Liu Yiqing's World and the Youming Lu

20 Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Liu Yiqing’s World and the Youming Lu

Traditionally, the Youming lu has been attributed to Liu Yiqing, nephew of Liu Yu 劉裕 (r. 420–422), the founder of the Song 宋 Dynasty (420–479). Modern scholars would rather treat him as an editor, instead of the sole compiler (this will be discussed below). In any case, Liu Yiqing played an important role in the compilation of the Youming lu.1 Because of this, Liu’s life and works are important to the study of the Youming lu. Moreover, while the tale collections compiled by Liu, especially the Shishuo xinyu, have been the subject of numer- ous studies,2 Liu Yiqing’s life has never been scrutinized until today. This chapter provides the first English translation of Liu Yiqing’s biography, an observation on Liu’s life from three different perspectives, a discussion of his works, and a textual history of his Youming lu.

Liu Yiqing’s Life and Works

1 Liu Yiqing’s Life Information about Liu Yiqing’s life can be found in his biography in the Song shu 宋書 [History of the Song] and Nan shi 南史 [History of the Southern Empires],3 Huijiao’s Gaoseng zhuan,4 and biographies and anthologies of his contemporaries, such as Xie Lingyun 謝霛運 (385–433) and Bao Zhao 鮑照

1 Although Nanxiu Qian (in Spirit and Self in Medieval China, the Shih-shuo hsin-yu and Its Legacy, p. 1 and note. 1 on p. 381) argues (following Lu Xun) that the Shishuo xinyu was a compilation of “Liu Yiqing and his staff,” since there is no hard evidence to support this, I follow the traditional claims that Liu played a major role in compiling the Youming lu. 2 For earlier studies of Shishuo xinyu, see Mather’s “Shih-shuo hsin-yu” entry in Nienhauser, The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, pp. 704–5, v. 2. Besides the large number of previous publications, the most recent studies of Shishuo xinyu include: Fan Ziye 范子燁, Shishuo xinyu yanjiu 世說新語研究 [A Study of the New Account of Tales of the World ] (Haerbin: Heilongjiang jiaoyu chubanshe, 1998); Jiang Fan 蔣凡, Shishuo xinyu yanjiu (Shanghai: Xuelin chubanshe, 1998); and Nanxiu Qian, Spirit and Self in Medieval China: the Shih-shuo hsin-yu and Its Legacy (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001). There is also a revised edition of Richard Mather’s translation; see Richard B. Mather, trans., Shih-shuo Hsin-yü: A New Account of Tales of the World, 2nd ed. (Ann Arbor: Univer- sity of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, 2002). 3 See Shen Yue 沈約 (441–513), Song shu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974), 51. 1475–80; Li Yanshou 李延壽 (seventh century), Nan shi (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975), 13. 358–60. 4 See Huijiao et al., Gaoseng zhuan heji, pp. 1–101.

(c. 414–466) who had close relationships with Liu Yiqing.5 Two brief modern chronicles of Liu’s life and works are available; the first, by Xiao Hong, is at- tached to her article “Shishuo xinyu zuozhe wenti shangque”;6 the second, by Fan Ziye, is in his book Shishuo xinyu yanjiu.7 Also valuable in terms of tracing Liu’s life are Qian Zhenlun’s 錢振倫 (1816–1879) Bao Canjun shi zhu 鮑參軍詩注 [Adjutant Bao’s Poems with Commentary] and Wu Piji’s 吳丕績 Bao Zhao nianpu 鮑照年譜 [The Chronicle of Bao Zhao].8 In order to reconstruct Liu Yiqing’s life, Liu’s biography in the Song shu, as well as other related materials from different sources, has been presented in English here for the first time, with annotations.

The Biography of Liu Yiqing in the Song shu The Song shu presents the life of Liu Yiqing in the chapter on imperial kinsmen (Chapter 51). While it does contain a dedicated biography of Yiqing, information about him is also interspersed throughout the biographical treatment of his father and siblings. Liu Yiqing was born into a royal family at Pengcheng 彭城, the modern city of Xuzhou 徐州, Jiangsu, in the first year of Emperor An 安 of Jin 晉 (403). His father, Liu Daolian 劉道憐 (368–422), was Prince Jing 景 of Changsha 長沙;9 Liu Daolian was also the younger brother of Liu Yu, founder of the Song. Liu Daolian had six sons, Yiqing was the second. In the eighth year of Yixi 義煕 reign period (412), when Yiqing was ten years old,10 his uncle Liu Daogui 道規 (370–412), the youngest brother of Liu Yu, died and was posthumously enfeoffed as the Prince of Linchuan 臨川.11 Daogui had no sons, so Yiqing was made his heir.12

5 Xie’s biography is in Shen Yue, Song shu, 67. 1743–87; Li Yanshou, Nan shi, 19. 538–42. Bao’s biography is in Shen Yue, Song shu, 51. 1477–80; Li Yanshou, Nan shi, 13. 360. 6 Xiao Hong, “Shishuo xinyu zuozhe wenti shangque,” in Guoli Zhongyang tushuguan guankan 14. 1(1981): 8–24. 7 Fan Ziye, Shishuo xinyu yanjiu, 305–17. 8 Qian Zhenlun, ed., Bao Canjun shi zhu (Taibei: Shijie shuju, 1966); Wu Peiji, Bao Zhao nianpu (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1974). 9 The seat of Changsha Commandery was at modern Changsha city, Hunan. See Tan Qixiang 譚其驤, Zhongguo lishi dituji 中國歷史地圖集 [The Historical Atlas of China] (Beijing: Ditu chubanshe, 1982), 4. 26. 10 This is based on the traditional Chinese method of counting years or sui 歲. He was nine years old based on the modern western standard. 11 The seat of Linchuan Commandery was Linru 臨如, west of modern Linchuan County, Jiangxi. See Tan Qixiang, Zhongguo lishi dituji, 4. 25–26. 12 See Shen Yue, Song shu, 51. 1474.