóngwǔ relocation to Línháo 臨濠 in 1370, the gatherings ended. The compilation must have been substantially completed in the late 1340s–early 1350s; the printing window is c. 1350s–1369 (Gù’s death).
The compiler. 顧瑛 was the central late-Yuán jiāngnán literary patron; his guest-circle included Yáng Wéizhēn 楊維楨 (the most prominent late-Yuán poet), Ní Zàn 倪瓚 (painter and recluse), Zhāng Yǔ 張雨 (Daoist poet-priest), Kē Jiǔsī 柯九思, Huáng Jìn 黃溍, 周砥 Zhōu Dǐ, Zhèng Yuányòu 鄭元祐 (KR4h0087), and many others. Gù’s wealth (he had handed his entire patrimony to his son Yīngchén 元臣 at age 40) and his refusal of office made him the late Yuán’s exemplary yǐnjūn (recluse-host).
Significance. (1) The work is the principal documentary record of the Yùshān cǎotáng literary circle — the most active literary salon of the late Yuán southeast and the model for subsequent MíngQīng yǐnjūn literary patronage. (2) Composition-by-topographical-spot is an unusual organizational principle; comparable models are the Táng Wǎngchuān jí 輞川集 (of Wáng Wéi 王維 and Péi Dí 裴迪 — the standard precedent the prefaces invoke). (3) The companion volume KR4h0086 Cǎotáng yǎjí 草堂雅集 (13 juǎn) covers the same circle’s compositions but organised by author; the two anthologies are deliberately complementary. (4) The work is a major documentary witness to late-Yuán Wúzhōng visual-and-literary culture: many of the named spots have surviving paintings by Ní Zàn, Wáng Méng 王蒙, etc.
Translations and research
- David Sensabaugh, “The Yùshān Estate of Gù Ying”, Artibus Asiae (1989) — principal Western study of the estate as an art-historical site.
- 戴麗珠 Dài Lì-zhū, Gù Yīng yán-jiū (Taipei, 1981) — monograph on Gù and the Yùshān circle.
- 楊鎌 Yáng Lián, Yuán shī-shǐ (Beijing, 2003) — chapter on late-Yuán Wú-zhōng poetry.
Other points of interest
The work’s organizational principle — anthology-by-place — was distinctive enough that the Qīng SKQS editors flagged it explicitly. The model anticipates the MíngQīng tradition of garden-anthologies (cf. KR4h0104 Hǎidài huìjí — a 16th-c. Shāndōng garden-circle anthology with similar structure). The work and its companion Cǎotáng yǎjí together constitute the single most concentrated documentary witness to late-Yuán Wúzhōng literary culture — comparable in scope to the Sòng Liùyī jūshì jí 六一居士集 for Sòng salon culture or Táng Yuánshū 元書 for Táng jiēshè (poetry-society) culture.
Links
- ctext
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §31.4.