Sòng yìpǔ jí 宋藝圃集
Garden of Arts: Sòng Collection by 李蓘
About the work
A 22-juǎn late-Míng anthology of Sòng poetry, compiled by Lǐ Gǔn (李蓘, zì Zǐtián 子田, of Nèixiāng 内鄉, Hénán; Jiājìng guǐchǒu (1553) jìnshì; to Guìzhōu tíxué fùshǐ). The compilation was completed in Lóngqìng dīngmǎo (1567) — 13 years of work. The work anthologises 236 named Sòng poets in the main sequence, with 33 shìnà (monks), 6 gōngguī (palace women), 3 língguài (supernaturals), 5 jìliú (courtesans), and 4 anonymous in a final fù — totalling 288 by the SKQS editors’ count (Lǐ’s own colophon says 284, omitting the 4 anonymous). The work serves as a deliberate rejection of the Qīzǐ anti-Sòng prejudice of Lǐ Pānlóng’s KR4h0110 Gǔjīn shīshān — vindicating Sòng verse against late-Míng dismissal. Companion to Lǐ Gǔn’s KR4h0114 Yuán yìpǔ jí (4 juǎn, 1582).
Tiyao
[Catalog meta SKQS tiyao records the volume’s sequence errors and editorial weaknesses extensively.]
Examining: the volume’s chronological ordering of poets is highly disordered (diāndǎo): Sū Shì and Sū Zhé placed before Zhāng Yǒng, Yú Jìng, Fàn Zhòngyān, Sīmǎ Guāng; Chén Yǔyì (1090–1138) and Lǚ Běnzhōng placed before Cài Xiāng (998–1067), Ōuyáng Xiū, Huáng Tíngjiān, Chén Shīdào; Qín Guān placed before Zhào Biàn and Sū Sòng; Yáng Wànlǐ placed before the much-earlier Yáng Pán and Mǐ Fú; etc. — too many to list.
The most preposterous: Emperor Huīzōng is grouped with Xíng Jūshí 邢居實 (died at 18, before Huīzōng’s reign), Zhāng Shì 張栻 (Southern Sòng), and Liú Zǐhuī 劉子翬 — these are figures from before-and-after Huīzōng. The Hànshū yìwén zhì placed Wéndì between Liú Jìng and Jiǎ Shān; the Yùtái xīnyǒng placed Liáng Wǔdì and Tàizǐ among 9 Wú Jūn-era and 21 Xiāo Zǐ-xiǎn-era figures — but those were ordered by chronology even with the imperial figure. Here, the imperial-and-subject jumble has no chronological logic.
This is probably from suíshǒu záchāo wèihuáng quáncì (random successive transcription without later reordering). Other defects: Jiāng Wéi 江為 and Mèng Bīnyú 孟賓于 are in fact Southern Táng figures (pre-Sòng); Mǎ Dìngguó 馬定國 and Shǐ Sù 史肅 are Jīn-dynasty (not Sòng). Weighing the duànxiàn (chronological boundaries), inclusion is problematic.
But — 13 years of effort, harvest is rich. For Sòng poets without surviving zhuānjí (or with surviving zhuānjí now lost), this compilation is often the sole textual witness. Therefore, even with its disorder, we preserve it — in the spirit of “bù qì jiānkuǎi” (not discarding even jiāncǎi — i.e. coarse grass).
Reverently submitted, fourth month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date. Lǐ Gǔn’s own preface (Lóngqìng gǎiyuán = 1567) — the Lóngqìng reign began in 1567 — states: “I had previously made a qǐnggào (requesting-mourning-leave) and returned home; I and my younger brother Yú selected Sòng poets; this took thirteen years; now in Lóngqìng I have been reassigned to Chíyáng shānchéng — I have done further pruning and editing, named it Sòng yìpǔ jí”. So compilation 1554–1567, completed at his Chíyáng posting.
Significance. (1) The work is the major late-Míng counterstroke to the Qīzǐ anti-Sòng prejudice — a 22-juǎn defence of Sòng verse against Lǐ Pānlóng’s KR4h0110 dismissal. (2) Lǐ Gǔn’s preface offers a periodisation of Sòng poetry into three phases: (a) Northern Sòng founding (Lín Bū, Pān Láng, Hú Sù, Wáng Guī, Yáng Yì, Liú Yùn — preserving Táng xīkūn manner); (b) Tiānshèng / Míngdào and after (Ōuyáng Xiū, Sūshì family, Zēng Gǒng, Wáng Ānshí, Huáng Tíngjiān, Chén Shīdào, Méi Yáochén, Zhāng Lěi — the Jiāngxī school’s high age); (c) Guāngzōng and after — Lù Yóu’s softness, Yán Yǔ’s elegance, Zhū Xī’s calm, Xiè Áo’s strangeness, plus the Sìlíng and Wén Tiānxiáng’s loyalists — gradual decline. (3) The work is the principal source for many minor Sòng poets whose biéjí are lost. (4) Yán Yǔ’s Cāngláng shīhuà critique and Zhū Xī’s discussions of Sòng poetry’s defects are noted in Lǐ Gǔn’s preface as explanatory of why later ages denigrated Sòng — yet Lǐ argues these critiques are themselves zhìyù yú méijié (showing meaning between eyebrow and eyelash) — pointed but not exhaustive.
Translations and research
- Michael A. Fuller, Drifting among Rivers and Lakes: Southern Song Dynasty Poetry and the Problem of Literary History (Cambridge MA, 2013) — discusses Sòng poetry’s late-imperial reception.
- Yoshikawa Kōjirō, An Introduction to Sung Poetry (Cambridge MA, 1967) — early Western survey of Sòng verse.
- 莫礪鋒 Mò Lì-fēng, Sòng-shī shǐ (Beijing, 2003) — comprehensive Sòng-poetry history.
Other points of interest
The work’s title Yìpǔ (Garden of Arts) is taken from a phrase characterising literature as a garden requiring cultivation and careful selection. The companion KR4h0114 Yuán yìpǔ jí (Yuán Garden of Arts) — Lǐ Gǔn’s later 4-juǎn sequel — was completed in Wànlì 10 (1582). The two volumes together represent Lǐ Gǔn’s program of canonical recovery of Sòng and Yuán verse against the Qīzǐ movement.
Links
- ctext
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §31.4.