征南錄

Zhēngnán lù 征南錄

A Record of the Southern Expedition by 滕甫 (撰)

About the work

A short single-juàn eyewitness account of the Huángyòu 4 (1052) campaign against the Nóng Zhìgāo 儂智高 rebellion in Guǎngyuánzhōu 廣源州 (modern Yongning, Guangxi) and the subsequent breakthroughs by the Sòng commanders Sūn Miǎn 孫沔 and Dí Qīng 狄青 — culminating in their victory at Guīrénpù 歸仁舖 in early 1053. By Téng Fǔ 滕甫 (better known under his later name Téng Yuánfā 滕元發, 1020–1090, of Dōngyáng 東陽 in Wúzhōu 婺州). The cover’s jiéxián 結銜 (full official-title line) at the head of the volume reads 承奉郎守大理評事通判湖州軍州事滕甫 — the rank of Chéngfèngláng and post of Tōngpàn of Húzhōu confirming that the manuscript was composed before he later resumed his original name Yuánfā (which he had earlier altered to Fǔ to avoid the personal-name taboo of the imperial relative GāoLǔwáng 高魯王). The work’s narrative purpose is unmistakable: Téng Fǔ argues that Sūn Miǎn (the Ānfǔshǐ, who arrived first and made all the strategic preparations and even brokered field-cooperation with Dí Qīng) deserved the credit that contemporary opinion and later official historiography gave principally to Dí Qīng, whose xuānfǔshǐ commission and reward were disproportionate to his actual contribution. Sūn had been Téng’s patron when Téng served as Magistrate of Hángzhōu, and Téng’s allegiance is open: the work is a biàn (defense / vindication) addressed to posterity.

Tiyao

Zhēngnán lù in 1 juàn, by Téng Fǔ of the Sòng. Fǔ’s original courtesy name was Yuánfā 元發; in order to avoid the personal-name taboo of GāoLǔwáng 高魯王 (= the Sòng imperial relative), he changed his courtesy name into his given name (using Fǔ 甫 as personal name and Dádào 達道 as courtesy name); a Dōngyáng man, he passed the jìnshì and rose through office to be Lóngtúgé xuéshì, with posthumous title Zhāngmǐn 章敏. His career is fully recorded in his Sòng shǐ biography. This recension carries at the head a single line of official titles: “Chéngfèngláng shǒu Dàlǐ Píngshì Tōngpàn Húzhōu Jūnzhōu shì Téng Fǔ” — evidently he had not yet changed his name back at the time of composition. The book records the events of Huángyòu 4 (1052), when Sūn Miǎn pacified the Nóng Zhìgāo rebellion. At the time, Sūn was Ānfǔ, Dí Qīng was Xuānfǔshǐ. Sūn and Qīng held joint consultation, advanced and broke Zhìgāo at Guīrénpù; Sūn remained behind to administer the aftermath. When the army returned, Yú Jìng 余靖 inscribed a stele at Chángshā monopolizing the credit for Dí Qīng; the court likewise made Qīng Shūmìshǐ with lavish rewards, while Sūn was given only a one-grade promotion. Fǔ holds that the southern expedition’s strategy fundamentally originated from Sūn’s planning; that Sūn’s preparations (deployment, logistics) were prescient; and that he was even able to defer to Dí Qīng — and yet the bandit rout was achieved nonetheless. So Téng wrote this book to praise Sūn’s achievements. Sūn had been Magistrate of Hángzhōu, where he had recognized Téng Fǔ’s talent and entrusted him with difficult commissions; the friendship was deep, and Fǔ undertook strenuously to vindicate him in this way. On examining the Sòng shǐ, the events of the campaign against Nóng Zhìgāo are also detailed in the biography of Dí Qīng, and the biography of Sūn is rather skimpy. However, the Sòng shǐ yìwénzhì 宋史藝文志 and Mǎ Duānlín’s 馬端臨 Jīngjí kǎo 經籍考 both record this work — showing that contemporaries did not regard it as fictitious. So this is also something that scholars of the Sòng shǐ should consult for cross-verification. Reverently presented in the eighth month of Qiánlóng 42 (= 1777). Chief Editors: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

The Zhēngnán lù is a short, vivid, and partisan field-narrative of one of the most consequential military campaigns of the Northern Sòng — the suppression of Nóng Zhìgāo’s 儂智高 rebellion of 1052–1053, in which a Zhuàng (壯) leader of the Yōngzhōu 邕州 borderland erupted into the Lingnan region, sacked Yōngzhōu, captured Guǎngzhōu (廣州, modern Guangzhou) for several months, and was eventually defeated at Guīrénpù 歸仁舖 (north of Yōngzhōu) by combined Sòng forces under Sūn Miǎn and Dí Qīng. Compositionally the Zhēngnán lù is bracketed by the events themselves (1052–53) and by Téng Fǔ’s later official biography in the Sòng shǐ — the colophon gives him the rank he held c. 1052–1054 — yielding a defensible window of 1052–1054 for composition, soon after the campaign concluded.

The work’s interest is fourfold: (i) as a contemporary, eyewitness, partisan source written by a junior official with personal access to Sūn Miǎn and to court deliberations during the crisis (Téng describes overhearing zǎixiàng Chén Zhízhōng 陳執中’s resistance to Sūn’s logistics requests and the emperor’s eventual override); (ii) as a counter-source to Dí Qīng’s later official glorification, exposing the role Sūn played in the planning, the selection of jiāngzú 將佐 like Lǐ Dìng 李定 and his seven martial sons, the specific tactical innovations (long-knife and great-axe deployment against Nóng’s bāipáiniǎnqiāng 蠻牌捻鎗 close-formation infantry), and the post-victory administrative reforms in Yōngzhōu (renaming the new northern gate Guīrénmén 歸仁門, expanding rotation-troop tours, opening the Bóyìwù 博易務 commodity exchange to local Mán/壯 communities); (iii) as moral commentary on Sūn’s xià Dí Qīng (deferring to Dí), refusing personal credit, and asking only to retire after the campaign; and (iv) as the lone Sòng eyewitness account on which the Sòng shǐ yìwénzhì and Mǎ Duānlín’s Jīngjí kǎo both rely. Modern scholars of Lǐngnán military history and of the Càoshì/Nóngshì Zhuàng polities draw extensively from this short text.

Translations and research

• James A. Anderson, The Rebel Den of Nùng Trí Cao: Loyalty and Identity along the Sino-Vietnamese Frontier (UWP, 2007) treats the campaign of 1052–53 in detail and uses the Zhēng-nán lù as a primary source.
• F. W. Mote, Imperial China 900–1800 (HUP, 1999), pp. 130–136 discusses the campaign within the broader Northern Sòng frontier-management context.
• Kuhn, Dieter, The Age of Confucian Rule (HUP, 2009), references the campaign and Dí Qīng’s emergence.
• The Sì-kù tíyào notice is in 史部·傳記類四·雜錄之屬.

Other points of interest

Téng Fǔ’s name-changes — Yuánfā → Fǔ (to avoid the GāoLǔwáng taboo) → Yuánfā (when the taboo lapsed) — are discussed at the head of the Sìkù notice and provide a useful index of the work’s date: the cover’s jiéxián still gives “Téng Fǔ,” confirming pre-name-restoration composition. The work also preserves striking lateral details: Sūn Miǎn’s pre-campaign warning to Emperor Rénzōng that Nóng Zhìgāo was being underestimated by the Guǎngdōng shǐzhě Bào Kē 鮑軻; Sūn’s analogy comparing the rebellion to Huáng Cháo’s 黃巢 1300-man rebellion that had once swept Lǐngnán; and the picturesque tactical innovation of the long-knife / great-axe formation that broke the Mán close-rank infantry — a detail that became a topos in later Sòng military writing.

Links

• Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §50.
• Sòng shǐ j.332 (Téng Yuánfā biography).
• Sòng shǐ j.290 (Dí Qīng); j.288 (Sūn Miǎn).