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石林詩話

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Text ID
KR4i0018
Date
1115–1140
Dynasty
宋

Shílín shīhuà 石林詩話

Shí-lín’s Remarks on Poetry by 葉夢得 (撰)

About the work

The Shílín shīhuà 石林詩話, in one juǎn, is one of the four or five most important shīhuà of the late Northern / early Southern Sòng. Its author Yè Mèngdé 葉夢得 (1077–1148, zì Shǎoyùn 少蘊, hào Shílín 石林, of Wúxiàn 吳縣) was a major statesman, military strategist, classicist (the principal Southern-Sòng Chūnqiū programme — KR1e0032, KR1e0033, KR1e0034 — is his), a notable cí lyricist (the Shílín cí 石林詞 is a major Northern-Sòng cí collection), and prose-essayist (Shílín yànyǔ 石林燕語 KR3a0026). His shīhuà is the work of a polymathic insider, written with unusual depth of literary judgment but inflected throughout by the partisanship of his political alignments — Yè had begun his career under the patronage of Cài Jīng 蔡京 and his son-in-law Zhāng Chōng 章冲 was the grandson of Zhāng Dūn 章惇 (a leader of the Shàoshù 紹述 reform faction). The shīhuà accordingly reads as a sustained defense of Wáng Ānshí 王安石 and a sequence of careful but partisan attacks on Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修 and Sū Shì 蘇軾.

Tiyao

Shílín shīhuà, by Yè Mèngdé of the Sòng. Mèngdé has a Shílín Chūnqiū zhuàn 石林春秋傳, already catalogued. This volume discusses poetry. It elevates Wáng Ānshí — not in one or two passages alone. On Ōuyáng Xiū’s poetry: it picks at his error in the comment on the Hétún (puffer-fish) poem; picks at his unaltered diction “of unmatched class”; picks at his doubt over the “midnight bell” question. On Sū Shì’s poetry: it derides the xìmèn gēchóu 繫懣割愁 (“binding the choking, slashing the grief”) line as a dangerous joke; derides the juān sān chǐ 捐三尺 phrase and the luànwā liǎng bù 亂蛙兩部 line as xiēhòu 歇後 (truncated allusions); derides his loss of Lǐ Zhì 李廌; derides his inability to listen to Wén Tóng 文同; derides his “Shíjiàntóucè” 石建牏廁 mistake.

In every case there is something held back and something pushed forward in the comparison. Mèngdé issued from Cài Jīng’s gate, and his son-in-law Zhāng Chōng was the grandson of Zhāng Dūn — originally of the Shàoshù residual faction; so even after the consensus of public opinion had become clear, he still in shadow held down the Yuányòu circle. But Mèngdé in his own poetry and prose was indeed a powerful figure of the North–South transition; what he criticizes often strikes home directly, not at all the tīngshēng (hearing-the-sound) kind of judgment that follows others’ verdicts. Setting aside his partisan habits and taking only his sharp-cored arguments, distinguishing the two — the xiá (flaw) and the yú (jewel) — neither does in fact cover the other.

Abstract

The Shílín shīhuà is the principal critical witness from the Cài Jīng / Shàoshù end of the Northern-Sòng political spectrum, and its evaluations need to be read against that political alignment. The author Yè Mèngdé — who had served Cài Jīng directly and had family ties to the Zhāng Dūn faction — uses the shīhuà form to mount a sustained defense of Wáng Ānshí’s 王安石 poetry (which is repeatedly praised) and a series of carefully calibrated objections to the central Yuányòu figures — Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修 (criticized in three named passages: the Hétún commentary error, the unaltered “of unmatched class” diction, and the “midnight bell” doubt) and Sū Shì 蘇軾 (criticized in six passages including the xìmèn gēchóu line, the juān sān chǐ phrase, the luànwā liǎng bù phrase, the loss of Lǐ Zhì, the failure to listen to Wén Tóng, and the Shíjiàntóucè error). The Sìkù editors’ final verdict — that despite the partisanship Yè’s critical observations have unusual penetration and should be evaluated separately from his political commitments — is the standard later evaluation.

The dating is approximate. Yè was active as a literary man from his jìnshì of 1097; the shīhuà was compiled at some point during his career, certainly before his death in 1148. Internal references to mid-Northern-Sòng figures and to the Shílín retreat (which Yè established around 1130) place the bulk of the writing in the 1115–1140 window. A precise composition date has not been recovered.

The work transmits independently and is one of the most heavily-quoted shīhuà in subsequent compilations: Hú Zǎi’s 胡仔 Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà KR4i0029 cites it constantly; Wèi Qìngzhī’s Shīrén yùxiè KR4i0036 includes substantial excerpts; Yuán Hǎowèn 元好問’s Zhōngzhōu jí references its judgments. In the Qīng it is included in Hé Wénhuàn’s Lìdài shīhuà (1770) and in the Sìkù from an Nèifǔ cángběn 内府藏本 (the preferred imperial recension). Yè’s critical reach extends well beyond the immediate dispute: he is a sensitive reader of Dù Fǔ, of Wáng Wéi 王維, of late-Táng poets, and he was the first systematic commentator on Wáng Ānshí’s juéjù 絕句.

The shīhuà also contains the first developed Sòng-period statement of the doctrine that poetic jiǎnyuē 簡約 (sparse compression) is the highest stylistic ideal — a doctrine Yè reads back into Du Fu and forward into Wang Anshi, and that became, through Hu Zai’s amplification, one of the standard Jiāngxī positions.

Translations and research

  • Stephen Owen, Readings in Chinese Literary Thought (Harvard, 1992) — extensive use of the Shí-lín shī-huà in discussion of Northern-Sòng poetics.
  • Adam Schwartz, “The Shilin shihua: Translation and Commentary” — partial English studies in dissertation literature.
  • Zhōu Xún-chū 周勛初, Shí-lín shī-huà jiào-zhù 石林詩話校注 (early sequence in Jiāng-sū gǔ-jí series).
  • Guō Shào-yú 郭紹虞, Sòng shī-huà kǎo 宋詩話考 (Zhōnghuá, 1979) — fundamental bibliographic study; analyses transmission.
  • Hé Wén-huàn 何文煥, ed., Lì-dài shī-huà 歷代詩話 (1770; rpt. Zhōnghuá, 1981) — standard critical text.
  • Cài Zhèn-chǔ 蔡鎮楚, Zhōng-guó shī-huà shǐ 中國詩話史 (Hú-nán Wén-yì, 1988).
  • Pān Xiào-lóng 潘曉龍, “Yè Mèng-dé Shí-lín shī-huà yán-jiū” — assorted recent journal articles.
  • Egan, Ronald, The Problem of Beauty (Harvard, 2006).

Other points of interest

The Shílín shīhuà is a foundational document for the elevation of Wáng Ānshí into the canonical Northern-Sòng poetic triad (Sū Shì, Huáng Tíngjiān, Wáng Ānshí) — a position Wáng’s poetry had not yet stably held in the Yuányòu school’s view. Yè’s championship — combined with Wáng’s earlier reception by his own circle — anchored Wáng in the standard list for the rest of the imperial period.

— The Shíjiàntóucè 石建牏廁 entry — Yè’s criticism that Sū Shì had misread the Hàn shū Wàn Shí Jūn zhuàn (Shí Jiàn waiting on the privy) — is a famous case of a shīhuà using a single Han-history allusion-misuse to mount a sustained reading of a major poet, and was widely cited (and contested) in the subsequent tradition.

— The work is one of the few major Sòng shīhuà by a writer whose poetic and cí practice can be compared directly against the criticism — Yè’s Shílín cí is preserved and accessible.

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