閩中十子詩

Mǐnzhōng shízǐ shī 閩中十子詩

Poems of the Ten Masters of Mǐnzhōng by 袁表 and 馬熒

About the work

A 30-juǎn mid-Míng anthology of the Ten Masters of Mǐnzhōng 閩中十子 — the foundational early-Míng generation of Fújiàn regional poetry — compiled by Yuán Biǎo (袁表, zì Jǐngcóng 景從) and Mǎ Yíng (馬熒, zì Yòngzhāo 用昭), both of Fúzhōu, in Wànlì 4 (1576), bǐngzǐ. The ten masters are:

1. Lín Hóng 林鴻 of Fúqīng — Shànbù jí 膳部集
2. Chén Liàng 陳亮 of Chánglè — Chǔyùzhāi jí 儲玉齋集
3. 高棅 Gāo Tínglǐ (= Gāo Bǐng) of Chánglè — Mùtiān qīngqì 木天清氣, Xiàotái jí 嘯臺集
4. Wáng Gōng 王恭 of Mǐnxiàn — Báiyún qiáochàng 白雲樵唱, Fèngtái qīngxiào 鳳臺清嘯, Cǎozé kuánggē 草澤狂歌
5. Táng Tài 唐泰 of Mǐnxiàn — biéjí lost; verse survives in Shànmíng jí 善鳴集
6. Zhèng Dìng 鄭定 of Mǐnxiàn — Dànzhāi jí 澹齋集
7. Wáng Chēng 王偁 of Yǒngfú — Xūzhōu jí 虛舟集
8. Wáng Bāo 王褒 of Mǐnxiàn — Yǎngjìng jí 養靜集
9. Zhōu Yuán 周元 of Mǐnxiàn — Yíqiū jí 宜秋集
10. Huáng Yuán 黃元 of Hòuguān — biéjí title not preserved

The collection draws on holdings preserved at the family of Chén (probably Chén Liàng’s descendants) and is the principal Míng documentary witness for the 晉安詩派 Jìnān shīpài — the Fúzhōu poetic school whose excessive influence later became a Míng-late critical target.

Tiyao

Your servants respectfully submit: the Mǐnzhōng shízǐ shī in 30 juǎn — the Míng Yuán Biǎo and Mǎ Yíng jointly edited it. Biǎo zì Jǐngcóng; Yíng zì Yòngzhāo — both Fúzhōu men. The “Ten Masters of Mǐnzhōng” are listed [as above].

All are early-Míng men. In Wànlì bǐngzǐ (1576), Biǎo and the others — using Gāo’s [Gāo Tínglǐ’s] copies and the Chén family’s preserved holdings of various persons’ poetry — selected and assembled them into this volume.

Examining: the Mǐnzhōng poetry school took the Ten Masters as its lineage. Thereafter the transmissions gradually became fossilised formulas (kējiù). At first there was the Tángmō Jìntiē (Táng-copy-of-Jìn-clip) critique. Later it advanced to “the poem must be regulated, the regulated verse must be 7-syllable” — and the Jìnān [Fúzhōu’s elegant name] school became a target of generally-shared denunciation. But its lànshāng (overflowing-source) beginnings did not reach this. The Ten Persons’ yíjí (surviving collections) are not all transmitted today; what is transmitted is also not entirely worth recording. This compilation extracts the jīnghuá (essence-and-flower) and preserves the gěnggài (outline) — still allows us to see the era’s fēngqì. Worth preserving as one model.

Reverently submitted, ninth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

Date. Wànlì 4 (1576), bǐngzǐ. Yuán Biǎo and Mǎ Yíng compiled the anthology at Fúzhōu, drawing on the Chén-family preserved holdings and Gāo Bǐng’s (高棅) own copies (Gāo himself died in 1423; his collected poetry survived among his descendants in Chánglè).

Significance. (1) The work is the principal Míng documentary witness for the founding generation of Fújiàn (Mǐnzhōng) regional poetry — the Jìnān shīpài whose central founders are the Ten Masters of this volume. (2) The school’s central figure is 高棅 Gāo Bǐng (1350–1423), simultaneously compiler of the great Táng-poetry anthology KR4h0095 Tángshī pǐnhuì and one of the Ten Masters here. The two anthologies are related: Gāo’s Mǐnzhōng training shaped his Táng-poetry curatorial sensibility, and vice versa. (3) The Jìnān school’s later fossilisation into formulaic seven-syllable regulated verse (the famous late-Míng critique “詩必律 律必七言”) prompted the late-Míng Gōngān movement (Yuán Zhōngdào 袁中道, Yuán Hóngdào 袁宏道) and ultimately the Sōnglíng school’s reaction. The present anthology — late-Wàn-lì, on the eve of the Gōngān reformulation — is the definitive curated text of the school at the moment it had crystallised. (4) Some of the ten masters’ biéjí are otherwise lost (Táng Tài, Huáng Yuán); their verse survives principally through this anthology.

Translations and research

• Yang Ye, “Early Ming Poetry: The Mín-zhōng Shí-zǐ” — Western scholarly article on the Ten Masters.
• 陳慶元 Chén Qìng-yuán, Fú-jiàn wén-xué shǐ (Fú-zhōu, 1996) — comprehensive Fú-jiàn literary history, with chapter on Mǐn-zhōng Shí-zǐ.
• 鄭利華 Zhèng Lì-huá, Míng-dài Mǐn-zhōng shī-pài yán-jiū — focused study.

Other points of interest

The Mǐnzhōng Shízǐ are the foundational generation of the Jìnān (Fúzhōu) regional poetry tradition, paralleling the Nányuán Wǔxiānshēng (KR4h0096) of Guǎngzhōu. The two regional traditions — Fújiàn and Guǎngdōng — together with the Wúzhōng Four (Gāo Qǐ et al.), constitute the three foundational early-Míng regional schools of Chinese poetry. Each had its own anthology (the present + KR4h0096 + Gāo Qǐ’s biéjí tradition), shaping Míng literary historiography for two centuries.

Links

• ctext
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §32.