Yúnxī yuèfǔ 筠谿樂府
Yuè-fǔ of the Bamboo-Stream by 李彌遜 (撰)
About the work
The Yúnxī yuèfǔ 筠谿樂府 is the one-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Lǐ Míxùn 李彌遜 (1085–1153; zì Sìzhī 似之, hào Yúnxī jūshì 筠谿居士), one of the most outspoken Southern-Sòng peace-rejecting officials, who refused to serve under Qín Guì 秦檜 and retreated to a country estate at Yúnxī (the Bamboo-Stream). The collection — eighty-one chángduǎnjù — was originally appended to his Yúnxī jí but was understood to circulate independently. Per the Tíyào, Lǐ’s long-form cí (màncí) learn from Sū Shì 蘇軾; their finely-detailed register is “a school apart from Liǔ Yǒng 柳永 and Zhōu Bāngyàn 周邦彥” — only that his force is “slightly insufficient to lift the form,” not reaching Sū’s unforced ease. His xiǎolìng are however “by no means lacking in fine resonance.” Many of his cí are chángchóu (offering-and-response) with Lǐ Gāng 李綱, Fù Zhīróu 富知柔, Yè Mèngdé 葉夢得, and Zhāng Yuángàn 張元幹 — a Who’s-Who of the post-1127 patriotic literary camp. The Tíyào notes that a Xià yún fēng 夏雲峰 attributed to a Péngjǔ 鵬舉 banquet is ambiguous between Yuè Fēi 岳飛 (also zì Péngjǔ) and Tāng Bāngyàn 湯邦彦 (also zì Péngjǔ), and argues from the circumstances of Yuè’s military career that the Péngjǔ must be Tāng.
Tiyao
Yúnxī yuèfǔ, one juǎn, by Lǐ Míxùn of the Sòng. The old text appended to the Yúnxī jí. Examining: his family-biography says he composed zòuyì in 3 juǎn, wàizhì in 2 juǎn, shī in 10 juǎn, miscellaneous prose in 6 juǎn — agreeing with the present Yúnxī jí, but no yuèfǔ; so this collection was originally separately circulating. Eighty-one chángduǎnjù in all. His long-form cí mostly learn from Sū Shì; the finely-detailed register is a school apart from Liǔ Yǒng and Zhōu Bāngyàn; but his force is slightly insufficient to lift it, not reaching Sū’s free poise. His short-form cí are by no means lacking in fine resonance. Many chángchóu pieces with Lǐ Gāng, Fù Zhīróu, Yè Mèngdé, Zhāng Yuángàn. Again: Péngjǔ zuòshàng gējī chàng Xià yún fēng one piece — Yuè Fēi’s zì and Tāng Bāngyàn’s zì were both Péngjǔ; both were contemporary to Míxùn. But Yuè Fēi at the southern crossing was harried by military matters and should not have had a singing-girl in attendance: this should be for Tāng. The opening Qìn yuán chūn · Jì Zhāng Zhòngzōng — note says erroneously cut from the Lúchuān jí KR4j0029; yet Dié liàn huā 5th is also seen in the Lúchuān jí, and one does not know whose erroneous cut. From Yú měi rén onward, twelve pieces are all birthday-congratulatory cí, indistinguishable from general-use formulas, with not a single feature worth noting. Sòng-period cí collections often did not edit such things out, for reasons unclear; we still preserve the old text. — Compiled, Qiánlóng 46 / 1781, 10th month.
Abstract
The transmitted Yúnxī yuèfǔ is the Sìkù form of a separately-circulating one-juǎn text. Modern editions: the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋 reconstructs around 91 cí. Lǐ Míxùn’s biography is well-attested (Sòng shǐ 382; Lǐ Zhuāngjiǎn gōng niánpǔ of his descendant): jìnshì of Dàguān 3 / 1109, served at Wúxī, removed from the Yuányòu faction’s late-Northern-Sòng eclipse; restored after 1127, a leading zhǔzhàn 主戰 (war-supporter) opposing Qín Guì; retired in Shàoxīng 7 / 1137 to Yúnxī and Fúzhōu, died in Shàoxīng 23 / 1153. The cí are heaviest in the retirement period (post-1137), and the chángchóu network — Lǐ Gāng, Yè Mèngdé, Zhāng Yuángàn, Fù Zhīróu — exactly maps onto the post-1127 zhǔzhàn literary circle. The birthday-cí set noted by the Tíyào are addressed mostly to friends and patrons during the Yúnxī years and are a useful prosopographical record even if formally undistinguished.
Translations and research
- Wáng Zhào-péng 王兆鵬, Sòng nán-dù cí-rén nián-pǔ 宋南渡詞人年譜 — Lǐ Mí-xùn 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 382 — zhuàn of Lǐ Mí-xùn.
Other points of interest
Lǐ Míxùn’s refusal to serve under Qín Guì — and his sustained chángchóu exchange with the principal zhǔzhàn figures of his generation — make this collection an important window into the cí as a political-friendship medium in the years after 1127. The Tíyào’s reasoning to assign the Péngjǔ Xià yún fēng to Tāng Bāngyàn rather than Yuè Fēi is one of the most cited examples of Sìkù biographical reasoning applied to cí.
Links
- Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Lǐ Míxùn)
- Wikipedia 李彌遜
- Wikidata Q15912822