Shílín cí 石林詞
Lyrics of the Stone-Grove by 葉夢得 (撰)
About the work
The Shílín cí 石林詞 is the one-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Yè Mèngdé 葉夢得 (1077–1148; zì Shǎoyùn 少蘊, hào Shílín jūshì 石林居士), the great post-southern-crossing scholar-statesman whose works include the Chūnqiū zhuàn (separately catalogued), the Shílín shīhuà 石林詩話, and the Bìshǔ lùhuà 避暑錄話 (source of the famous Liǔ Yǒng 柳永 anecdote). Yè’s cí, per the preface of Guān Zhù 闗注 cited by the Tíyào, opens in his youthful Yuánfú years (Yuánfú / 1098–1100, when his elder brother served at Zhènjiāng and Yè at Dāntú) in a wǎnlì 婉麗 (“restrained-graceful”) manner with hints of Wēn Tíngyún 溫庭筠 / Lǐ Shāngyǐn 李商隱; in his late years it sheds the floral surface for a jiǎndàn zhōng shí chū xióngjié 簡淡中時出雄傑 (“from plain austerity emerging into the heroic”) manner that meets Táo Yuānmíng 陶潛 and Sū Shì 蘇軾 on equal terms. The Tíyào takes mild issue with this characterization: it accepts the Sū-affinity but argues that the Táo-resemblance is overstated.
Tiyao
Shílín cí, one juǎn, by Yè Mèngdé of the Sòng. Mèngdé has the Chūnqiū zhuàn already catalogued. This volume is his cí collection. Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫’s Shūlù jiětí records it in one juǎn, agreeing with the present. A separate printing carries the preface of Guān Zhù 闗注: in Yuánfú his elder brother Shènggōng 聖功 served at Zhènjiāng; Mèngdé was wèi at Dāntú; many of his xiǎocí date from those years; their wǎnlì taste has the qì of Wēn Tíngyún and Lǐ Shāngyǐn. Late years he sheds the floral surface and lets the substance through; in plain austerity he occasionally produces the heroic; at his height he is not below Jìngjié (Táo Qián 陶潛) and Dōngpō (Sū Shì 蘇軾). — Examining: the cí tradition is long-distant from old shī; even in this collection only the Niànnú jiāo · Gù shān jiàn jìn 念奴嬌·故山漸近 one piece patchworks Táo Qián’s diction — one cannot call it Táo-like. Guān’s annotated likeness is far off the mark. As for Yún fēng héng qǐ 雲峰横起 one piece — wholesale imitation of Sū Shì’s Dà jiāng dōng qù and even using his rhyme; and the Zhègū tiān · Yī qū qīng shān 鷓鴣天·一曲青山* back-half uses Sū’s shī language outright. Hence the old printings have many cí swapped between this collection and the Dōngpō cí KR4j0005: so Guān’s note that “Mèngdé is close to Sū Shì” is no misjudgment. Mèngdé wrote the Shílín shīhuà to sustain Wáng Ānshí 王安石’s learning while privately suppressing Sū and Huáng — quite at odds with the orthodox view; but his cí draws still from Sū Shì’s overflow — what is called the “judgment of right and wrong is in the end inextinguishable.” The opening Hè xīn láng — Máo Jìn 毛晉 notes “some print it as Lǐ Yù 李玉’s”; per Wáng Mào 王楙’s Yěkè cóngshū, Zhāng Màoshēn 章茂深 once had his father-in-law’s handwritten Hè xīn láng opening shuì qǐ tí yīng yǔ 睡起啼鶯語; Zhāng suspected an error and pressed Shílín on it; Shílín said “I have always so used it: ‘the flowing oriole does not speak, the crying oriole speaks’ — see the Qín jīng.” So the piece is unequivocally Yè’s. Jìn did not check. Wáng Mào’s record refers exactly to this line as tí yīng yǔ; Zhāng Chōng 章冲 suspected the characters tí and yǔ were mixed; this text has changed tí to liú — utterly at odds with Wáng Mào’s record. Máo Jìn is loose at proof-criticism and has wantonly altered old books, often. — Compiled, Qiánlóng (year not given).
Abstract
The transmitted Shílín cí descends through Máo Jìn’s Sòng-cut form. Modern editions: the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋 preserves around 102 cí; the principal modern critical edition is the volume in the Sòng nándù shírén shīcí jí series. Yè’s cí are commonly periodized into three: the Yuánfú–Chóngníng xiǎolìng of his Dāntú youth; the Xuānhé–Jìngkāng middle pieces in the court-ornate register; and the long háofàng pieces of his late retirement at Wúshān 卞山 / Shílín (Húzhōu) where his sustained engagement with Sū Shì produces the canonical “Shílín manner.” The Bìshǔ lùhuà references in many of his cí to the same friend-network make him the principal cí-witness to the Sòng exile community at Húzhōu in the 1130s–40s. Yè’s birth-date 1077 and death-date 1148 are firmly established by his xíngzhuàng and the Sòng shǐ (vol. 445).
Translations and research
- Lú Yī 盧益, Yè Mèng-dé cí biān-nián jiào-zhù 葉夢得詞編年校注 (various editions, 1990s) — the principal chronological-critical edition.
- Wáng Zhào-péng 王兆鵬, Sòng nán-dù cí-rén nián-pǔ 宋南渡詞人年譜 — includes Yè Mèng-dé chronology.
- Táng Guī-zhāng 唐圭璋 et al., Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1965; rev. 1999), vol. 2 — collated text.
- Sòng shǐ 445 — zhuàn of Yè Mèng-dé.
Other points of interest
The Tíyào’s use of Wáng Mào’s Yěkè cóngshū to triangulate the Yè-attributed Hè xīn láng against Máo Jìn’s rival ascription to Lǐ Yù is a textbook case of Sòng-anecdote-against-Míng-print as a philological method. The piece is also unusual in carrying its own line-by-line authorial commentary from Yè (the Qínjīng / “tí yīng speaks, liú yīng does not” gloss) — a rarity in the cí corpus.
Links
- Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Yè Mèngdé)
- Wikipedia 葉夢得
- Wikidata Q15913614