Bei Qiong

Life

Gifted in youth, he studied with Huang Cishan of his native district and Yang Lianfu of Kuaiji, and his learning advanced. At forty-eight, he finally obtained a recommendation through the Yuan local examinations. When Zhang Shicheng occupied Wu, he repeatedly declined summons, withdrew to Mount Shu, and taught pupils.

Early in the Hongwu reign, he was recruited to work on the History of the Yuan Dynasty. His fellow officials, including Li Minqing, admired his historical talent and literary reputation in the capital; another account dates the recruitment to Hongwu 3 and says that, after the work, he was given gold and silk and sent home. In Hongwu 6, he was appointed assistant instructor at the Imperial Academy on recommendation and, with 張美和 and 聶鉉, was known as one of the “Three Assistant Instructors of Chengjun”; he also examined candidates in Zhejiang and requested to return home. In Hongwu 9 he became assistant instructor at the Central Capital Imperial Academy, where he taught sons of meritorious officials; he retired in Hongwu 11. He had a son, 貝翱.

At the historiographical academy, he was friendly with Song Lian of Jinhua, and the two deferred to each other in their writings. Bei Qiong wrote a biography of Yang Weizhen and prefaces for works by Song Lian and others.

Literary thought and poetry

Bei Qiong studied poetry under Yang Weizhen. In discussing prose, he argued that effective writing should seek平衍可觀 rather than 嶄絕刻峭, and 豐腴可樂 rather than 荒唐險怪. Although he came from Yang Weizhen’s school, he adopted its strengths without its weaknesses, and his literary principles did not wholly follow Yang’s.

His poetry was described as broad, vigorous, and incisive, with an exceptional distinction; it was also judged naturally lofty and graceful within its warmth, able to contend with the leading poets even without combining all their virtues. One assessment compared its openness to Wang Guangyang, its ordered elegance to Liu Ji, its rounded grace to Lin Hong, its clear emptiness to Yuan Kai, its stylistic brilliance to Gao Qi, its lucid purity to Zhang Yu, and its ornate richness to Sun Fen; it hailed him as a leader of his time but also acknowledged that such local praise could be excessive. Another local appraisal placed Qingjiang at the head of the poets of his commandery and ranked his talent no lower than “Gao and Yang.”

Works and literary network

His works include 《清江貝先生文集》, 《清江文集》, 《清江集》, and 《清江詩》; 《清江詩》 is given as ten juan, and 《清江集》 as forty juan. His writings span prefaces, biographies, tomb inscriptions, epitaphs, colophons, farewell prefaces, elegies, commemorative records, studio inscriptions, burial texts, and poems, as well as inscriptions on paintings and colophons on calligraphic works. Named pieces include 《青蘿山房歌》 for Song Lian, 《鐵崖先生傳》 and 《筆議軒記》 associated with Yang Weizhen, and 《題倪雲林畫》 and 《跋趙文敏帖》.