Xīqiáo yǔyè 西樵語業
Word-Crafts of Western-Woodcutter by 楊炎正 (撰)
About the work
The Xīqiáo yǔyè 西樵語業 is the one-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Yáng Yánzhèng 楊炎正 (fl. late twelfth / early thirteenth century; zì Jìwēng 濟翁), of Lúlíng 廬陵 (Jiāngxī). The author’s name has been a chronic source of confusion. Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫’s Shūlù jiětí gives the correct form Yáng Yánzhèng Jìwēng zhuàn 楊炎正濟翁撰; Mǎ Duānlín 馬端臨’s Wénxiàn tōngkǎo mis-cuts zhèng 正 as zhǐ 止 (“only”), turning “Yánzhèng” into “Yán, only Jìwēng” — i.e., reading “Yáng Yán” as full name and “Jìwēng” as a biéhào. Máo Jìn 毛晉’s Liùshí jiā cí then carried over this error; modern reprints variously “correct” it. Lì È 厲鶚’s Sòng shī jìshì finally settled the matter using parallel evidence from the Wǔlín jiùshì and the Quán fāng bèi zǔ. The Tíyào further uses Xīn Qìjí 辛棄疾’s Jiàxuān cí — where Xīn matches Yáng’s Shuǐdiào gētóu on Duōjǐng Tower with a piece annotated Hé Yáng Jìwēng yùn — to confirm the friendship. The collection has only thirty-seven pieces; six are matching-Xīn cí, demonstrating their close literary friendship.
Tiyao
Xīqiáo yǔyè, one juǎn, by Yáng Yánzhèng of the Sòng. Yánzhèng, zì Jìwēng, a man of Lúlíng. Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫’s Shūlù jiětí records Xīqiáo yǔyè in one juǎn by Yáng Yánzhèng, zì Jìwēng. Mǎ Duānlín 馬端臨’s Wénxiàn tōngkǎo quotes this but mis-cuts zhèng 正 as zhǐ 止; Máo Jìn’s Liùshí jiā cí then erroneously treats Yáng Yán as a surname-name and Zhǐ Jìwēng as a biéhào. The recent reprint then re-cuts it again as Yáng Yánzhèng; the colophon’s Zhǐ Jìwēng characters are also after-corrected to Yáng Jìwēng. But old prints and new prints both circulate; the two-name confusion is rife. Lì È 厲鶚’s Sòng shī jìshì sorts this: “I have seen an old hand-copy of Xīqiáo yǔyè giving Yáng Yánzhèng, zì Jìwēng; examining Zhōu Mì’s Wǔlín jiùshì, a Qiántáng yíngjiǔ gē by Yáng Yánzhèng; the Quán fāng bèi zǔ also records this shī under Yáng Jìwēng; so Yánzhèng is his name, Jìwēng his zì.” Now examining Xīn Qìjí’s Jiàxuān cí: repeated giving-and-replying with Yáng Jìwēng; his Shuǐdiào gētóu one cí self-annotates “boat-stop at Yángzhōu, matching Yáng Jìwēng’s rhyme”; Yánzhèng’s Shuǐdiào gētóu · Dēng Duōjǐng lóu uses the same rhyme as Xīn’s, with only the closing-rhyme differing. Xīn’s Dié liàn huā two cí are annotated Hé Yáng Jìwēng yùn; only the second’s Zuó rì jiě chéng jīn xī yòu line in Xīn reads Kě xī chūn cán fēng yòu yǔ — clearly transmission errors. Yánzhèng’s zì identification is thereby confirmed; Lì È’s analysis is correct, and the Máo old-prints are unreliable. The collection has only 37 cí; the matching-Xīn pieces total 6 — so the two were close friends; Yáng’s heroic-and-roaming breath, though not equal to Xīn’s, sheds the finely-decorative for clear-outstanding; the two were drawn to each other for reason.
Abstract
The transmitted Xīqiáo yǔyè descends through Máo Jìn’s Liùshí jiā cí cutting (with the name-correction confusion the Tíyào documents). Modern editions: the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋 preserves around 41 cí (the Tíyào’s 37 plus a few supplements). Yáng’s life-dates are not precisely recorded; floruit fixed in the Chúnxī–Jiātài decades from the Xīn friendship. The collection’s chief value is as a witness to the Xīn Qìjí literary circle of Shàngráo and Yángzhōu in the late-twelfth century; Yáng’s Shuǐdiào gētóu · Dēng Duōjǐng lóu (Jiànkāng, Chúnxī late 1180s) is the matching-piece to Xīn’s Shuǐdiào gētóu and is now invariably read alongside it.
Translations and research
- Táng Guī-zhāng 唐圭璋 et al., Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1965; rev. 1999), vol. 3 — collated corpus.
- Dèng Guǎng-míng 鄧廣銘, Jià-xuān cí biān-nián jiān-zhù — preserves Xīn-Yáng matching pieces.
- Lì È 厲鶚, Sòng shī jì-shì 宋詩紀事 (Qīng) — name-disambiguation.
Other points of interest
The Yáng Yánzhèng / Yáng Yán + Jìwēng / Yáng Jìwēng + Zhǐ name-confusion is one of the Sìkù tíyào’s most-cited cases of author-name disambiguation through cross-reference triangulation — a textbook of the Sìkù’s philological method.