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詩札

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Text ID
KR1c0052
Date
1660–1716
Dynasty
清

Shī zhá 詩札

Letters on the Poetry by 毛奇齡 (Máo Qílíng, zì Dàkě 大可, hào Xīhé 西河, 1623–1716)

About the work

A 2-juǎn informal Shī notebook by Máo Qílíng, paired with the Máo Shī xiě guān jì (KR1c0051) as the companion piece in the same Sìkù-volume. After composing the Xiě guān jì (which framed the Shī discussions as the Shī answers of a xiě guān (transcriber-official) being recorded from memory), Máo extended the conceit by imagining himself writing letters to the xiě guān and the xiě guān writing back — hence the title Shī zhá (Letters on the Shī). 84 entries.

The tíyào of this work appears within the _000.txt file of KR1c0051 — the two works share a single block of front-matter at the front of the bound Sìkù volume. The Shī zhá is explicitly identified by the second-juǎn preface (by one of Máo’s pupils) as an early (Xīhé “shào shí” 少時) work, with readings that contradict his mature polemic conclusions, particularly on rhyme-collation; the pupil records this candidly, noting that the work has long circulated and is not now convenient to amend. The Sìkù editors register this as the work’s principal weakness — much of it does not represent Máo’s settled view — but conclude that Máo’s learning is broad enough that the wholesale rejection of the work would not be even-handed. The Hàn-period Shī tradition itself was internally pluralistic (Qí, Lǔ, Hán recensions all having their variants); a jiān shōu bìng xù (collecting widely, treating in parallel) approach is in any case the Shī-explanatory tradition’s normal method, and a useful resource for secondary scholarship.

The _000.txt file of KR1c0052 itself contains only the title and dating header (no tíyào block); the tíyào is the second half of the joint block printed at the front of the Xiě guān jì — see KR1c0051 above. Verse-by-verse tíyào translation is therefore in the entry for KR1c0051, where the original tíyào is printed.

Tiyao

See KR1c0051 for the joint tíyào of the Máo Shī xiě guān jì and the Shī zhá. The Shī zhá portion in summary: the work was composed after the Xiě guān jì (Máo extending the xiě guān conceit by writing letters of inquiry); it has 84 entries; it is identified by the work’s own pupil’s preface as a Xīhé shào shí (early-period) composition with readings contradicting Máo’s mature polemic positions, especially on rhyme-collation; the Sìkù editors note that even his pupil does not conceal this, but that the work’s evidentiary value remains substantial and its place within the jiān shōu bìng xù tradition is secure.

Abstract

The Shī zhá is the smaller, later, and more clearly early-period of the two surviving Shī notebooks of Máo Qílíng (the larger being KR1c0051 Máo Shī xiě guān jì). Composition is early in Máo’s career — pre-mature-polemic period — and the work’s place within Máo’s Shī corpus is documentary: a snapshot of his early Shī readings, including positions later abandoned. The work is dependent on the Xiě guān jì for its framing conceit (xiě guān answering letters), and the two are bound together in the WYG Sìkù recension; Sìkù tíyào is jointly printed in the _000.txt of KR1c0051.

In Máo Qílíng’s broader Shī corpus, the Shī zhá belongs alongside the Xiě guān jì, the Guófēng shěng piān, and the polemic Shī zhuàn Shī shuō bó yì (KR1c0053), and the míngwù-focused Xù Shī zhuàn niǎo míng juǎn (KR1c0054). Together these constitute the surviving fragments of his lost Máo Shī xù zhuàn in 38 juǎn.

Translations and research

No translation. As for the Xiě guān jì — see KR1c0051. The Shī zhá is referenced in standard Máo-Qílíng monographs and in Lín Qìngzhāng’s Qīngdài Shī jīng zhe shù xiàn cáng mù lù.

Other points of interest

The candor of the second-juǎn preface — Máo’s pupil openly registering that the work contradicts the master’s mature views — is unusual in early-Qīng Shī-class paratexts and registers something of the master-pupil intimacy of the Xīhé school. The Sìkù editors quote this passage approvingly.

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