Jīngnán chànghé shījí 荊南倡和詩集
Collection of Sung-and-Answered Poems from Jīng-nán by 周砥 and 馬治
About the work
A 1-juǎn mutual-poetic-exchange anthology (chànghé jí) by the close late-Yuán friends Zhōu Dǐ (周砥, zì Lǚdào 履道, Wúxī 無錫 man) and Mǎ Zhì (馬治, zì Xiàocháng 孝常, Yíxīng 宜興 man). The poems were composed during the three years Zhìzhèng guǐsì, jiǎwǔ, yǐwèi (= 1353, 1354, 1355), when both men were sheltering at the Zhōu-family estate at Jīngnán 荊南 — Jīngnán being a remote southern district of Yíxīng, far from the chaos of the Zhāng Shìchéng rebellions that were consuming Wúzhōng. The two compiled the resulting chànghé into a single juǎn in two copies, each man keeping one. The volume carries prefaces by Zhèng Yuányòu 鄭元祐 (Suìchāng) and by each of the two authors themselves.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Jīngnán chànghé shījí in 1 juǎn — by the end-of-Yuán Zhōu Dǐ and Mǎ Zhì, joint composition. Dǐ zì Lǚdào, Wúxī man; Zhì zì Xiàocháng, Yíxīng man.
At Zhìzhèng guǐsì, jiǎwǔ, yǐwèi* (3 years from 1353), the two were jointly housed (tóng guǎn) at Yíxīng’s Jīngxī south — suíshì chànghé (singing-and-harmonising as events arose), accumulating one juǎn of poetry — copied into two zhì (cases), each keeping one. The contemporary Suìchāng Zhèng Yuányòu prefaced it; the two also each wrote their own prefaces.
Afterwards: Zhōu Dǐ followed Zhāng Shìchéng and died in the warfare. Mǎ Zhì entered Míng and became Jiànchāng tóngzhī (Assistant Prefect of Jiànchāng); he was friendly with 高棅 Gāo Qǐ; he transmitted this anthology in hand-copied form to Gāo Qǐ, who in turn transmitted it to Lǚ Mǐn 呂敏 — Lǚ wrote a postscript — and Xú Bēn 徐賁 contributed a tící (title-inscription) — afterwards it returned to the Mǎ family.
In the Chénghuà period (1465–1487) Mǎ Zhì’s xiāngrén (fellow-villager) Lǐ Tíngzhī 李廷芝 took the manuscript to the capital and had Lǐ Yìngzhēn 李應禎 and Zhāng Bì 張弼 examine its provenance, collate it, and engrave it. The collection’s appendix contains several poems Zhōu Dǐ composed after their parting at Jīngnán; and Mǎ Zhì’s elegy for Zhōu Dǐ along with Zhōu’s responding poem.
Zhōu Dǐ excelled at chanting; with Gù Āyīng (i.e. 顧瑛) he had the closest contact; the 玉山雅集 紀遊 Yùshān yǎjí jìyóu and various anthologies record many of his compositions. His gédiào (mood-and-style) is uniformly xiéwǎn (harmonious-and-gentle).
He composed this collection precisely at the end-of-Yuán sàngluàn (mourning-and-disorder); the time-and-event poems are particularly thick with feeling. Mǎ Zhì’s poetic brush is slightly weaker than Zhōu’s; but pithy lines run on continuously, and his strength is roughly able to match Zhōu’s. Compared with the Sōnglíng chànghé 松陵唱和 (of Pí Rìxiū 皮日休 and Lù Guīméng 陸龜蒙) and Duàn Chéngshì’s Hànshàng tíjīn jí — though it does not surpass them, the two men have no complete quánjí transmitted; preserving this allows us to catch a glimpse.
Reverently submitted, tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date. The two prefaces date the compositions to Zhìzhèng 13–15 (guǐsì, jiǎwǔ, yǐwèi; 1353–1355). Mǎ Zhì’s preface is dated “fifteenth year (i.e. 1355), autumn seventh month”. The collection was assembled at the end of the three-year stay; first printed only in the Chénghuà period (1465–1487) under Lǐ Yìngzhēn’s editorial supervision.
Significance. (1) The work is the principal Wúzhōng documentary record of the Zhāng Shìchéng civil-war period as experienced by literati — Yíxīng’s Jīngnán was a southern Yíxīng remote-corner shelter, far from the main fighting around Sūzhōu. (2) Zhōu Dǐ later joined Zhāng Shìchéng’s régime and died in the warfare with the Míng founder Zhū Yuánzhāng — a politically delicate biographical end that the SKQS editors note without comment. Mǎ Zhì, by contrast, entered the Míng and served as Jiànchāng tóngzhī, surviving comfortably; he is connected to the early-Míng Wúzhōng poetry circle of Gāo Qǐ 高啟 (KR4d0590, 1336–1374). (3) The collection’s transmission — through Gāo Qǐ → Lǚ Mǐn → Mǎ family → Chénghuà imprint — provides a documentary chain connecting late-Yuán Yùshān circle to early-Míng Wúzhōng Sìjié (Four Outstanding Poets — Gāo Qǐ, Yáng Jī 楊基, Zhāng Yǔ 張羽, Xú Bēn 徐賁). (4) Mǎ Zhì’s xù contains a remarkable passage describing the emptying of Jīngnán of literary visitors as the Zhāng Shìchéng rebellions intensified — “in the previous five-or-six years, the common people were still prosperous and well-supported; gentlemen passing east and west of the prefecture were numerous, hence on excursions could not concentrate; their slighting of mountain-and-water beauty was due to abundance of social opportunity. Now I and Lǚdào, abandoned to detention, encounter time’s túnè (calamity) and cannot grow wings to fly”.
Translations and research
- F. W. Mote, “The Poet Kao Ch’i [Gāo Qǐ], 1336–1374” (Princeton, 1962) — discusses the Yuán-Míng transition Wú-zhōng poetry network, including Mǎ Zhì and Zhōu Dǐ.
- 楊鎌 Yáng Lián, Yuán shī-shǐ (Beijing, 2003).
- 戴麗珠 Dài Lì-zhū, Yuán Mò Wú-zhōng shī-pài yán-jiū — discussion of the Yùshān → Gāo Qǐ → Mǎ Zhì lineage.
Other points of interest
The bibliographic frontmatter of the WYG edition explicitly carries the unique tag “元周砥明馬治仝撰” (“Yuán Zhōu Dǐ + Míng Mǎ Zhì jointly composed”) — the only such cross-dynastic joint-attribution among the WYG total-collections. The bibliographic editors of the SKQS thus document the two authors’ divergent fates: Zhōu Dǐ died with Zhāng Shìchéng’s régime in late Yuán; Mǎ Zhì served the Míng, making the same chànghé poetry both a Yuán and a Míng witness.
Links
- ctext
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §31.4–§32.