Sòng-Yuán transition prose-writer and literary critic, son of the great late-Sòng / early-Yuán critic Liú Chénwēng 劉辰翁 (1232–1297, hào Xūxī 須溪). Zì Shàngyǒu 尚友. Native of Lúlíng 廬陵 (Jízhōu, Jiāngxī). Paired with his father as Xiǎo-Xū 小須 (“Little Xūxī”) in contemporary appellation. CBDB 27607 records birth 1257; death date uncertain (probably c. 1320 or later).
Career. Yánpíng jiàoguān 延平教官 (Yánpíng Education-Officer); Líntīng shūyuàn shānzhǎng 臨汀書院山長 (Master of the Líntīng Academy).
Family literary inheritance. Wú Chéng’s 吳澄 preface to the Yǎngwúzhāi jí draws the analogy Sū Xún → Sū Shì: Liú Jiāngsūn extends his father’s literary work without becoming a mere imitator. Liú carried forward Liú Chénwēng’s program of late-Sòng literary reform: rejecting the redundant Southern-Sòng prose tradition in favour of qīngxīn yōujùn (fresh-and-new, deep-and-elegant) diction.
Critical doctrine. Two principal statements:
- The Sòng wénlǐ split: “Those who valued wén could not be expansive in principle; those who explained principle could not extend [it] to wén.”
- The shíwén defence: “The essence of shíwén is precisely the principle of gǔwén; Hányù, Liǔzōngyuán, Ōuyáng Xiū, and Sū Shì all became famous by shíwén; afterwards [they composed] gǔwén as if to pick something readily-available.” Huángfǔ Shí 皇甫湜, Fán Zōngshī 樊宗師 [Fán Shàoshù], Yǐn Zhū 尹洙, and Mù Xiū 穆修 — Liú argues — failed to match the great masters precisely because their shíwén training was inferior.
Preserved Sòng-Yuán-transition biographies. The collection uniquely preserves biographical and literary material on the otherwise-poorly-documented late-Sòng / early-Yuán Jiāngxī literary circle: Hú Qiúyú 胡求魚, Niè Jìzhī 聶濟之, Zhào Wén 趙文, 劉岳申, Guō Rǔjiè 郭汝介, Tú Shìjùn 涂世俊.
Within the Kanripo corpus. KR4d0456 Yǎngwúzhāi jí 養吾齋集 (撰).