Wu Jun's Yearly Splendor Records Beauty

Author: Yuan Jinglan / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1998-12-01
Features: Wu Jun Suihua Ji Li (Twelve Volumes), written by Yuan Xuelan (original name Jinglan) of Yuanhe, Qing Dynasty, and Wenqi. Handwritten manuscript. Prefaced by an introduction by Dong Zhaoxiong in the sixth year of Xianfeng (1856), an introduction by Kang Shuzi in the third year of Tongzhi (1864), an introduction by Yu Yue in the tenth year of Tongzhi (1871), and a self-introduction from the twenty-ninth year of Daoguang (1849). Preface: "I randomly selected the annual customs and traditions of Wu, compiled them into twelve volumes, and named it Wu Men Suihua Ji Li. This book only records the annual customs of Chang, Yuan, and Wu in the city, differing from Wang Yuanmei's Su Zhi Bu Yi, which uniformly records the customs of the entire prefecture." The entire book is handwritten in running script using the grid style of Sanshiliu Ou Ting Conggao and Shi Yuan Conggao. It is stamped with seals at the beginning and end, including: "Yuan Jinglan Seal," "Nao Shi," "Chun Chao," "Jinglan," "Chen Lan Private Seal," "Living in Solitude Like Shen Youcun," "Loves Deep and Beautiful Literature," and "Wu Men Yao Family Collection." It is undoubtedly Yuan's manuscript. This book was discovered in Suzhou in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China and is now preserved in the Nanjing Library, a treasure among Jiangsu local literature. According to the Wu County Gazetteer (Volume 68, Biographies), "Yuan Xuelan, styled Wenyi, lived in Yuanjing Chun Village in Yanshan Township after the transformation of Yuan Jing Chun. His family was wealthy, and he dedicated himself to studying. He traveled with Yin Shouping of Wujiang, passed the imperial examinations, and gained fame in Wu. He built Shoushun Villa and renamed it Chun Chao. After the war, he moved to Wu with his mother and taught his children and grandchildren. His poems and essays were all self-published." The Wu County Gazetteer also records this book in the Literary Records section under the customs category, noting: "Later, his manuscript was sold for five hundred taels of silver to a person from the United States. This is mentioned in Dong Kang's Shubu Yongtan. The printed version of Shubu Yongtan (two volumes) (published on February 22, 1927, in Tokyo) shows that Tanaka Fuku showed Shi Yuan Poetry (twenty-four volumes, totaling fifty-two volumes), sometimes titled Xianghua Chunyu Lou Collection and sometimes Tianxiang Lou Collection, written by Yuan Jinglan (later changed to Xuelan) of Yuanhe. Wenyi also wrote Wu Jun Suihua Ji Li, which is rich in references and was purchased by the American library for five hundred taels of silver. Dong Kang also said, 'Reading Shi Yuan Poetry, the poems before middle age are full of talent and elegance, with profound and subtle meanings, while the poems in later years are somewhat decadent. According to the fifty-two-volume Seventy-Year Self-Description (twenty-four poems), he was born in the Jiaqing era. In the fifth year of Xianfeng, he was admitted to the Yuanhe County School by the scholar-in-charge of the Xunyi. He repeatedly failed the imperial examinations. When Li Wenzhong captured Suzhou, he was awarded the position of the Chief Secretary of the Censor's Office for his contributions.'" This supplements the gaps in the County Gazetteer. Additionally, Wang Zhongmin's Annotated Catalogue of Chinese Rare Books records that he saw this book at the Library of Congress in the United States and that the person who sold the book to the American was Tanaka Keitaro, the owner of the Japanese bookshop Wenyuan Tang, not his descendants. The County Gazetteer is mistaken. The price marked in the volume is only four hundred taels, not five hundred. The manuscript was copied on Shi Yuan Conggao paper with great skill. The original title was Jinglan, later changed to Xuelan. Besides the title, prefaces, and preface, there are several excerpts of Wu Su Zhen Yan compiled by Xuelan, a single article by Zhang Dachu titled Wu Zhong Folk Custom Theory, and at the end, Xuelan's separate work Wu Su Yu Feng Shi (a volume).