Cǎotáng yǎjí 草堂雅集
Refined Collection of the Thatched Hall by 顧瑛
About the work
A 13/14-juǎn author-organised anthology of the Yùshān cǎotáng literary circle, the companion volume to KR4h0085 Yùshān míngshèng jí. Gù Yīng (顧瑛, 1310–1369) of Kūnshān 崑山 organised this collection on the model of Duàn Chéngshì’s 段成式 (Táng) Hànshàng tíjīn jí 漢上題襟集, in which each author has a discrete entry. Seventy named contemporary poets — running from Chén Jī 陳基 through Buddhist-monk Zìhuī 自恢 — are anthologised. Each entry is preceded by a brief biographical notice on the model of Yuán Hǎowèn 元好問 (Yíshān) Zhōngzhōu jí 中州集 (i.e. Jīn shī anthology, KR4h0066): style, hào, place of origin, sometimes office held, sometimes not even that. Gù appends his own responses to each guest at the end of that guest’s entry. Compositions occasioned by Gù’s circle but with non-Yùshān-affiliated addressees are included as fùlù, set in indented 4-character format to distinguish them.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Cǎotáng yǎjí in 13 juǎn — the Yuán Gù Yīng edited it. Yīng was talented at composition in his youth and loved entertaining guests. None of the four-quarters’ famous gentlemen failed to be invited to the Yùshān cǎotáng.
Therefore he followed Duàn Chéngshì’s Hànshàng tíjīn jí precedent and edited the responding-and-harmonising pieces into this volume. From Chén Jī to monk Zìhuī, seventy persons in all. Following Yuán Hǎowèn’s Zhōngzhōu jí model, each has a brief biographical sketch — though some sketches give only zì / hào / native place, without touching on writings or conduct: this reflects substance over self-promotion, in the manner of the previous generation’s solidity.
Those who exchanged poems with Yīng are appended fùlù-style to the relevant author’s section. Those who exchanged poems with other persons in the volume — where the addressee is not part of the Yùshān circle but the poem itself is anthology-worthy — are also appended. All such appended pieces are dropped 4-character-spaces in the indentation, to distinguish them.
Though titled Cǎotáng yǎjí — really it is a compact record of the lifetime compositions of the people in the volume. Of the late Yuán’s poetry-makers — these several-dozen persons largely encompass the field. Of these several-dozen persons’ compositions — these ten-plus juǎn provide the framework. One generation’s jīnghuá (essence-and-flower) is substantially recorded here. Compared with the Yuèquán yínshè 月泉吟社 [Sòng-end loyalist poetry-society] which limited itself to the single topic Tiányuán záxīng and the Yuèquán’s only-five-and-seven-character regulated verse — this is far broader.
The book is rarely transmitted in the world. Wáng Shìzhēn 王士禎 in Jūyì lù 居易錄 records that Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊 only once saw a copy at the Wúmén physician Lù Qíqīng 陸其清’s house. This recension’s paper-and-ink seem to be an old manuscript — perhaps the very Lù-family copy?
Reverently submitted, sixth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date. The compilation matches the active period of the Yùshān cǎotáng: Zhìzhèng 8–16 (1348–1356), with the bulk c. 1349–1354. Most of the seventy anthologised poets are documented as having visited Gù’s estate during this window.
Form and significance. (1) The work is the companion to KR4h0085: Míngshèng jí organises by place, Yǎjí organises by author. Together they document the late-Yuán Wúzhōng literary salon comprehensively. (2) The 70-author roster includes major late-Yuán figures: Yáng Wéizhēn 楊維楨, Ní Zàn 倪瓚, Zhāng Yǔ 張雨, Kē Jiǔsī 柯九思, Zhèng Yuányòu 鄭元祐 (KR4h0087), 周砥 Zhōu Dǐ, Yú Jì 余羆, Wāng Yuánliàng 汪元量, etc. The compilation is an indispensable source for the literary biography of late-Yuán writers, many of whom otherwise survive in fragmentary single-author biéjí. (3) The work was very rare in the MíngQīng: Wáng Shìzhēn 王士禎 (1634–1711) records that Zhū Yízūn (1629–1709) once saw a copy at the Sūzhōu physician Lù Qíqīng’s house — this near-unique recension is the source of the SKQS text. (4) The model adopted from Duàn Chéngshì’s Hànshàng tíjīn jí (a Táng jiāoshè jí) and Yuán Hǎowèn’s Zhōngzhōu jí (the Jīn-period anthology with biographical headnotes) establishes the genre lineage: this is a literary-salon documentary in the tradition of jiāoshè and yuèquán yínshè anthology.
Translations and research
- David Sensabaugh, “Guests at Jade Mountain”, Artibus Asiae — companion study to his work on the Yùshān estate.
- Robert E. Hegel, “The Yùshān cǎo-táng and Late-Yuán literati culture” — discussion in Hegel’s volumes on Yuán-Míng literary networks.
- 戴麗珠 Dài Lì-zhū, Gù Yīng yán-jiū (Taipei, 1981) — monograph on Gù and the Yùshān circle (treats both Míng-shèng and Yǎ-jí).
- 楊鎌 Yáng Lián, Yuán shī-shǐ (Beijing, 2003).
Other points of interest
The author-roster of Cǎotáng yǎjí and Yùshān míngshèng jí together is the principal source for the prosopography of late-Yuán Wúzhōng literary circles. For roughly half of the seventy poets, the SKQS-preserved Cǎotáng yǎjí is the primary or only documentary witness to their non-bibliographic compositions. The work’s rarity in the MíngQīng — only one early-modern witness traced — is itself significant evidence for the late-Yuán manuscript culture’s suppression under the Hóngwǔ régime’s Yùshān exiles.
Links
- ctext
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §31.4.