Cānluán lù 驂鸞錄
Record of Driving Alongside the Phoenix by 范成大 (撰)
About the work
A 1-juàn travel diary recording Fàn Chéngdà’s 范成大 (1126–1193) journey from Wújùn 吳郡 (Sūzhōu) to Jìngjiāngfǔ 靜江府 (modern Guìlín 桂林, Guǎngxī) — a roughly three-month overland-and-river itinerary covering c. 3,000 lǐ, from the seventh day of the twelfth month of Qiándào 8 rénchén 乾道壬辰 (1172) to the tenth day of the third month of Guǐsì 癸巳 (1173). Fàn had just been promoted from Zhōngshūshèrén 中書舍人 (Drafter in the Secretariat) to Zhī Jìngjiāngfǔ / Jīnglüè ānfǔshǐ 經畧安撫使 — i.e., civil and military governor of Guǎngxī. The title Cānluán 驂鸞 (“driving alongside the phoenix”) is taken from Hán Yù’s 韓愈 verse “yuǎn shèng dēng xiān qù, fēi luán bù xiá cān” 逺勝登仙去飛鸞不暇驂 — Hán’s Sòng Huì shī 送惠詩 line praising Guìlín’s marvels as exceeding even apotheosis.
The work is an exemplar of Sòng rìjì 日記 / xíngjì 行紀 literature, written in spare elegant prose, dating each leg to the day and recording successive river-station and inn-stops, monumental sites, local antiquities, conversations with friends and officials encountered en route, and the textual / epigraphic peculiarities Fàn examined. Notable features: an extended critique (under Wúxī 浯溪 in Yǒngzhōu 永州) of Huáng Tíngjiān’s 黃庭堅 reading of Yuán Jié’s 元結 Zhōngxīng sòng 中興頌; a discussion of Wúshí 吳時 reign-titles preserved in the Yǎngshān 仰山 stone-tablet (raising the otherwise-undocumented question of Bǎodà 寳大 chronology used by Yáng Xíngmì’s 楊行密 Wú polity, possibly adopted briefly by Qiánshì of Wúyuè 吳越); a vivid record of his stop at Shílín 石林, the abandoned country estate of the late Yè Mèngdé 葉夢得 in Húzhōu; and a moving farewell to his nurse Xú and his sister at Yúháng 餘杭. The book closes with a note that fuller treatment of Lǐngnán fēngtǔ (local conditions) is in his subsequently-composed Guìhǎi yúhéng zhì 桂海虞衡志.
Tiyao
Cānluán lù in 1 juàn, by Fàn Chéngdà of the Sòng. Chéngdà’s Wújùn zhì 吳郡志 has already been catalogued. This work was composed when in Qiándào rénchén (1172) he proceeded from his post as Zhōngshūshèrén to take up office as Magistrate of Jìngjiāngfǔ; he records along the way what he saw and met. The title Cānluán takes its expression from Hán Yù’s verse “yuǎn shèng dēng xiān qù, fēi luán bù xiá cān”. At the end of the book is a notice: “as for the detailed fēngtǔ, there is the Guìhǎi yúhéng zhì”. Now, the Yúhéng zhì was composed when he transferred from Guìlín to Chéngdū as commander; it had not yet existed when he first arrived in Yuè (Lǐngnán). So this book too was probably amended and polished retrospectively. Within, the narrative is ranked-and-elegant; his discussion of Yuán Jié’s Wúxī Zhōngxīng sòng — refuting Huáng Tíngjiān’s harsh reading — particularly captures the zhōnghòu (loyal-and-thoughtful) intent proper to a poet. His record of Yǎngshān zìzhōngmiào 仰山字忠廟 — that there is a Yángshì 楊氏 reference dated Wú time, with bestowal of Sītú and a bamboo-roll inscription bearing the year Bǎodà 寳大 元年, and his earlier finding from a Wújiāng 吳江 cūnsì (village-temple) stone zhuàng 石幢 also using Bǎodà — leads him to suspect that the Qiánshì Wúyuè polity may have temporarily used the Yángshì (i.e., Wú) calendar, and he uses these two material witnesses as evidence. However, examining the histories: Qián and Yáng repeatedly attacked one another with mutual victories and defeats; their power was evenly matched, with no question of Qián submitting as vassal to Wú-Huáinán. Moreover the Yángshì did itself have Wǔyì, Shùnyì, Qiánzhēn, Tàihé reign titles. The Wúyuè Bǎodà corresponds in date to Shùnyì 4 / 5; nor would there have been a “one polity, two reign-titles” arrangement. What Chéngdà saw was likely later forgery. Wú Rènchén’s 吳任臣 Shíguó chūnqiū jǐyuán biǎo did not address-and-refute this; doubtless because he had not consulted this book. Reverently presented in the eleventh month of Qiánlóng 46 (= 1781). Chief Editors: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Cānluán lù is one of three principal travel diaries by Fàn Chéngdà, the others being his northern-mission Lánpèi lù 攬轡錄 (KR2g0033 in this catalog, 1170) and his subsequent return diary Wúchuán lù 吳船錄 (KR2g0055, 1177). All three are foundational works in Chinese travel-diary literature; the Cānluán lù is the second of the three by composition. Fàn began the journey on 1172.12.07 and arrived at Guìlín on 1173.03.10; the diary’s coverage thus spans 1172–1173, but as the Sìkù notice points out, the closing reference to Fàn’s Guìhǎi yúhéng zhì (which was composed only after his 1175 transfer to Chéngdū) shows that the present recension was retroactively polished — yielding a defensible composition window of 1172–1175. The standard scholarly dating runs: travel diary 1172.12 – 1173.03; literary-textual revisions 1173–1175.
The work’s principal contributions: (i) the most detailed surviving Sòng eyewitness account of an official’s overland passage from Lower Yangtze to Lǐngnán via the Língqú 靈渠 / Yánguān 嚴關 corridor, with route information unavailable elsewhere; (ii) extensive on-site notes on epigraphy and antiquities (Wúxī Zhōngxīng sòng; Yǎngshān 仰山 stone tablets; Yúxī 愚溪 and Liǔ Zōngyuán’s Bājì sites; the Téngwánggé 滕王閣 then ruined and used as a vintners’ shop, etc.); (iii) Fàn’s polemical refutation of Huáng Tíngjiān’s reading of the Zhōngxīng sòng — Fàn argues that Yuán Jié’s encomium follows the jìng (panegyric) genre’s prescription against satire-of-the-honoured, and that Huáng’s reading “pī Sùzōng” (criticizing Sùzōng) imports a satirical reading alien to the form. This excursus is one of the finest Sòng jīngyì (formal-genre) discussions; (iv) the Bǎodà discussion provides material evidence for Wú reign-titles in eastern Zhèjiāng — a question still partially open in modern Shíguó historiography.
Translations and research
- James M. Hargett, Riding the river home: A complete and annotated translation of Fan Chengda’s (1120–1193) diary of a boat trip to Wu (Wuchuan lu 吳船錄*)* (Chinese University Press, 2008) — a complete annotated translation of the Wú-chuán lù and a detailed analysis of Fàn’s diary corpus, including the Cān-luán lù. (Hargett gives Fàn’s birth year as 1120, but standard CBDB and Sòng shǐ-derived dating is 1126; followed here.)
- James M. Hargett, Stairway to Heaven: A Journey to the Summit of Mount Emei (SUNYP, 2006) — translates the relevant Wú-chuán lù passages on Éméi-shān and discusses Fàn’s travel-diary corpus.
- James M. Hargett, Jade Mountains and Cinnabar Pools: The History of Travel Literature in Imperial China (UWP, 2018), the standard modern history of the yóu-jì genre in Chinese literature, with extensive treatment of Fàn.
- The Sì-kù tíyào notice is in 史部·傳記類四·雜錄之屬.
Other points of interest
The work’s Bǎodà discussion is methodologically interesting: Fàn argues from material evidence — bamboo-tablet inscription at Yǎngshān, stone-banner inscription at a Wújiāng village temple — to challenge the standard Shíguó reign-title chronology. The Sìkù editors (writing in 1781) push back, arguing on doctrinal grounds that Wúyuè (Qiánshì) could not have temporarily used the Wú (Yángshì) calendar; modern epigraphy and numismatics, however, have largely vindicated Fàn’s instinct that local calendrical practice in this period was more fluid than orthodox histories indicate. This is one of the rare cases where a Sòng travel diary provides primary epigraphic evidence for Shíguó chronology.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §62.3.3.3 (Sòng diaries) and §62.5.2 (SòngJīn diplomatic missions).
- Hargett 2008, 2006, 2018 (as above).
- CBDB person id 7211 (Fàn Chéngdà 范成大, 1126–1193).