劉基詩序說

Abstract

Llu Chi 劉基 (1311-1375) famous in history for the part he played in assisting Chu Yüan-chang 朱元璋 to found the Ming dynasty, also occupies an important place in the literary history of late Yüan and early Ming times. His poems are preserved in two collections, the Fu-p'ou-chi 覆瓿集, containing works written during the last years of the Yüan, and the Li-mei-chi 犁眉集, containing works written after the founding of the Ming. A comparison of the two collections reveals marked differences in content and mood. The earlier group of poems was written when Liu Chi was a minor young official in the service of the alien dynasty, his talents as yet unrecognized, and it contains many attacks on the chaotic social conditions of the time and the abuses of the ruling class. At the same time it reveals the poet's pent-up ambitions and the ardor with which he longed to realize them. But after he had rightly estimated the genius of Chu Yüan-chang and had, by joining with him, at last attained a position where he could exercise his abilities to the fullest, he seems on the contrary to have lost the driving energy that had impelled him up to this point, and to have fallen instead into a mood of despair and desolation. The historians may paint a glowing picture of Liu Chi, the honored elder statesman who assisted at the founding of the new dynasty, but when we examine his inner thoughts as they are revealed in his poetry, we are struck by a sense of secret remorse at the fact that he had followed the cruel and unbending Chu Yüan-chang and aided the establishment of his rule. And because he did not dare to give clear expression to such remorse, his anguish and mental torture became greater than ever. The present study attempts, on the basis of his poetry, to trace these changes in his mental attitude, and at the same time to appraise his contribution to the poetic world of the early Ming and make clear his importance in the history of Chinese literature.