Sōngtíng xíng jì 松亭行紀
Travel Record of the Pine-Pavilion Pass by 高士奇 (撰)
About the work
A 2-juàn travel-and-attendance diary by Gāo Shìqí 高士奇 (1645–1703), recording his service in the suite of the Kāngxī emperor on the Kāngxī xīnyǒu 康熙辛酉 (1681) imperial tour to the Wēnquán 温泉 (Hot Springs) at Zūnhuà 遵化 — undertaken to escort the Grandmother Empress Tàihuáng tàihòu (孝莊文皇后) — and onward through Xǐfēngkǒu 喜峰口 (one of the great Yānshān 燕山 mountain-pass exits north of the Great Wall). The Wēnquán leg began on the guǐyǒu day of the second month (March 1681); the Xǐfēngkǒu exit was on the wùzǐ day of the fourth month. The title Sōngtíng refers to the ancient Sōngtíngguān 松亭關 of pre-Míng times — Gāo Shìqí, in his work, conflates Xǐfēngkǒu with Sōngtíngguān, an identification the Sìkù editors point out is incorrect: Sōngtíngguān lay 80 lǐ outside Xǐfēngkǒu. Similar inaccuracies are noted by the editors regarding the description of the Luánhé 灤河 source and the chemical composition of the hot springs (Gāo follows Sòng Tánggēng’s 宋唐庚 unsupported speculation rather than the Kāngxī emperor’s own Jǐxiá géwù biān 几暇格物編 account).
The work belongs to a sub-genre of which Gāo Shìqí was the master: the kòucóng 扈從 (“attending the imperial chariot”) record. As Nánshūfáng attendant in the early-1680s court, Gāo accompanied the Kāngxī emperor on multiple inspection tours; for each he produced a literary record (or xíngjì) — Sōngtíng xíng jì, Hùcóng dōngxún rìlù 扈從東巡日錄, Hùcóng xīxún rìlù 扈從西巡日錄 (KR2g0061), Sàiběi xiǎochāo 塞北小抄, etc. The Sìkù editors include the Sōngtíng xíng jì and the Xīxún rìlù (KR2g0061) but reject the Sàiběi xiǎochāo (which is listed only by title in the catalog).
Tiyao
Sōngtíng xíng jì in 2 juàn, by Gāo Shìqí of our dynasty. In Kāngxī xīnyǒu (1681), in the second month on the guǐyǒu day, the Sage Ancestor-Benevolent-Sovereign (Kāngxī) reverently escorted the Grandmother Empress on a tour to the hot springs; in the fourth month on the wùzǐ day, the imperial chariot exited Xǐfēngkǒu. Shìqí accompanied throughout, and so recorded the things experienced along the way back and forth. Calling Xǐfēngkǒu the ancient Sōngtíngguān, he uses this for the title of the book. Yet Sōngtíngguān lay 80 lǐ outside Xǐfēngkǒu; Shìqí conflates them as one — he had not investigated this. His description of the Luánhé source-and-course is also imprecise. As to the Wēnquán: there are three sorts — cinnabar, alum, and sulphur. The Sage Ancestor’s imperially-composed Jǐxiá géwù biān speaks of this very clearly. Shìqí, daily attending the inner court and holding the diǎnwénhàn (custodianship of the imperial draftings) office, ought not to have failed to see this; yet he still followed Sòng Tánggēng’s speculation — really inexplicable. Because his narrative of the shānchuān (mountains-and-rivers) and fēngjǐng (scenic conditions) does serve as material for verification, and because the appended poems and prose are also worth reading, his other work Sàiběi xiǎochāo is mentioned by title only [in the catalog], while this volume is included in full. Reverently presented in the third month of Qiánlóng 46 (= 1781). Chief Editors: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Sōngtíng xíng jì belongs to Gāo Shìqí’s series of kòucóng (imperial-attendance) records — a body of work that is among the most intimate first-hand documentation of Kāngxī’s imperial-circuit travels in the 1680s. Gāo Shìqí (CBDB id 30853) was at the time of the 1681 tour an attendant in the Nánshūfáng 南書房 (Inner Court Study) and one of the emperor’s most trusted Hàn-Chinese close ministers; the diary records the imperial procession’s halts, royal hunts, audience-events, the Buddhist and Daoist sites along the way, the topography and economic conditions of the Chángchéng (Great Wall) frontier through Zūnhuà 遵化 and Xǐfēngkǒu, and Gāo’s own court poetic exchanges with fellow officials.
The work’s composition is firmly bracketed by the 1681 events — the diary records what was experienced day by day. Like other Gāo kòucóng records, it was written up shortly after the events; a defensible window is 1681 (during and immediately after the tour) through c. 1685 (within Gāo’s most active Nánshūfáng period, before he gathered his kòucóng records into a unified collection later in the 1680s). The work circulated in two recensions (a longer Sàiběi xiǎochāo and the present condensed Sōngtíng xíng jì); the Sìkù editors selected this version.
The Sìkù editors’ criticisms of Gāo’s geographical and chemical inaccuracies are notable: they reflect the Qiánlóng court’s heightened standards for kǎozhèng and the expectation, by 1781, that even xíngjì (travel records) be empirically rigorous. The Kāngxī-period text falls short of Qiánlóng-period standards but remains a valuable literary-and-political source for the early Kāngxī court’s imperial-circuit performances.
Translations and research
- No substantial English-language secondary literature located on this work specifically. Treated in passing in studies of Gāo Shìqí’s career and of Kāngxī-period imperial tours.
- Jonathan D. Spence, Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K’ang-hsi (Knopf, 1974), provides background context for Kāngxī-period imperial tours.
- Hummel 1943, s.v. Kao Shih-ch’i, gives a biographical profile of Gāo Shìqí including his kòu-cóng writings.
- The Sì-kù tíyào notice is in 史部·傳記類四·雜錄之屬.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s reference to the Kāngxī emperor’s Jǐxiá géwù biān 几暇格物編 (Records of Investigations During Leisure Hours) — the Kāngxī emperor’s own collection of natural-historical and scientific observations — is a useful reminder that the Kāngxī court was actively producing first-rate Chinese empirical natural-historical writing concurrently with the imported Western scientific tradition (Verbiest, Pereira, etc.) of the period. The Tíyào’s implicit rebuke — that Gāo, who served daily in the Nánshūfáng and could not have failed to see the imperial work, nevertheless preferred Sòng Tánggēng’s speculation — captures the late-Qiánlóng Sìkù compilers’ impatience with imperially-favored Hàn-Chinese officials of the early Kāngxī court who failed to keep pace with the emperor’s own exacting standards.
Links
- CBDB person id 30853 (Gāo Shìqí 高士奇, 1645–1703).
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §50.