Jiāngnán Yěshǐ 江南野史
Unofficial History of Jiāng-nán (the Southern Táng) by 龍袞 (撰)
About the work
The Jiāngnán Yěshǐ, in 10 juàn (the original was 20 juàn, with 84 biographies, of which only ~34 survive), is an early-Sòng “wild” / unofficial history of the Southern Táng 南唐 (937–975) by 龍袞 Lóng Gǔn (career undocumented). The book uses jìzhuàn (annals-and-biography) form without explicit chapter labels: juàn 1 is reserved for 李昪 Xiānzhǔ 先主, juàn 2 for 李璟 Sìzhǔ 嗣主, juàn 3 for 李煜 Hòuzhǔ 後主 (with a brief notice on Yíchūnwáng Cóngqiān 宜春王從謙 and on the Xiǎozhōuhòu 小周后 — Lǐ Yù’s queen consort), juàn 4–10 for assorted statesmen and poets including 宋齊邱 Sòng Qíqiū, 陳陶 Chén Táo, and 孟賓于 Mèng Bīnyú. Several biographies prominent in the historical record (notably 查文徽 Zhā Wénhuī and 韓熙載 Hán Xīzǎi) are missing from the surviving text. The Sìkù editors describe the prose as “verbose and disorganized” but record that 馬令 and 陸游 both drew on it for their later NánTáng shū recensions.
Tiyao
By Lóng Gǔn 龍袞 of the Sòng. Gǔn’s official rank and place of origin are not preserved. The book records the events of Southern Táng using the form of jìzhuàn — annals and biography — but without using those words as chapter headings, on the model of Chén Shòu’s Sānguó zhì on Wú and Shǔ. Juàn 1 is for Xiānzhǔ Lǐ Biàn 昪; juàn 2 for Sìzhǔ Lǐ Jǐng 璟; juàn 3 for Hòuzhǔ Lǐ Yù 煜, with appended notices on Yíchūnwáng Cóngqiān 宜春王從謙 and the Xiǎozhōuhòu 小周后. Juàn 4 onwards: Sòng Qíqiū 宋齊邱 and below, only some thirty figures, including biographies of Chén Táo 陳陶 and Mèng Bīnyú 孟賓于. Yet 查文徽 Zhā Wénhuī, 韓熙載 Hán Xīzǎi, and other major Southern-Táng figures are absent. Zhèng Qiáo 鄭樵 Tōngzhì lüè 通志略 lists the book in 20 juàn — the present text is missing 10. Cháo Gōngwǔ’s 晁公武 Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì lists 84 biographies — the present text is missing 50. From repeated transcription, more than half is gone. Qián Zēng’s Dúshū mǐnqiú jì lists 10 juàn — already in the Míng there was no complete text. Qián Zēng describes the prose as shànyǎ 贍雅 (“rich and elegant”); but in our reading the biographies are verbose, disorganized, and depart from historical-prose norms. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí, citing the anonymous Jiāngnán yúzǎi 江南餘載 KR2i0012 preface, censures Lóng’s book heavily — at the time the disorder of the work was already a target of criticism. Huáng Cháoyīng’s 黃朝英 Jìngkāng Xiāngsù zájì 靖康緗素雜記 catches it in factual errors: on the seniority of Jiāng wáng 江王 and the ancestry of the Southern Táng house; on a poem of the língrén 伶人 李家明 Lǐ Jiāmíng on the yuànzhōng yǒngniú 苑中詠牛 and Wǎngōngshān 皖公山, where the man and the dynasty named conflict with 楊億 Yáng Yì’s Tányuàn 談苑 attributing the same poem to 王感化 Wáng Gǎnhuà and to Sìzhǔ Lǐ Jǐng; on Jiāmíng’s yǔjù 雨懼 anecdote on rain-tax, where the NánTáng jìnshì 南唐近事 attributes the same anecdote to 申漸高 Shēn Jiàngāo. Wáng Mào’s 王楙 Yěkè cóngshū catches it on the death of 陳陶 Chén Táo: it has Chén Táo “ascend to immortality” while elsewhere 曹松 Cáo Sōng and 方干 Fāng Gān both wrote kūTáo poems mourning his death. Yet the biographies of 孫晟 Sūn Shèng and 林文肇 Lín Wénzhào (rare elsewhere) and others differ from the Wǔdàishǐ in ways that are useful for cross-comparison; Mǎ Lìng’s and Lù Yóu’s NánTáng shū both cite it at length. The book is long-transmitted and not to be discarded.
Abstract
龍袞 Lóng Gǔn was an early-Sòng historian of obscure career; nothing of his official appointment, native place, or family is preserved. Composition belongs to the late 10th / early 11th century — after the fall of Southern Táng (975) but reflecting Northern-Sòng Jiāyòu-era and earlier scholarly activity (the bibliographic record traces it through Zhèng Qiáo’s Tōngzhì). The original work in 20 juàn with 84 biographies is reduced in the present text to 10 juàn with about 34 biographies. The book is a primary source for the figures it does preserve: the founder 李昪 Lǐ Biàn (Xú Zhīgào 徐知誥), the second ruler 李璟 Lǐ Jǐng, the last ruler 李煜 Lǐ Yù, 宋齊邱 Sòng Qíqiū the great minister, and the poet 陳陶 Chén Táo. It is also an important quarry of literary anecdotes — particularly on the Southern-Táng court entertainers 李家明 Lǐ Jiāmíng and 王感化 Wáng Gǎnhuà. The factual errors flagged by Huáng Cháoyīng and Wáng Mào are real, and the NánTáng corrective tradition that culminates in 馬令 (1105) and 陸游 (late 12th c.) emerged in part out of the perceived inadequacy of Lóng Gǔn’s work. Despite its weaknesses, it is the earliest extant systematic history of the Southern Táng and is consistently cited by all later scholars in the field.
Translations and research
- Kurz, Johannes L. 2003. “Hai Internis Discordiis Disjectus — On the Sources for the History of the Southern T’ang Dynasty (937–975).” Tang Studies 21: 75–115. — Treats the Jiāng-nán yě-shǐ among the Southern-Táng sources.
- Kurz, Johannes L. 2011. China’s Southern Tang Dynasty (937–976). London: Routledge.
- Standard modern Chinese edition: included in Wǔ-dài shǐ-shū huì-biān 五代史書彙編 (Hangzhou: Hángzhōu chū-bǎn-shè, 2004).
- No standalone English translation.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ criticisms of Lóng Gǔn’s work are echoed in the very first prose of Jiāngnán yúzǎi KR2i0012 — itself produced in part as a corrective to Lóng Gǔn — making the Jiāngnán yěshǐ and the Jiāngnán yúzǎi a paired source-set for the historiographical tradition of the Southern Táng.