Yuan Hua

Life

Born in the final years of the Yuan, Yuan Hua was precociously gifted: after reading a text once or twice, he could recite it from memory, and he became known for poetry among the gentry from an early age. He excelled in poetry, especially yuefu; lines such as “三峰月寒木客笑，丹阳湖深姑恶飞” and “银杏树阴不受暑，蔷薇花开犹早春” were celebrated.

At the beginning of the Hongwu era (1368), Yuan Hua became an instructor at the Suzhou Prefectural School; he is also associated with the posts of instructor in the Confucian school of a regional general-governor’s office and clerk. Late in life, his only son, Shengshen, served as a county clerk; after a case in which father and son became implicated, they were transferred to Nanjing, where Yuan died, while another account says that he was arrested after becoming implicated and died in the capital.

Works and literary activity

His works include *耕學齋詩集*, in twelve juan, and *可傳集*, in one juan; the former is divided into seven juan of old-style verse and five juan of regulated verse.

The former was not listed in the bibliography of the History of Ming; its compiler is unknown, and most of its poems date from the Yuan. Yang Weizhen wrote a preface to *可傳集*, saying that Yuan Hua had accumulated more than a thousand poems over the thirty years after age twenty, which later editors may have collected for transmission.

One poem, “癸丑正月風雨中偶成,” was written in Hongwu 6 and reveals a mournful, reflective mood, seemingly aligning him with those who remained adherents of the Yuan. Early Ming writers were numerous and Yuan Hua’s poetry was overshadowed by more prominent names; despite its limited circulation, his poetry was praised as substantial and exemplary rather than to be dismissed for that reason.

Associations and connoisseurship

Yuan Hua was a friend of Gu Aying. His literary activity included farewell poems, poems in antiphonal exchange, sacrificial texts, and elegies; Yang Weizhen, Xie Yingfang, and others exchanged poetry and prose with him.

His connoisseurship extended to calligraphy and painting. He inscribed a portrait of Gu Aying, Huang Gongwang’s *雲山圖*, and works associated with Ni Zan, and wrote postscripts for other friends’ calligraphy and paintings.