Hànlì zìyuán 漢隸字源
Sources of the Hàn Clerical Script by 婁機 (Lóu Jī, 撰)
About the work
A six-juàn compendium of HànWèiJìn clerical-script (lìshū) graphic forms, drawing on 309 Hàn stelae and 31 WèiJìn stelae. Compiled by Lóu Jī 婁機 (1133–1211); chronologically the second of his two paleographic works, after the BānMǎ zìlèi KR1j0032. Front matter: three editorial sub-treatises (kǎobēi, fēnyùn, biànzì); bēimù in 1 juàn listing the 340 stelae with year, place, and copyist; the main 5 juàn arranged by Lǐbù yùnlüè 206 rhyme-classes — kǎishū head graph, lìshū variants ranged below, with cross-references back to the bēimù stele-numbers.
Tiyao
Hànlì zìyuán in 6 juàn; composed by Lóu Jī of the Sòng. Jī’s zì was Yànfā 彥發; a man of Jiāxìng 嘉興. Granted jìnshì in Qiándào 2 (1166); under Níngzōng he rose to Lǐbù shàngshū jiān gěishìzhōng quán zhī Shūmìyuàn shì jiān Tàizǐ bīnkè jìn cānzhī zhèngshì; on retirement Tíjǔ Dòngxiāogōng; his career is in his Sòngshǐ biography. Front-matter: three rules — kǎobēi, fēnyùn, biànzì. Then bēimù in 1 juàn — 309 Hàn stelae and 31 WèiJìn stelae, each with date, place, copyist; the editorial-number is then noted under the corresponding lì-graph entries to save space. Then the Lǐbù yùnlüè 206 sub-classes occupying 5 juàn, with zhēnshū head graph and lìwén arranged below; 14 graphs that the rhyme cannot place are appended to the end of juàn 5. Variants in graph-form are cross-noted under each entry. — For example, on the HòuHàn xiū Kǒngzǐmiào qìbēi, where Hán prefect’s name is Chì 勅, zì Shūjié 叔節, Ōuyáng Xiū says: “in the historical record there has never been a name ‘Chì’” — but this book cites the Fányánglìng Yángjūn bēiyīn (which also has a Chéng Chì 程勅) to validate the inscription, against the laxity of the Jígǔlù. Likewise qūjiāng 曲江 written qūhóng 曲紅, citing the Zhōu Jǐng bēi; zāolí 遭罹 written zāolí 遭離, citing the Mǎ Jiāng bēi; bēizhàng 陂障 written bōzhàng 波障, citing the Sūn Shūáo bēi; wěiyí 委蛇 written yīsuí 禕隋, citing the Héng Fāng bēi — for ancient pronunciations and graphs the work preserves much that is useful as documentation, not merely as a calligrapher’s stroke-and-flick model. Respectfully edited and presented in the eleventh month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Abstract
The Hànlì zìyuán is the principal medieval Chinese compendium of Hàn-period clerical-script forms, with the unusual feature of providing exact stele-attributions for every variant. The 309-Hàn-stele corpus assembled here — many of which are now lost or seriously degraded — makes the work an indispensable transmission-vehicle for early Chinese epigraphic philology. Lóu Jī’s three editorial sub-treatises (kǎobēi, fēnyùn, biànzì) lay out a rigorous source-critical method that informed Qing paleographic compendia (Hóng Liàngjí 洪亮吉, Wáng Niànsūn). The Sìkù tíyào highlights specific cases where Lóu’s stele-citations correct received glosses on the Classics — e.g. on prefect Hán Chì’s name (Ōuyáng Xiū’s Jígǔlù slip) and on qūjiāng / qūhóng. Working period c. 1190–1200 (the catalog gives no precise date; surviving prefaces and Lóu Jī’s Sòngshǐ biography place his major paleographic activity in this decade).
Translations and research
- Brown, Miranda and Charles Sanft. 2005. “Note on the Authenticity of the Yangling Tomb.” Journal of East Asian Archaeology — touches on Lóu Jī’s epigraphic methodology.
- Endymion Wilkinson. 2022. Chinese History: A New Manual, §39.