Biography

Early life

Yuan Mei was born in Qiantang (, 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. Then, from 1742 to 1748, Yuan Mei served as a magistrate in four different provinces 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.

Literary career

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 Suiyuan shihua stressed the importance of personal feeling and technical perfection. In his later years, Yuan Mei came to be called "Mister Suiyuan". Among his other collected works are treatises on passing the imperial examinations and 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 womens literacy

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.

Gastronomic work

The food writer Fuchsia Dunlop has described Yuan as "China』s Brillat-Savarin," and Endymion Wilkinson called him one of the four classical gastronomes. 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".

Yuan published his recipes and thoughts on cooking in his 1792 gastronomic manual and cookbook the Suiyuan Shidan (隨園食單/随园食单). A complete and annotated translation was published in 2019.

Works

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• Yuan Mei, Yingzhong Wang and Yingzhi Wang, eds. (Sui Yuan Shi Dan). Nanjing: Feng huang chubanshe, 2006. .

• J.P. Seaton, Translator, I Don't Bow to Buddhas: Selected Poems of Yuan Mei. Port Townsend, Copper Canyon Press, 1997

• J. D. Schmidt, Harmony Garden: The Life, Criticism, and Poetry of Yuan Mei, Routledge, 2003.

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生平

先世世居寧波府慈谿縣，六世祖袁茂英，明萬曆進士，官至布政使。袁枚家貧，父親袁濱，四處擔任幕賓為生，仰賴母親章氏針線女紅持家，袁枚發憤苦讀，十二歲（1728年）中秀才，進入縣學，鄉里視為神童，「少聰穎，年十二能文，嘗作《高帝》、《郭巨》二論，莫不異之」。十五歲補增廣生，十八歲經浙江總督程元章推薦，進入萬松書院學習。十九歲得浙江學政帥念祖賞識，拔為優等。

乾隆元年（1736年）因長相俊秀，文筆優美，受廣西巡撫金鉷推薦應博學鴻儒科考試，「乾隆元年，先生游廣西，省其叔父於巡撫金公幕，金公奇其狀貌，命為詩，下筆千言，遂大為讚歎。」年僅二十歲，是當時年紀最小的，故未錄取。乾隆三年（1738年）中式舉人，乾隆四年（1739年）聯捷進士第二甲第五名，選翰林院庶吉士，年方廿四。大學士史貽直翻閱其文，辭採豐美，論調凌厲，讚為「當世之賈誼」。

袁枚的文名極佳，翰林散館，卻不知為何未受館內青睞（傳說不耐滿文），被外派為知縣，曾令溧水、江浦、沭陽等縣。由於年輕任官，其父袁濱怕袁枚施政不得民意，曾私下探訪溧水縣民對袁枚的看法，結果每一個人都說「吾邑有少年袁知縣，乃大好官也。」乾隆十年（1745年）任江寧（今江蘇南京）知縣時，推行法制，不避權貴，頗有政績。袁枚治理地方頗有一套，他四處探訪民情，並在縣內布有大量耳目，暗中將土豪惡霸、劣紳奸人名冊紀錄，每當有案件發生，他就一一核對名冊，並與當地的地方人士合作破案，他處罰壞人，用刑謹慎，但卻會將他們的敗行劣跡寫成文章，公告在縣衙，改過三年之後，方才撕毀布告，故惡人互相警戒，不敢犯法。兩江總督尹繼善稱讚他：「可謂宰相必用讀書人矣！」

袁枚三十八歲即厭惡官場生活，休官養親，不複為官，于金陵小倉山築「隨園」恬淡自居，蒐集書籍，創作詩文，悠閒度過五十年。他在給友人程晉芳的信中說：「我輩身逢盛世，非有大怪癖、大妄誕，當不受文人之厄。」遊歷南方諸名山，與詩友交往。

八年任官，頗儲俸祿，加上文名在外，時常為各地富豪、世族寫跋撰序、作墓誌銘，潤筆所得甚多，致仕後藉以投資，理財有道，盛置田產，招募大量佃農，蓄積數萬兩銀，以財自娛，但為人仗義疏財，在好友程晉芳死時，焚毀程晉芳所欠白銀五千兩的借據，不但不向其親人索討，還拿了一筆錢餽贈程晉芳的遺孤。晚年過世時，留下了「田產萬金，餘銀兩萬」，交付經營，以餘息供家族後人讀書營生。

文學

袁枚以詩名聞當世，創作講求性情個性，提倡「性靈說」，反對清初以來擬古和形式主義的流弊，使詩壇風氣為之一新，與蔣士銓、趙翼並稱「江右三大家」，文筆又與紀曉嵐齊名，時稱「南袁北紀」。袁枚駢散皆通，為清代駢文八大家之首，文章通發性情，兼取六朝駢儷，「駢散合一」，較桐城派通達，亦提倡女性文學。

下列其古詩《所見》。

牧童騎黃牛，

歌聲振林樾。

意欲捕鳴蟬，

忽然閉口立。

1912年11月24日德語文學大師卡夫卡在寫信給當時的未婚妻菲莉斯·鮑威爾時，引用了袁枚的《寒夜》：

寒夜讀書忘卻眠，

錦衾香盡爐無煙。

美人含怒奪燈去，

問郎知是幾更天。

袁枚《小倉山房尺牘》、許葭村《秋水軒尺牘》、龔未齋《雪鴻軒尺牘》，人稱「清代三大尺牘」。

袁枚收錄了許多鬼故事，以簡潔明暸的筆法，寫成筆記小說《子不語》，與紀曉嵐《閱微草堂筆記》齊名，兩人也曾在各自的著作中提起對方。

袁枚也是一位美食家，寫有著名的《隨園食單》，是清朝一部系統地論述烹飪技術和南北菜點的重要著作。該書出版于乾隆五十七年〈1792年〉。

家族

袁枚之妹袁機亦甚具學識，《如皋縣誌》、《杭州府志》、《清史稿·列女傳》皆有傳。袁機於乾隆二十四年（1759年）卒，袁枚八年後寫有〈祭妹文〉。

正室王氏無子，收繼袁枚姪子袁通為子。

側室陶姬，生一女。

袁枚六十餘歲時，側室鍾氏生子，袁枚賦詩曰：「六十生兒太覺遲，即將遲字喚吾兒。」，取名袁遲。袁遲（1779－1828），字真來，知名畫家，著有《畫林新詠》等，袁遲生有三子。

墓葬

袁枚在小倉山築隨園，題其室曰「小倉山房」，著《小倉山房文集》。其墓亦坐落于此，碑文「皇清誥授奉政大夫顯考袁簡齋之墓」為姚鼐所撰，民國時尚存，但在文化大革命時被毀壞，僅殘留碑址。1974年3月18日修建五台山體育館時，袁枚墓被全面清理。

逸事

據葛建初《折獄奇聞》記載，袁枚任江寧知縣期間，曾巧斷一起「裁縫之女姦殺案」。有一名裁縫之女兒被姦殺，地上有一截被咬斷的舌肉，衙役捕到一名舌傷的貨郎，並要斬首示眾。袁枚認為，兇手如在舌吻過程被咬斷舌頭，必然疼痛難忍，不可能再繼續強姦下去。所以袁枚謊稱死者託夢，即將透過纏足布顯靈，他要公開「審判那塊布」，吸引大批民眾圍觀。此時，袁枚逼迫每一個圍觀的鄉民都必須去觸碰那塊布，有兩個男子惶然不安，袁枚立刻加以拘捕，一問之下才得知，這兩名男子知貨郎因強吻少女，被咬斷舌頭之後，就跑去姦殺那名少女，心想可以嫁禍給那名貨郎，聽說「審布」奇聞，趕來觀看，誰知袁縣令智謀特高，只好甘心認罪。

袁枚與桐城派姚鼐因創作理論互相牴觸，所以被姚鼐攻擊為「詩家之惡派」，但其實袁與姚私下是好友。袁枚過世後，姚鼐深感惋惜，還不顧眾人反對，寫下《袁隨園君墓誌銘並序》，成為文壇佳話。

袁枚喜愛聲色，夜夜青樓，劉成禺《世載堂雜憶》記載，袁枚曾被嶺南詩家黎二樵批評為「大嫖客」而不見，劉成禺稱：「故《隨園詩話》中，無及二樵者。」袁枚的好友趙翼曾揶揄袁枚「占人間之艷福」、「引誘良家子女」等，還消遣他，說如有來生，袁枚會投胎成蜜蜂、蝴蝶，可以日日採花。袁枚對喜歡風月一事無所忌憚，還推崇古代名妓蘇小小，刻了一枚印章，寫著「錢塘蘇小小是鄉親」，四處蓋印。

袁枚為人放蕩不羈，又公開反對儒家、理學許多封閉的思想，當時盛傳劉墉擔任江寧府知府時，認為袁枚敗壞風俗，一度蒐集證據，要將他法辦，甚至斬首，但當時朱竹均出來講情，劉墉才沒有下手。也有人說劉墉並非要將袁枚殺死，只是要驅逐他，但是袁枚之恩師尹繼善勸阻劉墉，劉墉才停止。而後袁枚稱頌劉墉「月無芒角星先避，樹有包容鳥亦知」，劉墉一生都能背誦。不過，當事人袁枚澄清，劉墉並未與他結怨，此事子虛烏有。

注釋