Shì Wénxiàng 釋文珦 (b. 1210; still living in 1287 at age 77; death-year unknown). A late-Sòng / early-Yuán Chán 禪 Buddhist monk of Yúqián 于潛 (a town in the Hángzhōu 杭州 region, modern Lín’ān 臨安, Zhèjiāng 浙江). Sobriquet Qiánshānwēng 潛山翁 (“Elder of Submerged Mountain”), from which his collection takes its title.
Lifedates. The Sìkù tíyào of KR4d0372 reconstructs Wénxiàng’s lifedates from internal evidence: the line in his poetry referring to “the new Jǐngdìng 景定 calendar” while being “fifty-and-some” puts his birth at the xīnwèi year of Jiādìng 3 (1210/1211); CBDB 27799 records b. 1210. The Wood-Engraving Inscription for Hángzhōu Jiànfú Temple 杭州薦福寺記 is dated Zhìyuán 22 (1285), and his Qiǎnxīng shī explicitly identifies him as “the seventy-seven-year-old elder of Qiánshān” — therefore still alive in Zhìyuán dīnghài (1287) at age 77. Death-year unknown.
Travels. His Jiùyóu yībǎi shí yùn shī 舊逰一百十韻詩 (“Old Travels, 110-Rhyme Poem”) preserves his approximate itinerary: he was tonsured in Hángzhōu; travelled to Húzhōu 湖州, then through Zhèdōng 浙東 to Fújiàn 福建; returned by way of Jīnhuá 金華 and Yánlíng 嚴陵 to northern Yuè; went on to Pílíng 毘陵, Yángxiàn 陽羡, Jīnlíng 金陵, and the Huái 淮 frontier; then returned to Hángzhōu. After encountering slander he was imprisoned for a long period, was eventually pardoned, and withdrew into seclusion.
Documentary record. The Xiánchún Lín’ān zhì 咸淳臨安志 records that on 24/9 of Xiánchún 3 (1267), the chancellor Jiǎ Sìdào 賈似道 visited Xiǎomàilǐng Jīngdé Xiǎnqìngsì 小麥嶺旌徳顯慶寺 with four monks in his entourage, and Wénxiàng was one of them. The Sìkù editors discuss whether this implies factional affiliation with Jiǎ Sìdào, but conclude — given Wénxiàng’s two explicitly anti-Jiǎ-Sìdào poems (the Guò Jiǎ Sìdào Gélíng jiùjū shī and the Jìshì shī comparing Jiǎ to Cáo Mán) — that he was not of Jiǎ’s faction.
Literary network. Wénxiàng’s principal poet-correspondents, as preserved in the Qiánshān jí, were Chǔ Shīxiù 褚師秀, Zhōu Mì 周密 (the famous late-Sòng historian-poet of the Wǔlín jiùshì), Zhōu Pú 周璞, and Chóu Yuǎn 仇遠 — a small but distinguished circle of late-Sòng / early-Yuán Hángzhōu literati. The Sìkù editors note that nine of every ten poems in the collection are solo (dúyín 獨吟), confirming Wénxiàng’s contemplative-rather-than-social poetic identity.
Reception. Wénxiàng’s collection was effectively lost by the Míng. Lì È 厲鶚’s Sòngshī jìshì 宋詩紀事 (covering 240 Buddhist monk-poets) does not include him, nor does Gù Sìlì 顧嗣立’s Yuán bǎijiā shīxuǎn 元百家詩選 monk-volume (15 collections). The Sìkù editors recovered nearly 900 poems from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典 — among SòngYuán monk-poet corpora, the largest Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recovery of its kind.
Sources. Xiánchún Lín’ān zhì; Wénxiàng’s own poetry as preserved in KR4d0372; Sìkù tíyào; CBDB 27799. He is not in the Sòngshǐ.
Works in the Kanripo corpus. KR4d0372 Qiánshān jí 潛山集, 12 juàn (Sìkù recension from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn).