Yuan Mei

Yuán Méi, litteris Sinicis 袁枚 (Hanchei die 25 Martii 1716 natus; mortuus Nanchini die 3 Ianuarii 1798), fuit pictor, poëta, et gastronomus aevi Cim. Auctor fuit Praeceptorum ex horto plenitudinis, anno 1796 divulgatorum; propter studia gastronomica unus e quattuor magnis ganeonibus Sinis celebratur.^[1]

Anno 1739, gradu jinshi nacto, in academiam Hanlin receptus est linguae Mandshuricae tiro. Magistratus in quattuor pagis provinciae Jiangsuensis inter 1742 et 1748 missus est, erudito Yinjishan^(en) favente. Deinde officiis publicis recusatis Nanchinum se retraxit ubi praedium ruinosum sibi reconstruebat quem "hortum plenitudinis" (隨園 Suiyuan) appellavit: unde magister Suiyuan nuncupatus erit. Ibi ab anno 1755 habitabat artesque picturae litterarumque et conviviorum colebat: patroni plures carmina ab eo composita prolixe remunerabantur. Circum se catervam discipularum poëtriarum congregavit; harum aliorumque poëtarum iuniorum opera edebat promovebatque; amicos litterarios frequentabat, inter quos Jiang Shiquan^(en), Yao Nai^(en), Cheng Jinfang^(en). Collectio operum eius, primum anno 1775 edita, editionibus recentioribus aucta est.

Epitaphium sibi praescripsit: "Sepulcrum illius Yuan ab horto plenitudinis, aevo Qing. Per mille autumnos decemque milium generationes, erunt qui magno aestimabunt."^[2]

De indole

Yuan Mai senex a Luo Ping saeculo XVIII exeunte pictus

Officium poësis delectationem lectoris esse contra moralistas illius aevi arguebat. Contra eosdem (qui eum tanquam libertinum vituperare non abstinebant) feminarum intellegentiam educandam fovendamque suadebat. Traditionem classicam Sinensem religionemque tam Confucianam quam Buddhisticam parvo aestimabat. De lectura dialogi Buddhistici suppositicii Śūraṅgamasūtra^(en)e, ab amico Cheng Tingzuo^(d) commendatae, "Eheu," ait, "antequam primum capitulum perlegeram me oscitantem pandiculantemque et cubile desiderantem sentivi: manifeste thuriferariam animam e praeviis vitis minime hereditavi."^[3] Amico Peng Shaosheng^(zh) "De loco unde ad nativitatem venimus, de loco ubi post mortem ibimus," quaerente, "nonne nobis oportet de tali re gravissima inquirere? Num differre licet?" "Saltem licet," respondit, "mea mente."^[4]

Gastronomia eius in libro Praeceptorum ex horto plenitudinis legitur, e quo placitum de esu carnium citari licet: 物為人用，使之死可也，使之求死不得不可也 ("Demptio vitae animalis in usum cibarium excusari potest, sed tractatio qua animal mortem obsecret non excusatur").^[5]

Fortuna

Propter studia gastronomica "Brillat-Savarin Sinarum" (China's Brillat-Savarin) nuncupatus, "inter principales coquinariarum artium Jiangnanensium fautores"^[6]^[7] et unus e quattuor magnis ganeonibus Sinis celebratur (cum Su Shi, Ni Zan, Xu Wei).^[8]Apud popinam Longjing Cao Tang^(en) (龙井草堂) urbis Hanchei, a Dai Jianjun (戴建军) directam, gastronomia Yuan Mei aevo nostro recreatur.^[6]

Notae

↑ Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A Manual (Cantabrigiae Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000) p. 634
↑ Waley (1956) p. 201
↑ Alas, before I had finished a chapter, I found myself yawning and stretching and thinking of bed ... I suppose I have inherited no incense-burning karma from my previous existence: versio Anglica Waley (1956) p. 80
↑ "Surely where we came from when we were born and where we shall go when we die are questions of the utmost importance, and cannot be simply ignored?" "I think they can": versio Anglica Waley (1956) p. 81
↑ Taking the life of a creature for food can be justified, but doing so in a way that it begs for death is unjustifiable: versio Anglica Sean J. S. Chen, ed., Praecepta ex horto plenitudinis "戒暴殄"
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 Fuchsia Dunlop, "Letter from China: Garden of Contentment" in The New Yorker vol. 84 no. 38 (24 November 2008) pp. 54–61
↑ Fuchsia Dunlop, Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes from the Culinary Heart of China (Londinii: Bloomsbury, 2016. ISBN 978-1408802519) p. 21
↑ Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A Manual (Cantabrigiae Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000) p. 634

Bibliographia

Man-kuei Li, "Yüan Mei" in Arthur W. Hummel et al., Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (Vasingtoniae, 1943) vol. 2 pp. 955-957 Inter fontes nostros
Lin Tsung-Cheng, "Yuan Mei's (1716-1798) Narrative Verse" in Monumenta Serica vol. 53 (2005) pp. 73-111 JSTOR
Jeffrey Riegel, "Yuan Mei 袁枚 (1716–1798) and a Different 'Elegant Gathering'" in Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews vol. 32 (2010) pp. 95-112 JSTOR
Jerry Dean Schmidt, Harmony Garden: The Life, Literary Criticism, and Poetry of Yuan Mei (1716-1798). Londinii: Routledge Curzon, 2003 (Paginae selectae apud Google Books)
Arthur Waley, Yuan Mei, Eighteenth Century Chinese Poet. Londinii: Allen & Unwin, 1956

Nexus externi

Lexica biographica: • Den store danske • Deutsche Biographie • Большая российская энциклопедия •

Duncan M. Campbell, "Yuan Mei’s Garden of Accommodation" (2017) apud China Heritage Annual

You Shao, Wang Gong, Discipulae "magistri Suiyuan" in horto suo (1796)

[1] Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A Manual (Cantabrigiae Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000) p. 634

[2] Waley (1956) p. 201

[3] Alas, before I had finished a chapter, I found myself yawning and stretching and thinking of bed ... I suppose I have inherited no incense-burning karma from my previous existence: versio Anglica Waley (1956) p. 80

[4] "Surely where we came from when we were born and where we shall go when we die are questions of the utmost importance, and cannot be simply ignored?" "I think they can": versio Anglica Waley (1956) p. 81

[5] Taking the life of a creature for food can be justified, but doing so in a way that it begs for death is unjustifiable: versio Anglica Sean J. S. Chen, ed., Praecepta ex horto plenitudinis "戒暴殄"

[Dunlop_(2008)-6] 6.0 ^6.1 Fuchsia Dunlop, "Letter from China: Garden of Contentment" in The New Yorker vol. 84 no. 38 (24 November 2008) pp. 54–61

[7] Fuchsia Dunlop, Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes from the Culinary Heart of China (Londinii: Bloomsbury, 2016. ISBN 978-1408802519) p. 21

[8] Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A Manual (Cantabrigiae Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000) p. 634

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