ShàoTáo lù 紹陶錄
Record of Continuing in the Tradition of Táo [Yuān-míng] by 王質 (撰)
About the work
A two-juàn compilation by Wáng Zhì 王質 (zì Jǐngwén 景文, hào Xuěshān 雪山, 1135–1189), the Sòng kuángzhí 狂直 (“madly-honest”) official, jìnshì of Shàoxīng 30 (1160), poet and Shījīng scholar best known for his Shī zǒngwén 詩總聞 (KR1c0014). The book takes its title from Wáng’s emulation of Táo Yuānmíng 陶淵明 and Táo Hóngjǐng 陶弘景, both of whom abandoned office and withdrew from the world; the project, dating from Wáng’s enforced retirement in the Chúnxī period (1174 onward) when he held a sinecure shrine post (fèngcí 奉祠), seeks to extend the tradition by gathering parallel materials on two of Wáng’s contemporaries who lived in the same recluse mode — Táng Rǔzhōu 唐汝舟 and Lù Bókě 鹿伯可. The upper juàn contains Wáng’s Lìlǐ pǔ 栗里譜 (Táo Yuānmíng’s niánpǔ) and Huáyáng pǔ 華陽譜 (Táo Hóngjǐng’s niánpǔ), with for each pǔ a selection of yíwén yíshì 遺文遺事 (surviving writings and anecdotes) headlined by topical titles, each topic answered by Wáng with a cí 詞 lyric. The lower juàn contains anecdotes about Táng Rǔzhōu and Lù Bókě, followed by a sequence of cí-lyrics on the natural world: Shān yǒu cí 山友詞 (mountain birds), Shuǐ yǒu cí 水友詞 (water birds), Shān yǒu xùcí 山友續詞 (mountain plants), Shuǐ yǒu xùcí 水友續詞 (water plants), and Shānshuǐ yǒu xùcí 山水友續詞 (a miscellaneous coda on insects, fish, and other small fauna). The work is at once a zhuànjì (under which heading the Sìkù place it), a poetry collection, and a Sòng instance of the late-Six-Dynasties yǐnyì 隱逸 anthology genre.
Tiyao
ShàoTáo lù in two juàn, by Wáng Zhì of the Sòng. Zhì has the Shī zǒngwén listed elsewhere. In the Chúnxī period he was on shrine duty (fèngcí) and lived among the mountains. Because both Táo Yuānmíng and Táo Hóngjǐng abandoned office and renounced the world, and because his contemporaries Táng Rǔzhōu and Lù Bókě continued in their style, he composed this book. The upper juàn contains the Lìlǐ and Huáyáng niánpǔ, each with selected fragments of writing and anecdote serving as topics for the lyrics he composes; the lower juàn records the affairs of Táng and Lù, with poems on plants and creatures of the recluse setting appended. The Shān yǒu cí sing mountain birds; the Shuǐ yǒu cí sing water birds; the Shān yǒu xùcí sing mountain plants; the Shuǐ yǒu xùcí sing water plants; the Shānshuǐ yǒu xùcí mix songs on small fauna. Zhì had been driven from the active world by his honest defiance of the times and the malice of court favourites; in his late years he wished to cut off all human contact and flee the world, and he therefore took the birds, beasts, and plants for his friends — these are essentially poems of frustration. The work used to circulate separately from the Xuěshān jí 雪山集. In our dynasty’s Kāngxī period, Sòng Luò 宋犖 of Shāngqiū 商邱 extracted the Shān yǒu group of pieces in five juàn and re-titled the result Línquán jiéqì 林泉結契, also for its lodging of feeling beyond the dust of the world. Examined now, the pieces in the lù, though full of his peculiar voice, often fall short of strict prosodic rule; yet his moral character was lofty and his cogitations distinctive, so to read them is to taste flavours beyond ordinary salt and sour. Reverently presented in the eleventh month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Chief Editors: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Wáng Zhì (CBDB id 22799, 1135–1189; the catalog meta and the Sìkù tiyao give the conventional 1127–1189 range, but external biographical literature prefers 1135–1189 — followed in the person note) is one of the more striking minor figures of the late-Sòng kuángzhí tradition. His extant works include the Shī zǒngwén 詩總聞 (a substantial study of the Shījīng), the Xuěshān jí 雪山集 (literary collection), and this ShàoTáo lù. The compilation date is uncertain; it must fall in the Chúnxī period (1174–1189) when Wáng was on shrine duty (and so cannot pre-date 1174). The work is one of the more distinctive Sòng instances of the yǐnyì niánpǔ (recluse year-by-year biography) genre — Wáng builds niánpǔ of the two Táos and supplements them with his own cí lyrics, a hybrid that has no precise parallel in earlier Chinese literature. The Qīng Sìkù editors classify the work under zhuànjì·míngrénzhīshǔ despite its strong literary character because the niánpǔ of the two Táos provide its biographical core. Sòng Luò’s 宋犖 (1634–1713) Línquán jiéqì — a partial Kāngxī re-edition of just the bird-and-plant lyrics — circulated separately and is sometimes confused with the original.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language translation located. The work is briefly noted in Cài Méi-bīn 蔡梅彬, Wáng Zhì jí qí Shī Zǒng-wén yán-jiū 王質及其詩總聞研究 (Taipei, 1992) and similar studies on Wáng’s Shījīng scholarship; the Sì-kù tíyào notice is in 史部·傳記類二·名人之屬.
Other points of interest
The book’s idiosyncratic combination of niánpǔ, anecdote, and cí-lyric on natural-history topoi makes it a singular Sòng experiment in the form of the recluse-genre anthology. Its incorporation of niánpǔ of Táo Yuānmíng (the Lìlǐ pǔ) and Táo Hóngjǐng (the Huáyáng pǔ) is independently of value as a witness to Sòng-period scholarship on the two Táos.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- CBDB person id (Wáng Zhì 王質, 1127–1189).