Xianyu Shu

Life

He first entered service through the clerical establishment. During the Zhiyuan era, he was selected for ability to serve as a jingli of the Eastern Zhejiang Pacification Commission (浙東宣慰司經歷), then transferred to the Jiangzhe Branch Secretariat as dushi (江浙行省都事).

Accounts of his early appointments differ: one places him under Kublai as jingli of the Liangzhe Transport Commission (兩浙轉運使經歷); another dates his appointment as jingli of the Liangzhe Branch Secretariat’s Tea and Salt Transport Commission (兩浙行中書省茶鹽轉運司經歷) to 1287, and records a further appointment as jingli of the Pacification Commission’s Regional Commander-in-Chief Office (宣慰司都元帥府經歷) in 1297.

After leaving office, he returned to private life in Xixi, Qiantang, where he built the Kunxue Studio. He was later recalled as dushi of the Jiangzhe Branch Secretariat; high officials repeatedly recommended him for service in the court academies and archives, but he was not appointed. He was transferred to be a dianbu of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices (太常寺典簿), eventually retired from that post, and in later life closed his doors to visitors. He died in the sixth year of the Dade era.

Bold and high-spirited, he carried a case for writing brushes when he went out in the morning and argued with his superior over right and wrong; when a single exchange displeased him, he wanted to cast off his official seals and ribbons and retreat to hunting in the hills and marshes. Local elders would gather and point at him as he passed, saying, “This is our Xianyu gong.” When he returned late, he burned incense and practiced calligraphy, displaying ancient bronze ritual vessels and examining their fragmentary inscriptions and worn texts. Guests found him composing verse among the woods and bamboo or drinking to intoxication; in his cups he wrote poems and eccentric characters, taking pleasure in the spectacle.

Scholarship and calligraphy

In middle age he began studying diligently, and from this took the name Kunxue. He wrote poetry, prose, ci lyrics, fu, and sanqu; he was skilled in painting and calligraphy, in connoisseurship of calligraphic works, paintings, and antiquities, and was especially accomplished in cursive script.

Xianyu Shu was a friend of Zhao Mengfu, who greatly esteemed him; while Shu was living in Qiantang, Zhao portrayed his likeness. Yu Ji grouped him with Zhao Mengfu and Deng Wenyuan as leading practitioners of the brush arts, and judged his literary reputation comparable to Zhao’s.

He and Li Zhongfang, Gao Yanjing, Liang Gongfu, and Guo Youzhi were Northerners serving in the South; all were fond of poetry and of examining calligraphic works, famous paintings, and ancient objects, and several of them consequently won the esteem of scholars in the Wu-Yue region.

Zhao Mengfu and Yu Ji wrote postscripts on works associated with him; Dai Biaoyuan and Yu Delin wrote accounts of the Kunxue Studio. After Xianyu Shu’s death, Zhao Mengfu also composed “Lament for Xianyu Boji.”

Anecdotes and literary works

He once found an unusual pine in an abandoned garden, transplanted it, and named it “The Old Man of the Disjointed Form,” tending it morning and evening. He also cherished a Han-period lion-shaped water dropper; its spout fell into a pavilion on West Lake, but when he returned three years later he suddenly found it in the water and took the recovery as a supernatural sign, an episode that poets of the time often celebrated.

When the Zhejiang Provincial Guangji Treasury confined the wives and families of wealthy households implicated in the misuse of public funds, a magistrate named Wang put them on boats on West Lake and sent them among the tourists to collect illicit money. Xianyu Shu responded with “Lake-side Song,” portraying the distress of women forced to sing and dance and ending with the plea, “Where is the righteous man who will cast down a thousand pieces of gold?” Some of his calligraphic works were signed “Zuili,” and he may also have resided for a time in the He region.

Works and family

His works include *Miscellaneous Notes from the Kunxue Studio* (《困學齋雜錄》) and *Poems from the Kunxue Studio* (《困學齋詩集》); the collection is also referred to as *Collected Works from the Kunxue Studio* (《困學齋集》). Four ci lyrics survive.

His children and descendants included the sons Xianyu Qujin (鮮于去矜) and Boyan Buhua (伯顏不花), the son-in-law Duordijin (朵爾的斤), the grandson Xianyu Duan (鮮于端), and the grandson through a daughter Boyan Buhuadejin (伯彥不花的斤), who died in 1359.