Emerald Ink Collection

Author: Huang Chang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: As for the purpose of Kuan Kuei compiling this collection, the most likely reason is to support the incense offerings of the temple and his own reputation. There is also the possibility that he tried to use the official book The History of Song and the poems of prominent officials and scholars to give this temple a political protective color. We do not have conclusive evidence to determine whether Kuan Kuei was a monk with national consciousness. However, at least he held a positive and respectful attitude toward Yue Fei. What is certain is that during the era of the Yuan Empire's rule over China, the sentiments of the public toward Yue Fei were fully reflected in this poetry collection. As far as I know, over six hundred years, only this copy has been privately collected and passed down. But the Beijing Library has three identical copies. With the help of Mr. Zhao Fei Yun, I had the opportunity to examine these books in the library's collection. They were three butterfly-bound books in pristine condition, without any seals, which could be traced back to the old imperial collection of the Grand Secretariat from the Yuan Dynasty. They had never been paid attention to, except for Cao Yuanzhong, who once flipped through them in the late Qing Dynasty and wrote a whimsical preface. These three books had greatly interested me. I guessed that they might have been samples sent from Jiangnan to the capital for review and research at that time? Unsurprisingly, they lay dormant in the grand and cold palace of Dadu for five or six hundred years, yet no one had ever studied them or expressed any opinions on them. The Poems of Renowned Scholars at Yue Zhongwu Wang's Temple includes the works of seventy-seven authors. Tao Zongyi's Record of Farming While Working mentions Yue Fei's story: "Since the Yuan Dynasty unified all of China, many scholars and officials have composed poems in his memory, numbering dozens or even hundreds. The most widely acclaimed include Ye Jingyi's 'Youthful Elder Yun,' Zhao Wei Gong's 'Meng Jie,' Gao Zecheng's 'Mr. Ming,' Pan Zisu's 'Mr. Chun,' and Lin Qingyuan's 'Mr. Quan,' so I also composed a poem." The poems quoted here, excluding the author's own work, are all found in the first seven leaves of this collection. It is estimated that Tao Zongyi must have seen the first edition of this collection. P5