Dàyǎ jí 大雅集
Collection of Great Yǎ by 賴良
About the work
An 8-juǎn late-Yuán poetry anthology compiled by Lài Liáng (賴良, zì Shànqīng 善卿, Tiāntái 天台 man), arranged in 4 juǎn of gǔtǐ (ancient-style) + 4 juǎn of jìntǐ (modern-style) verse. The work consists of previously unanthologised compositions by WúYuè regional poets — Lài’s express principle being to preserve the “hidden-but-not-yet-emerged” (yǐn ér wèi báizhě). The selection was drastically pruned by Yáng Wéizhēn (楊維楨, 1296–1370, Tiěyǎ dàorén 鐵雅道人): from Lài’s original 2,000-plus poems, Yáng retained only 300. The work carries three prefaces: Yáng Wéizhēn’s preface dated Zhìzhèng xīnchǒu (= 1361, lìqiū); Qián Nài 錢鼐 preface of Zhìzhèng rényín (= 1362); and a tail-preface by Wáng Féng 王逢 (dated only). The funding for the engraving came from the Sōng (jiāng) literatus Xiè Lǚzhāi 謝履齋.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Dàyǎ jí in 8 juǎn — the Yuán Lài Liáng edited it. Liáng zì Shànqīng, Tiāntái man. The collection records only end-of-Yuán poetry — divided into 4 juǎn of gǔtǐ and 4 juǎn of jìntǐ.
The volume opens with the Zhìzhèng xīnchǒu preface of Yáng Wéizhēn; then the Zhìzhèng rényín preface of Qián Nài; the end has Wáng Féng’s preface without date. Yáng’s preface states: “What he collected were WúYuè people, hidden and not yet emerged.”
The end of Yáng’s preface — Liáng has his own colophon stating: “Liáng’s selection reached two thousand-plus poems; what Tiěyǎ xiānshēng retained — only three hundred remained.” Tiěyǎ dàorén is Yáng Wéizhēn’s other sobriquet. This proves the collection was compiled by Lài and edited-down by Yáng. Therefore the heading of each juǎn gives “Yáng Wéizhēn evaluated and marked” (Yáng Wéizhēn píngdiǎn).
Yet inspecting the collection: only the first several pieces of juǎn 1 carry Yáng’s commentary marks; in the seven-syllable regulated verse section, the ten Tánggōngcí poems of Gù Yīng harmonising with Yáng’s poems also have evaluative notes below — beyond these, there is not a single Yáng word. Either the transcription is incomplete; or perhaps Yáng’s evaluative-marking was only done sparingly, and Lài, valuing Yáng’s reputation, simply attributed the píngdiǎn to Yáng as a whole.
Gù Sìlì 顧嗣立 selected Yuánshī sānbǎi jiā (the Three Hundred Yuán-shī Houses) — the collected works are largely adequate. But broadly, he registered only those who had collected biéjí; “scattered pieces and missing chapters” he placed in the Guǐjí — but the Guǐjí in fact remains a gap, never compiled. The present collection records many that Gù did not. Its selection is also rather discerning. Yáng excelled at composition — so his judgement is finally not casual. Each author has below his name a brief notation of zì, hào, native place; for end-of-Yuán poets without surviving biéjí, this collection’s prosopographic notations are valuable.
Reverently submitted, twelfth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date. Yáng Wéizhēn’s preface (Zhìzhèng xīnchǒu, lìqiū / Autumn of 1361) and Qián Nài’s preface (Zhìzhèng rényín / 1362) fix the compilation and editing to 1361–1362.
The compiler. Lài Liáng of Tiāntái appears only here; no separate biography. The SKQS editors infer that he was a literary disciple of Yáng Wéizhēn’s circle in the Zhìzhèng-era. His own colophon states the working method: he travelled WúYuè collecting verse from 1,000-plus contemporary poets (yielding 2,000-plus poems), then asked Yáng Wéizhēn to make the final cut. Yáng kept about 15% — 300 of 2,000.
Significance. (1) The collection is the principal Yáng-Wéi-zhēn-curated anthology of end-of-Yuán WúYuè poetry, immediately analogous to but smaller in scope than the contemporary Yùshāncǎotáng circle anthologies (KR4h0085-KR4h0087). (2) It is the primary documentary witness for many end-of-Yuán poets absent from Gù Sìlì’s 顧嗣立 Qīng-era Yuánshī xuǎn. (3) Yáng Wéizhēn’s editorial principle — preferring “hidden, not yet emerged” WúYuè poets — establishes a distinctive curatorial canon: the anti-Yùshān-cáo-táng alternative, focused on lesser-known authors rather than the famous patron-network members. (4) The work documents the late-Yuán post-1356-rebellion literary world, after Zhāng Shìchéng’s revolt had begun to disrupt Wúzhōng — making it a witness to a generation of poets whose careers were terminated by the dynastic transition.
Translations and research
- 楊鎌 Yáng Lián, Yuán shī-shǐ (Beijing, 2003) — chapter on end-of-Yuán Wú-Yuè poetry, treats Dà-yǎ jí.
- 楊鎌, Yáng Wéi-zhēn nián-pǔ — chronology of Yáng’s editing of Dà-yǎ jí.
- 査洪德 Zhā Hóng-dé, Yuán dài wén-xué wén-xiàn xué.
Other points of interest
The work’s title invokes the Shījīng’s Dàyǎ section (the canonical court-verse mode); the implicit claim is that the anthologised regional poets of late-Yuán WúYuè preserved the canonical-yǎ standard despite their political marginality. This is consistent with the broader Yáng Wéizhēn movement of late-Yuán poetics, which positioned regional and individualistic verse against the more cosmopolitan Mongol-court-inflected anthologies like KR4h0081 and KR4h0082. The work also closes the Yáng Wéizhēn editorial career: completed when Yáng was 65–66, on the eve of the YuánMíng transition.
Links
- ctext
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §31.4.