Contents

Yuan Mei

Yuan Mei
袁枚
Yuan Mei　Portrait by Luo Ping
Born	(1716-03-25)March 25, 1716 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Died	January 3, 1798(1798-01-03) (aged 81) Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Education	jinshi degree
Occupation(s)	Painter, poet
Notable work	Suiyuan shihua Suiyuan Shidan
Relatives	Yuan Ji (sister)
Chinese name
Chinese	袁枚
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yuán Méi
Zicai
Chinese	子才
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zǐcaí
Jianzhai
Traditional Chinese	簡齋
Simplified Chinese	简斋
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jiǎnzhaī
Cangshan Jushi
Traditional Chinese	倉山居士
Simplified Chinese	仓山居士
Literal meaning	Mount Cang Householder
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Cāngshān Jūshì
Suiyuan Zhuren
Traditional Chinese	隨園主人
Simplified Chinese	随园主人
Literal meaning	Owner of Sui Garden
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Suíyuán Zhǔrén
Suiyuan Laoren
Traditional Chinese	隨園老人
Simplified Chinese	随园老人
Literal meaning	Old Man of Sui Garden
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Suíyuán Lăorén

Yuan Mei (Chinese: 袁枚; pinyin: Yuán Méi; 1716–1797) was a Chinese poet of the Qing Dynasty. He was often mentioned with Ji Yun as the "Nan Yuan Bei Ji" (Chinese: 南袁北紀; pinyin: nányuán běijì; lit. 'Yuan of the south and Ji of the north').^[1]

Biography[edit]

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Early life[edit]

Yuan Mei was born in Qiantang (錢塘, in modern Hangzhou), Zhejiang province, to a cultured family who had never before attained high office. He achieved the degree of jinshi in 1739 at the young age of 23 and was immediately appointed to the Hanlin Academy (翰林院). Then, from 1742 to 1748, Yuan Mei served as a magistrate in four different locations in Jiangsu. However, in 1748, shortly after being assigned to administer part of Nanjing, he resigned his post and returned to his hometown to pursue his literary interest.^[2]

Literary career[edit]

In the decades before his death, Yuan Mei produced a large body of poetry, essays and paintings. His works reflected his interest in Chan Buddhism and the supernatural, at the expense of Daoism and institutional Buddhism - both of which he rejected. Yuan is most famous for his poetry, which has been described as possessing "unusually clear and elegant language". His views on poetry as expressed in the Suíyuán Shīhuà (隨園詩話) stressed the importance of personal feeling and technical perfection. In his later years, Yuan Mei came to be called "Mister Suiyuan" (Chinese: 隨園先生; pinyin: suíyuán xiānsheng). Among his other collected works are treatises on passing the imperial examinations and on food.

Throughout his lifetime, Yuan Mei travelled extensively throughout southern China, visiting Huangshan, Guilin, Tiantai, Wuyi and other famous mountains. On some of those visits, Yuan kept journal entries, representative of which is the You Guilin zhu shan ji ("Record of tours of the mountains of Guilin"). He also accepted students. Since he admired women's poetry, he also took several female students and helped them publish their work under their own names.

Beliefs and women's literacy[edit]

Yuan was opposed to the strict moral and aesthetic norms of his day and valued creativity and self-expression. He advocated for women's literacy. Yuan was both famed and criticized for his Sui Garden where women would gather to compose and recite poetry. Two of Yuan's sisters enjoyed praise for their literary talent.^[3]

Wonder tales[edit]

His anthology of supernatural tales, the Zi buyu (子不語; 'Middle Kingdom' lit. "What the Master does not Speak of",^[4] i.e., "Censored by Confucius") was first published 1788, and later retitled Xin Qi xie (新齊諧; "New wonder tales from Qi").^[5] It contained some 747 tales,^[6] followed by a sequel anthology.^[6][7]

The work is classified under the biji fiction genre), but they are anecdotes collected over many years, purporting to be actual events recorded by the author.^[8]

Gastronomic work[edit]

The food writer Fuchsia Dunlop has described Yuan as "China’s Brillat-Savarin," ^[9] and Endymion Wilkinson called him one of the four classical gastronomes.^[10] In a time when the taste among his contemporaries was for opulence and exotic display, Yuan stood for the "orthodox" style. "Nowadays," he wrote, "at the start of the feast the menu is about a hundred feet long". This is "mere display, not gastronomy". After one such dinner Yuan returned home and cooked congee to appease his hunger. He instructed cooks "do not fuss with the natural state of the food just to show that you are a clever cook. Bird's nest is beautiful -- why shape it into balls?" Yuan criticized his contemporary Li Liweng's magnolia pudding as "created by artifice". Yuan also resented what he regarded as the corruption of Chinese food by Manchu cooks. The appeal of Manchu cooking was in their stews and roasts, while Chinese cooked broths and soups, but when Manchus serve Chinese dinners and Chinese serve Manchu food, "we lose our originality" and we "toady to each other".^[11]

Yuan published his recipes and thoughts on cooking in his 1792 gastronomic manual and cookbook The Way of Eating.^[12][13] A complete and annotated translation was published in 2019.^[14]

Editions and translations[edit]

• Yuan Mei, Yingzhong Wang and Yingzhi Wang, eds. 随园食单 (Sui Yuan Shi Dan). Nanjing: Feng huang chubanshe, 2006. ISBN 978-7-80643-493-2.

translations

• Yuan, Mei (2017), Campbell, Duncan (ed.), "Yuan Mei's Garden of Accommodation", China Heritage Annual, translated by Campbell, Duncan, Wairarapa Valley, New Zealand
• —— (2019). The Way of Eating: Yuan Meí's Manual of Gastronomy. Translated by Chen, Sean Jy-Shyang. Introduction by Nicole Mones. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire. ISBN 9781614728276.
• Yüan, Mei (1996). Censored by Confucius: Ghost Stories by Yuan Mei. Translated by Kam, Louie; Edwards, Louise P. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 1563246805.
  • —— (2016) [1996]. Censored by Confucius: Ghost Stories by Yuan Mei. Translated by Kam, Louie; Edwards, Louise P. Routledge. ISBN 1315285711.
• Yuan, Mei (2003), Harmony Garden: The Life, Criticism, and Poetry of Yuan Mei, translated by Schmidt, J. D., Routledge, ISBN 1138863416
• —— (1997), I Don't Bow to Buddhas: Selected Poems of Yuan Mei, translated by Seaton, J.P., Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press, ISBN 1-55659-120-9

Further reading[edit]

• Arthur Waley. Yuan Mei, Eighteenth Century Chinese Poet. London: Allen & Unwin, 1956
• Hummel, Arthur W. Sr., ed. (1943). "Yüan Mei" . Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office.

References[edit]

Citations

Bibliography

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Yuan Mei.

• Works by Yuan MeiatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Yuan MeiatInternet Archive
• 随园食单 (Sui Yuan Shi Dan) Chinese text
• Suiyuan Shidan (隨園食單) English translation