SòngYuán 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 XiǎoXū 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).