Yang Jie was a Northern Song man, styled Cigong and self-styled Wuweizi. His native place is given as Wuwei, in present-day Anhui, and also as Jining Circuit. He died at the age of seventy.
Life
Another courtesy name recorded for him is Zijun. Other recorded forms include 楊次公, 楊無為, 無為居士, and 楊億. He was already known in his youth. In the fourth year of the Jiayou era (1059), he passed the jinshi examination.
In the fifth year of Xining, he served as an Examining Editor in the Court of Rites. During Yuanfeng, he held Taichang offices, six or seven appointments in all; as a Taichang boshi, he took part in deliberations on ritual and music. He differed with Fan Zhen in discussions of music, and the debate drew repeated attacks.
During Yuanyou he served as Vice Director in the Ministry of Rites (禮部員外郎), also recorded as 尚書省禮部司員外郎 or 禮部外郎. He became governor of Runzhou and was appointed Judicial Commissioner for the Liangzhe Circuit. Later, in the sixth year of Yuanyou, he became Lecturer in the household of Prince Xu. His other recorded titles include administrator of Wuwei Commandery (知無為軍), Chaosan lang, and Taichang si qing (太常寺卿).
His father was Yang Fu (楊復), and his younger brother was Yang Zuo (楊作; 1045–1109). He associated with Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, and Su Shi, wrote colophons for Fan Zhongyan's books and paintings, and composed a sacrificial text for Su Song; Wu Fan praised his writings and learning.
Works
His works included the fifteen-fascicle 《無為集》 and five-fascicle 《樂記》. He also authored 《五代紀元》, 《補編年圖》, 《郊祀總要》 in one fascicle, 《皇族服制圖》, and 《楊氏世譜》.
His collected writings exceeded twenty fascicles. In the thirteenth year of the Shaoxing era (1143), Zhao Shican, then administrator of Wuwei Commandery, arranged his poems and prose as a fifteen-fascicle 《無為集》. Poems and prose concerning Buddhism and Daoism were separately compiled in a ten-fascicle collection, now lost. 《樂記》, in five fascicles, is also lost.
Editions of his poetry used the Song Wuwei printing of 《無為集》, containing five poetry fascicles, as the base text, collating it against 《無為子小集》 in 《兩宋名賢小集》, 《無為集》 in 《宋百家詩存》, the Qing Wen yuan ge edition of 《四庫全書》, and Li Zhi-ding's edited 《宋人集》.
Buddhist Activities
Yang Jie traveled through Chan monasteries in search of teachers and, in later life, painted images of a Western Buddha (西方佛像) to carry with him for contemplation. For the monk Shi Congya, he composed the thirty-chapter 《安樂國讚》. He was also said to have perceived the Buddha's welcome at death and to have died seated.
References
- CBDB Yang Jie (12988)
- 搜韵 楊傑 (28011)
- Wikidata Yang Jie (Q45376127)
- 法鼓佛教人名规范数据库 楊傑 (A003554)