Nán shǐ shíxiǎo lù 南史識小錄
A Record of Small Things Worth Knowing from the Southern History by 沈名蓀 and 朱昆田 (compilers)
About the work
The catalog title 南史識小錄 names only the Nánshǐ half; the WYG witness in fact carries both halves together — Nán shǐ shíxiǎo lù 南史識小錄 in 8 juàn and Běi shǐ shíxiǎo lù 北史識小錄 in 8 juàn — for a 16-juàn whole, co-compiled by Shěn Míngsūn 沈名蓀 of Qiántáng 錢塘 and Zhū Kūntián 朱昆田 of Xiùshuǐ 秀水 (son of Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊 朱彝尊) in the early Kāngxī era. It is explicitly modeled on Yáng Kǎn’s Liǎng Hàn bówén 兩漢博聞 KR2h0001: phrases of striking diction (xiānhuá 鮮華) and incidents of unusual interest (xīnyì 新異) are excerpted from Lǐ Yánshòu’s 李延壽 李延壽 Nánshǐ 南史 and Běishǐ 北史 KR2a0006 KR2a0007 without further annotation, the original chapter order is preserved (rather than redistributed by topic), and each catchword stands in front of its parent passage with the jìzhuàn chapter name supplied. The compilers’ purpose is plainly literary-rhetorical: the book is a chrestomathy for poets and prose-stylists looking for a cleanly-cut Northern-Southern Dynasties allusion.
Tiyao
Your servants and others respectfully report. Nán shǐ shíxiǎo lù in eight juàn and Běi shǐ shíxiǎo lù in eight juàn were jointly edited by Shěn Míngsūn 沈名蓀 and Zhū Kūntián 朱昆田 of the present dynasty (清). Míngsūn, zì Jiànfāng 澗芳, was a man of Qiántáng. Kūntián, zì Wén’àng 文盎, of Xiùshuǐ, was the son of [Zhū] Yízūn 彝尊. The book follows the model of Liǎng Hàn bówén: it takes the two histories, Nán and Běi, picks out their phrases of striking diction and incidents of unusual interest and excerpts them into a compilation. It does not classify by topic; rather, it follows the original books’ sequence and lays them out in order, noting beneath each item the jìzhuàn chapter title from which it is drawn. It also adds no glosses or interpretation: it simply selects a few characters as a catchword heading, places the parent text below, and indicates the source of the phrase.
The Wénxiàn tōngkǎo 文獻通考 quotes Chén Zhèngmǐn 陳正敏 as saying: “Lǐ Yánshòu, in writing the Nán and Běi histories, broadly grasped the proper form of historiography.” The Tángshū biography (新唐書 / 唐書本傳) likewise observes that he condensed and excised the rough wording of his sources to a degree that surpassed the parent works themselves. Yet he was overly fond of recording strange omens and prophecies, and that — in particular — was excessively cluttered. Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光 also said that Lǐ Yánshòu’s books recorded everything from auspicious signs to humorous trivia. From Shěn Yuē’s Sòngshū onward, historians had broadly competed in flaunting literary embellishment and seeking out unusual hearsay; phrasing tended toward parallel ornament and the matter was often taken from minor tales. Lǐ Yánshòu inherited these old habits without fully purging them, which historians regretted. Judged by the proper form of historiography, then, the work is somewhat off-key. But for poets gathering material and literary figures employing allusions, the work is — as one might say of a knotted burl, beautiful for its very flaw — an inexhaustible quarry: the artisan rolls out the wood-grain and prizes precisely what for the carpenter would be a defect.
Shěn Míngsūn and the others have plucked out the choicest passages and prepared them for selective use, so that lost diction and fragmentary incidents shine clearly upon opening the book. Although the compilation is by recent men, the materials it gathers are entirely Táng-era and earlier, comparable in plan to the Yìwén lèi jù 藝文類聚 and other such works. To preserve it for reference is far better than admitting many a cluttered category-book.
Reverently collated and presented, sixth month, forty-fifth year of Qiánlóng (1780).
Chief editors: your servants Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General collator: your servant Lùfèi Chí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The catalog meta dates the work to 1690, which is the date of compilation as transmitted in early-Qīng bibliographic notices and is consistent with Zhū Kūntián’s lifespan (1652–1699). Shěn Míngsūn’s lifedates are not in CBDB and are not securely known; the Sìkù tíyào gives only his native place and zì. The two compilers present themselves in their preface as exact heirs of Liǎng Hàn bówén, transferring its method (catchword + original text + chapter source, with no editorializing) onto Lǐ Yánshòu’s two great Táng-period summary histories of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Like Liǎng Hàn bówén, the result is best read as a literary tool — a way for an aspiring stylist to lay hands on the well-cut phrase or the apt anecdote without having to read 80 juàn of Nánshǐ and 100 juàn of Běishǐ first.
The tíyào couches its assessment within the long-running early-Qīng debate, going back to the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo, on the merits and demerits of Lǐ Yánshòu’s two histories: Sīmǎ Guāng and others had complained that Lǐ Yánshòu’s love of jīxiáng 機祥 and gǎolüè 譊𠘫 (auspicia and frivolous talk) cluttered his pages, and that his work continued the worst stylistic habits of Shěn Yuē’s Sòngshū and the other intervening Southern Dynasties histories. The Sìkù committee’s solution is essentially a defense of shíxiǎo itself as a respectable use of a slightly suspect parent work: the very stylistic excess that critics deplore is what makes the Nán and Běi histories such a deep quarry of allusion, and the compilers’ job here is precisely to bring the gold to the surface.
The work is the latest in the small shìchāo line in this division and the only Qīng entry; together with Liǎng Hàn bówén (Sòng) and Tōngjiàn zǒnglèi (Sòng) KR2h0001 KR2h0002 it forms a compact ‘family’ of WYG-included history-extracts, two centuries apart but methodologically twinned — Liǎng Hàn bówén on the two Hàn histories, NánBěi shǐ shíxiǎo lù on the two Yánshòu histories.
Wilkinson treats this category in Chinese History: A New Manual §49.6.1 (Shichao 史抄).
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature in Western languages located. The work is regularly cited (without monographic treatment) in studies of the Nánshǐ / Běishǐ textual tradition and of early-Qīng Zhèjiāng literary culture; in particular, it has occasional value for the history of the early Pùshū tíng 曝書亭 circle around Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊 朱彝尊, to which Zhū Kūntián naturally belonged.
Other points of interest
Note the catalog title: 南史識小錄 alone reflects only the first half. In citations, it is best to give either the full NánBěi shǐ shíxiǎo lù 南北史識小錄 or, when speaking only of one half, Nán shǐ shíxiǎo lù / Běi shǐ shíxiǎo lù with the appropriate qualifier — the WYG witness binds the two halves together as a single 16-juàn book.
Links
- 南北史識小錄 — 國學典籍網
- 朱昆田 — 中國哲學書電子化計劃
- 曝書亭集 (四部叢刊本) / 附錄一卷 — Wikisource
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §49.6.1 Shichao.