Jī rǎng jí 擊壤集
The Drum-on-the-Earth Collection
by 邵雍 (Shào Yōng, Kāngjié xiānshēng; 1011–1077)
The collected poetry of Shào Yōng — taking its title from the legendary jī rǎng 擊壤 (drumming on the earth-clod) of the song of the zhìshì (well-ordered age) under Yáo, traditionally the prototype of the Confucian sage-king’s tàipíng zhī gē (peaceful-age song). Shào uses the title to programmatically situate his poetry as the natural-and-easy expression of the sage-aged ideal he had theoretically presented in the Huángjí jīngshì shū (KR5i0081). The collection contains ~3,000 poems in 20 juàn, predominantly gǔshī and qījué, on themes of natural beauty, ethical reflection, historical contemplation, and Daoist-inflected yǎngshēng. Famous individual poems include the Xián yín 閒吟 (“Leisurely Chanting”) cycle, the Tí Liúhóu miào 題留侯廟 (“Inscribed at the Marquis Liú [Zhāng Liáng]‘s Shrine”), and the Chūn yóu / Qiū yóu (Spring/Autumn Outings) cycles.
Prefaces
The text opens directly with the first Xián yín poem (one of four in the cycle, with one selected for printing): “I would have one gourd-of-pleasure / never having two qǐng of land / my cinnabar-sincerity has not yet penetrated the sun / but my white hair has flowered the crown of my head / cloud-thoughts are cold and yet thin / pine-heart with age becomes the firmer / over the years lazy-and-slack much / from time to time recalling the old grove-and-spring.”
Abstract
Shào Yōng’s literary-poetic complement to the cosmological-philosophical Huángjí jīngshì shū. The collection became the principal vehicle of Shào’s reception in late-imperial poetic culture, with its qīng yuǎn xián yì (“clear-distant-leisure-meaning”) aesthetic establishing him as the model of the Sòng lǐxué shī (Lǐ-school poetry). The DZJY recension preserves the standard 20-juàn arrangement; selection criteria are not explicitly recorded.
For Shào’s biography and broader corpus see 邵雍.
Translations and research
- Translations of selected poems exist in various Sòng-poetry anthologies (Burton Watson, Stephen Owen).
- For Shào’s poetic style see Wyatt, The Recluse of Loyang; and the chapter on Shào in the Sòng Lǐ-xué shī surveys.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5i0082
- Author: 邵雍.