Song Jiong

Life

Quick-witted from youth, Song Jiong was known for startling remarks. During the 延祐 era, he brought his poems to the capital with his elder brother; Yuan Mingshan, Zhang Yanghao, Cai Wenyuan, and Wang Shixi, all then prominent at court for their writing, competed to recommend him. The brothers had earlier travelled with their parent in the Jianghan region; as poverty deepened and food and clothing were sometimes insufficient, he pursued learning with depth and perseverance, reading widely even in unofficial histories and biographies.

In the xinyou year of the Zhizhi era, Song Ben placed first in the jinshi examination; three years later Song Jiong also passed. Song Jiong was a jinshi of the first Taiding year, the jiazi cohort, and had studied under Cao Yuanyong, Yu Ji, and Bochuluchong; contemporary opinion regarded the achievement as an honor.

At first he was appointed proofreader in the Secretary Directorate. When the envoys from Annam returned from court, he was chosen as their companion and transferred as a compiler in the Hanlin National History Academy. After the establishment of the Court of the Heir Apparent, he was made a zhaomo (照磨), soon summoned as a censorate clerk but declined, then transferred as a zhaomo in the Grand Court of Imperial Sacrifices and promoted to Hanlin xiuzhuan (修撰).

At the beginning of the Zhiyuan era, he became a censor and was known for speaking frankly; he served as qian of the Shannan Surveillance Commission (僉山南廉訪司事), then as du shi of the Shaanxi Branch Censorate (陝西行臺都事); the office is also given as 御史臺都事. After little more than a month, he was summoned as a Hanlin daizhi (待制), promoted to vice director of the Directorate of the National Academy (國子司業), helped compile the histories of Song, Liao, and Jin, and was appointed Hanlin zhixueshi (直學士), soon concurrently serving as lecturer at the imperial lectures (經筵講官).

In the spring of the bingxu year of the Zhizheng era (1346), he died while serving as Hanlin zhixueshi (直學士) and concurrently lecturing at the imperial court, aged 53. He was posthumously granted the title of Director of the National Academy (國子祭酒), made Marquis of Fanyang Commandery, and given Wenqing as his posthumous name.

Song Jiong was a friend of Ke Jiusi and held Zhao Bi in esteem.

Literary work

His poetry sought to avoid stale diction. It included ballads of the Dadi (大堤) and frontier songs; the soaring, unrestrained spirit and impassioned cadence associated with Yan were transformed into fresh and vigorous verse. It was also praised as fresh and buoyant, occasionally strange and archaic, close at times to the poetry of Lu Tong and Li He, and profound and elegant, with particular strength in admonitory verse; it was considered capable of forming a distinctive school of its own.

His diction was rich and brilliant but sometimes suffered from an excess of talent: lines could be insufficiently polished and rhymes forced. In overall terms, however, his poetry and prose were considered substantial enough to constitute a school of their own, while the prose was warm, pure, and formally sound. Song Jiong and Song Ben entered the Hanlin institutions in succession, and both had collections circulate; contemporaries compared them as “Da Song” and “Xiao Song.” Because his family was originally from the capital, he called his collection Yanshi ji (燕石集).

The Yanshi ji (燕石集) consists of 15 juan—ten of poetry and five of prose—and was compiled by his nephew, the Taichang fengli lang 彍. Its opening contains a memorial from the Censorate to the Zhejiang Branch Secretariat concerning publication, along with five prefaces by Ouyang Xuan, Su Tianjue, Xu Youren, Lü Sicheng, and Wei Su; the end appends a posthumous discussion, an epitaph, sacrificial texts, and elegies, together with two Hongwu-era postscripts by He Zhiquan and Lü Ying.