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詩人玉屑

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Text ID
KR4i0036
Date
1240–1244
Dynasty
宋

Shīrén yùxiè 詩人玉屑

Jade Chips for the Poet by 魏慶之 (撰)

About the work

The Shīrén yùxiè 詩人玉屑, in twenty juǎn, is the great late-Southern-Sòng anthology of shīhuà — a thematically organized digest of poetic criticism, gathered by Wèi Qìngzhī 魏慶之 of Jiàn’ān 建安, with a preface by his friend Huáng Shūyáng 黄叔暘 (Lìān 蘀庵) dated Chúnyòu jiǎchén 淳祐甲辰 (1244). The title — literally “jade-chips for the poet” — is glossed in Huáng’s preface: as a physician’s compendium of medicinal formulae helps the practitioner, so this collection of “jade-chips” (selected fragments) from the great Sòng shīhuà will help the poet. The book is one of the four great Sòng shīhuà compendia recognized by the Sìkù editors — alongside Ruǎn Yuè’s 阮閲 Shīhuà zǒngguī (KR4i0012), the anonymous Shīlín guǎngjì 詩林廣記, and Hú Zǐ’s 胡仔 Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà (KR4i0024) — and is widely regarded as the most usable: where Ruǎn’s compilation is sprawling and miscellaneous and Hú’s draws mostly on the Northern Sòng, Wèi’s twenty-juǎn anthology systematizes the Nándù-onward criticism by category (詩辨, 詩法, 詩體, 句法, 命意, 用事, etc.) and runs comfortably alongside Hú’s earlier book for the Northern-Sòng coverage. The chief sources are Yán Yǔ 嚴羽 (Cānglàng (KR4i0035), cited as “Cānglàng yún” 滄浪云), Yáng Wànlǐ 楊萬里 (cited as “Chéngzhāi yún” 誠齋云, from KR4i0033), LúYáng’s contemporary Liú Kèzhuāng 劉克莊, Zhū Xī (Huì’ān 晦庵), Jiāng Kuí 姜夔 (Báishí 白石), Hán Jū 韓駒 (Língyáng 陵陽), and dozens of others.

Tiyao

Shīrén yùxiè, in twenty juǎn, by Wèi Qìngzhī of the Sòng. Qìngzhī’s zì was Chúnfǔ 醇甫, his hào Júzhuāng 菊莊, a native of Jiàn’ān. The book is prefaced by Huáng Yì 黄昇 (case: in the original recension his name is written as 曰〓, which is the seal-script form, as discussed in the Júyé táng cí 菊菴詞 entry on Huáng) and is dated Chúnyòu jiǎchén (1244). Huáng’s preface says of Qìngzhī that he “had talent but did not stoop to the examinations; he tended only a thousand clumps of chrysanthemums, and spent his days drinking and chanting with poets and recluses” — clearly a figure of the late-Sòng jiānghú school. The Sòng writers loved to compile shīhuà, and the works gathered into composite bian run to many — but those transmitted today are only Ruǎn Yuè’s Shīhuà zǒngguī, Cài Zhèngsūn’s 蔡正孫 Shīlín guǎngjì, Hú Zǐ’s Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà, and Qìngzhī’s Yùxiè. Of these four, the Zǒngguī is sprawling and miscellaneous, the Guǎngjì full of gaps; both fall short of the books of Hú and Wèi. Hú’s book was written under Sòng Gāozōng and chiefly records Northern-Sòng material; Wèi’s was written under Sòng Dùzōng and chiefly records Southern-Sòng material. The two books complement one another and together provide an outline of how the Sòng discussed poetry. Wèi arranges by category (格法), unlike Hú’s slightly different format. Wèi does also include the forged Fēngsāo zhǐgé 風騷指格 ascribed to Qí Jǐ 齊己, and its spurious table of metrical sub-categories, with insufficient critical selectivity; the section on “jìntǐ” 禁體 includes such poor pieces as the Púxié shī 蒲鞵詩 (“Cattail-Sandal Poem”) — a vulgarity. His judgement of Hán Yù’s 韓愈 couplet “the jīngwèi bird carries stones to fill in the sea; everyone derides its rashness, only I admire its singleness of purpose” (精衛銜石塡海，人皆譏造次，我獨賞專精) as superior to Qián Qǐ’s 錢起 famous couplet “at the song’s end no one is seen, only on the river a few cyan peaks” 曲終人不見，江上數峯青 — is not exactly balanced. Yet his net is so wide and his selection so cumulative that the cream is collected; what Zhōng Róng called “sifting sand for gold, time and again finding treasure” — Wèi’s book also achieves. It is indispensable for the discussion of poetry. (Imperial editorial colophon, Qiánlóng 41 / 1776.)

Abstract

Wèi Qìngzhī’s compilation was finished by 1244, the date of Huáng Shūyáng’s preface; the work as we have it has a definite editorial scheme. The twenty juǎn are organized topically: juǎn 1 Shī biàn and Shī fǎ (with five entries from Yán Yǔ’s Cānglàng, headed “Cānglàng wèi dāng xué gǔrén zhī shī” 滄浪謂當學古人之詩); juǎn 2 Shī píng and Shī tǐ (including Yán Yǔ’s encyclopedia of 111 named poetic forms, Cānglàng biān zhūmíngjiā shītǐ fán bǎishíyī tǐ); juǎn 3 Jùfǎ 句法 and Tángrén jùfǎ 唐人句法 (with sub-headings for jǐngjù 警句 and the various stylistic registers — zàoyì 造意, qīngxīn 清新, zhuózhuó 刻琢, zìrán 自然, etc.); juǎn 4 Sòngcháo jǐngjù 宋朝警句; juǎn 5 Kǒujué 口訣 (the great mnemonic lists — sān bùkě 三不可, sì bù 四不, sì shēn 四深, liù mí 六迷, qī zhì 七至, qī dé 七德, shí nán 十難, shí yì 十易, shí jiè 十戒, shí guì 十貴, èrshísì míng 二十四名) and chūxué xījìng 初學蹊徑; juǎn 6 Mìngyì 命意 (assignment of meaning), Zàoyǔ 造語 (forging of expression), Xiàzì 下字 (placement of words); juǎn 7 Yòngshì 用事 (use of allusion), Yāyùn 押韻, Shǔduì 屬對; juǎn 8 Duànliàn 鍛煉 (smelting and refining), Yánxí 沿襲 (lineal transmission), Duótāi huàngǔ 奪胎換骨 (“seizing the womb and changing the bones”), Diǎnhuà 點化; juǎn 9 Tuōwù 托物, Fěngxìng 諷興, Guījiè 規誡, Báizhàn 白戰; juǎn 10 Hánxù 含蓄, Shī qù 詩趣, Shī sī 詩思, Shī wèi 詩味, Shī jìng 詩境, Tǐ yòng 體用, Fēngdiào 風調, Píngdàn 平淡, Xiánshì 閑適, Zìdé 自得, Biàntài 變態, Yuánshú 圓熟, Císhèng 詞勝, Qǐlì 綺麗, Fùguì 富貴, Pǐnzǎo 品藻; juǎn 11 Shībìng 詩病 and Àilǐ 礙理; juǎn 12 Pǐnzǎo gǔjīn rénwù 品藻古今人物; juǎn 13 Liǎng Hàn 兩漢 and Liùdài 六代 down through Jìngjié (Táo Yuānmíng); juǎn 14 Cǎotáng 草堂 (Dù Fǔ); juǎn 15–18 organized poet by poet (Wáng Wéi, Wéi Yìngwù, Mèng Hàorán, Hán Yù, Liǔ Zōngyuán, Mèng Jiāo, Jiǎ Dǎo, Yùchuānzǐ Lú Tóng, Lǐ Hè, Liú Bīnkè 劉禹錫, Cháng Jiàn, Bái Jūyì, Lǐ Shāngyǐn, Wáng Jiàn, Dù Mù, Dù Xúnhè, Hán Wò 韓偓, Wǎn Táng; Xīkūntǐ 西崑體, Ōuyáng Xiū, Sū Shùnqīn 蘇舜欽, Méi Yáochén 梅堯臣, Shí Mànqīng 石曼卿, the Xīhú chǔshì 西湖處士 Lín Bū 林逋, Shào Yōng 邵雍 Kāngjié, Wáng Ānshí 王安石, Sū Shì 蘇軾, then Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅 Fúwēng, Chén Shīdào 陳師道 Lǚcháng, Qín Guān 秦觀 Tàixū, Zhāng Lěi 張耒, Hán Jū 韓駒 Zǐcāng, etc.); juǎn 19 Zhōngxīng zhūxián 中興諸賢 (the Mid-Xīng poets, beginning with Zhōu Bìdà 周必大 Yìgōng, Zēng Jí 曾幾 Cháshān, Lù Yóu Fàngwēng, Yáng Wànlǐ, Jiāng Kuí Yáozhāng, etc., concluding with Yè Shì Shuǐxīn 水心 on Táng poetry); juǎn 20 Chánlín 禪林 (Buddhist poet-monks), Fāngwài 方外 (Daoist verse), Guīxiù 閨秀 (women), Língyì 靈異 (supernatural), and Shīyú 詩餘 (lyric poetry, cí). The result is a working compendium of late-Sòng critical opinion across the full poetic corpus.

The textual transmission begins with a Sòng impression (preface 1244) which underlies the late-Sòng Wényuán shūyuàn 文淵書院 reprint and a series of Míng impressions; the Sìkù version was based on an internal-archive copy. The standard modern critical edition is Wáng Zhōngxiōng 王仲聞, Shīrén yùxiè jiàozhù 詩人玉屑校注 (Zhōnghuá, 1959; rev. 2007), with apparatus restoring the surviving SòngYuán testimonies. Wèi’s work has been a primary source for modern reconstruction of dozens of otherwise-lost Sòng shīhuà: Hán Jū’s Língyángshì shīhuà 陵陽室詩話 and Jiāng Kuí’s Báishí dàorén shīshuō 白石道人詩說 are both partly recoverable through Wèi’s verbatim citations.

Translations and research

  • Wáng Zhōngxiōng 王仲聞, Shīrén yùxiè jiào-zhù 詩人玉屑校注, 2 vols. (Zhōnghuá, 1959; rev. 2007) — the standard modern critical edition.
  • Guō Shàoyú 郭紹虞, Sòng shīhuà jí-yì 宋詩話輯佚 (Zhōnghuá, 1980) — uses the Yùxiè extensively as a source for reconstructing lost Sòng shīhuà.
  • Wú Wén-zhì 吳文治, ed., Sòng shīhuà quán-biān 宋詩話全編, vol. 9 (Jiāngsū gǔjí, 1998).
  • Stephen Owen, Readings in Chinese Literary Thought (Harvard, 1992) — uses the Yùxiè as principal source for several mid-Sòng critical fragments.
  • Charles Hartman, “Poetry”, in The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, vol. 1 (CUP, 2010) — situates the Yùxiè in the long history of shīhuà.
  • No major Western-language monograph dedicated to the Shīrén yùxiè located.

Other points of interest

The Shīrén yùxiè is the principal pre-modern testimony to the precise text of Yán Yǔ’s Cānglàng shīhuà: many of the Cānglàng’s most-quoted passages — the antelope-hangs-its-horns formula, the five elements of poetry, the nine grades — are cited verbatim in the Yùxiè under “Cānglàng” or “Cānglàng yún”, giving a terminus ante quem of 1244 for the Cānglàng’s diffusion. It is also a principal source for Yáng Wànlǐ’s poetics, since the original Chéngzhāi shīhuà (KR4i0033) is a slim one-juǎn extract while the Yùxiè preserves many Yáng items not in that selection. The work’s organization by topical category — rather than by chronological miscellany — was the most influential structural innovation in late-Sòng shīhuà anthology and the model for the YuánMíng shīhuà compendia.

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