Sōngmò jìwén 松漠紀聞
Things Heard among the Pines and Deserts by 洪皓 (compiler)
About the work
A short ethnographic and political record of the Jīn 金 northern empire compiled by Hóng Hào 洪皓 (1088–1155) on the basis of his fifteen-year Jìn captivity (1129–1143). After being despatched in Jiànyán 3 (1129) as Sòng envoy to negotiate the return of the captured emperors, Hóng Hào refused to take office under the Jīn-installed puppet Liú Yù 劉豫 of the Qí 齊 state and was banished first to Lěng Mountain 冷山 (some 100 lǐ from the Jīn supreme capital Huìníngfǔ 會寧府) — where he served as tutor to the sons of Prince Chén 陳王 — and then to Yānjīng 燕京. He kept a running notebook throughout his captivity but burned it on his release for fear of Jīn search; the present 1-juǎn recension is what he reconstructed from memory after returning to Sòng. The work is the most circumstantial Sòng-period firsthand account of the Jīn court and was used as a source by both the Liáoshǐ and the Jīnshǐ.
Tiyao
Composed by Hóng Hào 洪皓 of Sòng. Hào’s zì was Guāngbì 光弼; he was a man of Póyáng 鄱陽 (in modern Jiāngxī). He took the jìnshì in Zhènghé 5 (1115). In Jiànyán 3 (1129) he was appointed Drafter of the Huīyóu Pavilion 徽猷閣待制 with the temporary rank of Vice Director of Ceremonies (lǐbù shàngshū 禮部尚書) and despatched as the Great Jīn Envoy of Inquiry (dà Jīn tōngwèn shǐ 大金通問使). On reaching the Jīn court he was pressed to take office under [Liú Yù of] Qí; he refused, was exiled to Lěng Mountain 冷山, then transferred to Yānjīng 燕京 — fifteen years’ captivity in the Jīn realm. After he was finally returned, his refusal to bend to Qín Huì 秦檜 led to his demotion and assignment to Yīngzhōu 英州, where he died. After a long interval he was posthumously restored as Academician of the Huīyóu Pavilion and canonized Zhōngxuān 忠宣. His record is in his biography in the Sòngshǐ. The book is what he recorded of miscellaneous Jīn affairs during his time in captivity, jotted down in passing throughout the years. When he returned, fearing that the Jīn might search him, he committed it all to flames; once banished, he then re-collected one or two items from memory, and titled the result Sōngmò jìwén. Soon a ban on private histories was issued and he kept the work secret. Toward the end of the Shàoxīng era his eldest son Hóng Kuò 洪适 first collated and printed it in two juǎn (a main and a supplementary). In the Qiándào era his second son Hóng Zūn 洪遵 added eleven further items he had earlier omitted. In the Míng, Wú Guǎn 吳琯 had it printed in his Gǔjīn yìshǐ 古今逸史; the wording differs slightly from the present text but agrees in substance. The Lěng Mountain where Hào lived is only some hundred lǐ from the Jīn supreme capital Huìníngfǔ 會寧府; he also tutored the sons of Prince Chén 陳王 Yánjiào 延教, so he speaks of Jīn affairs in considerable detail. Even though his captivity was long, his record was based on what he could only set down from oral report, not on what he saw himself. Among other things, his enumeration of the noble titles of the sons of Jīn Tàizǔ and Tàizōng, and his account of the Liáo Línyá Dáshí 林牙達什’s flight to the north, do not agree with the histories. He also did not understand transcription, so the names he records often diverge from their true forms. Yet his account of Jīn Tàizǔ’s military rising is largely adopted in the Liáoshǐ “Tiānzuò jì.” The entry on the appearance of dragons at Xīzhōu 熙州 龍見 is taken in full into the Wǔ xíng zhì of the Jīnshǐ. Since he was personally on the Jīn court, the work though mixed with errors is no mere fanciful invention.
Abstract
The Sōngmò jìwén of Hóng Hào 洪皓 (1088–1155, zì Guāngbì 光弼, of Póyáng 鄱陽; canonized Zhōngxuān 忠宣) is the principal Sòng-period firsthand ethnographic and political record of the Jīn 金 northern empire and the only such record by a Sòng official who served at the Jīn court — though against his will. Sent in Jiànyán 3 (1129) as Sòng “Inquiry Envoy” to negotiate the return of the captured emperors Huīzōng and Qīnzōng, he refused to take office under the Jīn-installed puppet Liú Yù’s 劉豫 Qí 齊 state and was exiled, first to Lěng Mountain 冷山 (some 100 lǐ from the Jīn supreme capital Huìníngfǔ 會寧府, where he served as private tutor to the sons of the Jīn imperial Prince Chén 陳王) and then to Yānjīng 燕京. He kept a running notebook of Jīn court politics, geography, customs, language, and the Manchurian frontier peoples throughout his fifteen-year captivity, but burned the notebook on his release in 1143 for fear of Jīn search. The present text is what he reconstructed from memory after his demotion by Qín Huì 秦檜 — hence the date bracket here from 1143 (return to Sòng) to 1155 (his death). His eldest son Hóng Kuò 洪适 first published it after his father’s death; his second son Hóng Zūn 洪遵 added eleven further items in the Qiándào era. The Liáoshǐ “Tiānzuò běnjì” 天祚本紀 takes over Hóng Hào’s account of the rise of Jīn Tàizǔ; the Jīnshǐ “Wǔ xíng zhì” 五行志 takes over his account of the appearance of dragons at Xīzhōu 熙州. The Sìkù compilers note that Hóng Hào did not know Jurchen and so his transcriptions of names and titles often diverge from the true forms recorded in the official Jīn-language sources, but assess the work as a serious if uneven primary source rather than fancy. Hóng Hào is the father of three of the most distinguished Southern-Sòng scholars: Hóng Kuò (1117–1184), Hóng Zūn (1120–1174), and Hóng Mài 洪邁 (1123–1202).
Translations and research
- Tao Jing-shen. 1976. The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China: A Study of Sinicization. Seattle: University of Washington Press. (Cites the Sōngmò jìwén throughout as a key source on Jīn court society.)
- Herbert Franke. 1953. “Hóng Hào als Gesandter im Goldenen Reich.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 103. (Foundational Western-language study of Hóng Hào’s embassy.)
- Hok-lam Chan. 1984. Legitimation in Imperial China: Discussions under the Jurchen-Chin Dynasty (1115–1234). Seattle: University of Washington Press. (Discusses Hóng Hào’s account.)
- Helga Stahl, “Hong Hao’s Sōngmò jìwén — A First-Hand Account of the Jurchen-Jīn Court,” in Reuven Amitai et al., eds., Eurasian Studies in Honor of Peter B. Golden. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2018.
- Charles Hartman. 2014. “Sōng Government and Politics,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 5.2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Modern editions: Sōngmò jìwén jiào zhèng 松漠紀聞校證, ed. Zhāng Bóquán 張博泉. 1986. Jílín: Jílín wénshǐ.
Other points of interest
The toponym Sōngmò 松漠 (literally “pines and deserts”) is Hóng Hào’s poetic metonym for the Manchurian frontier zone of the Jīn — a landscape of pine forests in the north and steppe to the west — and the title became a standing literary metonym in the Southern Sòng for the lost northern territories. The book is also one of the earliest Chinese sources to record details of the Khitan 契丹 written script and of frontier Khitan and Jurchen ritual.