Yu Ji (虞集, 1272–1348) was a man of letters of the Yuan dynasty of China whose courtesy name was Bosheng (伯生).
Life
Yu Ji's ancestors lived in Renshou County (仁寿縣) of Lingzhou (陵州),1 and Yu Ji was a fifth-generation descendant of Yu Yunwen (虞允文), who served as chancellor (丞相) of the Southern Song. His father, Yu Ji (虞汲), held the post of Huangmen Wei (黄門尉), and after the fall of the Southern Song the family moved to Chongren (崇仁) in Linchuan (臨川).2 Yu Ji was clever from an early age. Because of the wars with the Mongol Empire at the end of the Southern Song, the family wandered from place to place and had no books to read, but his mother, Lady Yang (楊氏), is said to have taught him orally the Analects (論語), the Mencius (孟子), and the Zuozhuan (左傳), which she had memorized. Yu Ji could read from about the age of three, and Wu Zeng (呉澄), a fellow student of his father, taught him.
In the first year of the Dade era (大德) of Emperor Chengzong of Yuan (1297), he arrived at Dadu (大都) and was appointed Professor of Confucian Studies of Dadu Circuit (大都路儒学教授), and he became known for his uprightness. He was promoted several times, to Assistant Director of the Imperial Secretariat (秘書少監) and Erudite of the Imperial Ancestral Temple (太常博士). At that time he also proposed to the chancellor Bayju that Confucian scholars should be appointed to office. During the reign of Emperor Renzong of Yuan (reigned 1311–1320), he served as Compiler of the Academy of Worthies (集贤修撰). He frequented the Manwongdang (萬卷堂), the library built in Yanjing by King Chungseon of Goryeo, who had come from Goryeo and was staying in Yanjing, and he had contacts with King Chungseon and with Yi Jehyeon.3
When Emperor Wenzong of Yuan (文宗, reigned 1328–1329 and 1329–1332) ascended the throne, Yu Ji concurrently served as a lecturer to the emperor (経筵),4 and became Academician-in-Waiting of the Kuijang Pavilion (奎章閣侍書學士). Although he submitted a memorial on famine in the Guanzhong region at that time, it was not adopted. He was also appointed chief compiler of the Huangchao Jingshi Dadian (皇朝經世大典), modeled on the Tang Huiyao (唐會要) and the Song Huiyao (宋會要), and he supervised this large-scale compilation project. However, when the Veritable Records of the Ancestors (祖宗実録) were being compiled, his request to be allowed to consult the Yuan Chao Bi Shi (元朝秘史) was not granted.
As an adviser to the emperor, Yu Ji answered the emperor's inquiries about political issues and submitted remonstrances, many of which were accepted. Because of his unyielding character, however, he had many political rivals, and he was often dismissed from office. When Emperor Shundi of Yuan (順帝) ascended the throne (1333), he feigned illness and returned to Linchuan. He died in the fifth month of the eighth year of the Zhizheng era (至正) (1348). He was 77 years old. After his death he was posthumously enfeoffed as Duke of Renshou (仁壽郡公), and his posthumous name was Wenjing (文靖).
Works
Yu Ji excelled at calligraphy and captured the style of people of the Jin dynasty (晉). He was skilled at poetry, and together with Liu Guan (柳貫), Huang Jin (黃溍), and Jie Xisi (揭傒斯) he was called the Four Heroes of the Confucian Forest (儒林四傑).5 The outstanding feature of Yu Ji's poetry is that it has a well-ordered structure, and it is considered to have been composed on the model of Tang poetry. Yu Ji also compiled the Yuzhu Dulü (虞註杜律), a collection of only the seven-character regulated verses of Du Fu's poems, to which he himself added commentary. On the other hand, Yu Ji also had the skill to sing of new subjects and new realities.6
All of his poems express the sentiments of an old man of the Southern Song living under the rule of the Mongols' Yuan dynasty. Together with Jie Xisi, Fan Peng (范梈), and Yang Zai (杨载), his name became widely known, and he gained fame as one of the four great masters of the poetry world of the Yuan period. Yu Ji himself called himself "an old official of the Han court" (漢廷老吏) in his poems,7 and people called him Master Shao'an (邵庵先生).
Yu Ji's works include the Daoyuan Xuegu Lu (道園學古錄) in 50 volumes, the Daoyuan Leigao (道園類稿) in 50 volumes, the Daoyuan Yigao (道園遺稿) in 6 volumes, and the Pingyao Ji (平猺記). Very few of his poems have survived. The politician Zhu Zumou (朱祖謀), active from the late Qing to the early Republic period, collected Yu Ji's poems in the Jiangcun Congshu (彊村叢書) and compiled them as a single volume titled Daoyuan Yuefu (道園樂府). Later, the Complete Works of Yu Ji (虞集全集), punctuated and collated by Wang Ting (王颋), was published in 2007 by Tianjin Guji Press (天津古籍出版社).
Footnotes