Méiyuàn 梅苑
Plum Garden edited by 黃大輿 (編)
About the work
The Méiyuàn 梅苑 (“Plum Garden”) is a thematic cí anthology compiled by Huáng Dàyú 黃大輿 in 1128 or 1129 at Shānyáng 山陽: ten juǎn of cí (with some shī) on the plum-blossom theme, drawn from Táng through early Southern Sòng poets. Huáng’s own preface tells us that, falling ill at Shānyáng during the chaos of the Jīngkāng collapse, he closed his three garden-paths to visitors, planted a single plum tree at the front of his studio, and compiled this volume “of the works of Táng-and-after talented men, as a study-room toy”. The collection — the earliest known thematic cí anthology in Chinese literature — is also the largest single source for yǒngméi 詠梅 (plum-blossom) cí of the late-Táng and early Sòng; later yǒngméi anthologies (Wú Wényīng’s etc.) cite it as authority.
Tiyao
Méiyuàn, ten juǎn, by Huáng Dàyú of the Sòng. Dàyú’s zì was Zǎiwàn 載萬. Qián Zēng in his Dúshū mǐnqiú jì cites Wáng Zhuó: “zì Zǎifāng 載方”. Probably 萬 was written 万, and 万 misread as 方 — like Xiāo Fāngděng 蕭方等 transformed from 萬等. His career and native place are not known. Lì È’s Sòngshī jìshì calls him a Shǔ man, also on the strength of his preface’s self-designation “Mínshān ǒugēng” and of his poems collected in the Chéngdū wénlèi — both circumstantial inferences, with no firm proof. Wáng Zhuó says: “Dàyú’s gēcí match the Táng greats; his yuèfǔ called Guǎngbiànfēng had several pieces on plum, all uniquely strange and fine.” But the yuèfǔ does not now survive, and only this collection remains. What is gathered are all cí on plum-blossom: starting in the Táng and stopping at the early Southern Sòng. His preface says: “In the winter of jǐyǒu I was ill at Shānyáng; my three paths were swept clean of footprints. Before my studio I added a plum-tree; not yet a full moon-cycle had passed and it was already in glorious bloom. So I gathered up the works of Táng-and-after talented men, as a toy for my study, and named it Méiyuàn.” Now jǐyǒu is Jiànyán 2 [actually Jiànyán 3 = 1129] — the year Gāozōng was at sea, and Shānyáng was on the line of battle. How Dàyú alone got to compile this collection at Xiāoxián — perhaps jǐyǒu is a copying error? In the Chǔcí of Qū and Sòng there is whole-tree exposition of fragrant grasses, but no plum; six dynasties and the Táng have only a handful of plum poems. From the Sòng plum became uniquely revered: every man composes on it. Fāng Huí in his Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ set apart from the regulated-verse categories a separate Méihuā class, refusing to mix it with the other flowers; Dàyú’s collection is in the same spirit. Although on one subject, by the time one heaps up several hundred pieces, repetition is unavoidable; still in the depiction and contouring much fresh meaning emerges, and the volume is a fine resource for those who fill words to tune. juǎn 9 takes in Làméi (winter-sweet, Chimonanthus) as a kindred species — admissible. But by juǎn 9 it has wandered as far as Yángméi (waxberry); this is the failing of breadth, of which the compiler is not himself aware. — Qiánlóng 46 / 1781, 10th month.
Abstract
The Méiyuàn is the earliest zhuāntí 專題 (thematic) cí anthology in Chinese literature; its 1128–1129 Jiànyán compilation date places it almost at the founding moment of the Southern-Sòng cí tradition. The corpus runs to several hundred cí by Táng and Northern-Sòng masters. As a thematic source for the yǒngméi sub-genre — a hallmark of Sòng cí — it is irreplaceable, and is cited as an authority by later cí-anthologists from Wú Wényīng to the Sìkù editors themselves. Its expansion in juǎn 9 to admit Làméi and Yángméi — the Sìkù’s gentle reproach — is also an early case-study of the Sòng obsession with botanically rigorous thematic anthologizing. Modern editions (Táng Guīzhāng Quán Sòng cí; the Shanghai Gǔjí Sòngcí qǐyuán series) treat the volume as a first-tier textual witness for Northern-Sòng cí-attributions.
Translations and research
- Táng Guī-zhāng 唐圭璋, Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 — uses Méi-yuàn as a major textual source.
- Maggie Bickford, Ink Plum: The Making of a Chinese Scholar-Painting Genre (Cambridge, 1996) — the standard Western-language study of the plum-aesthetic tradition; treats Méi-yuàn as a key textual moment.
- Wú Xióng-hé 吳熊和, Táng-Sòng cí tōng-lùn — discusses Méi-yuàn’s place in cí-anthology history.