Jǐnlǐ Qíjiù Zhuàn 錦里耆舊傳
Biographies of the Elders of Jǐn-lǐ (Chéng-dū) also titled Chéngdū Lǐluàn jì 成都理亂記 by 句延慶 (撰)
About the work
The Jǐnlǐ Qíjiù Zhuàn — alternately titled Chéngdū Lǐluàn jì “Records of Order and Disorder in Chéngdū” — is an early-Sòng chronicle of the two regional ChǔShǔ regimes of Sìchuān during the Five Dynasties: the QiánShǔ 前蜀 of 王建 Wáng Jiàn (907–925) and the HòuShǔ 後蜀 of 孟知祥 Mèng Zhīxiáng (934–965). The author 句延慶 Jù Yánqìng (zì Chāngyì 昌裔) self-styles “qián Róngzhōu Yìnglíngxiàn lìng 前榮州應靈縣令” — former magistrate of Yìnglíng county in Róngzhōu (Sìchuān). The book was completed in Kāibǎo 開寶 3 (970) at the request of the mìshūchéng 秘書丞 Liú Wèi 劉蔚, then magistrate of Róngzhōu, who had obtained an earlier zhuàn and asked Jù to revise and continue it; per 陳振孫 Shūlù jiětí, the original revision covered events from Xiántōng 9 (= 868) to Kāibǎo 3 (= 970), but the present 4-juàn book begins only from Zhōnghé 中和 5 (= 885) and lacks the Xiántōng material — a Sòng-period mutilation. Despite the zhuàn in its title, it is in fact an annalistic work, not biographical.
Tiyao
The book is also titled Chéngdū Lǐluàn jì. By Jù Yánqìng 句延慶 of the Sòng. Yánqìng, zì Chāngyì, self-styled qián Róngzhōu Yìnglíngxiàn lìng; both points are stated in the body of the book. Place of origin not preserved. The book records the events of the Wángshì and Mèngshì rule of Shǔ. The Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì lists 8 juàn; Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí records that “in Kāibǎo 3 (970), the Mìshūchéng Liú Wèi 劉蔚 was magistrate of Róngzhōu and obtained this zhuàn; he requested Yánqìng to revise it. It runs from Xiántōng 9 (868) to Kāibǎo Yǐchǒu (= 965).” [Note: 開寶乙丑 makes no calendrical sense — 乙丑 was 1085. The Sìkù editors give 乾德乙丑 = Qiándé 3, 965, which fits.] But the present text is in 4 juàn, beginning from Zhōnghé 5 (885), without the Xiántōng material. Chén Zhènsūn further notes that “after the conquest of Shǔ, down to Xiángfú jǐyǒu 祥符己酉 (= Dàzhōngxiángfú 2, 1009), the imperial decrees and edicts on policy down to the time of Lǐ Shùn’s 李順 rebellion are recorded in summary.” Zhāng Yuē 張約 wrote a preface. Jù Yánqìng was alive in Kāibǎo; Xiángfú is a long way off, and he could not have continued the record so far. Zhāng Yuē’s preface and the post-conquest material are not in the present recension. So Chén Zhènsūn presumably saw the Sòngzhì 8-juàn book, with later additions; this 4-juàn book may well be Jù Yánqìng’s original. Despite the title Qíjiùzhuàn (“Biographies of the Elders”), the book does not arrange material by person; in form it is essentially annalistic. The WángMèng xìngfèi (rise-and-fall) records are also rather brief. The book is detailed only on imperial decrees, memorials, and military proclamations. In the first year of Hánkāng 咸康 of the Former Shǔ (= 925), the Táng forces reached Chéngdū and 王宗弼 Wáng Zōngbì abducted 王衍 Wáng Yǎn to the Western Palace; the Tōngjiàn gives the date as xīnyǒu yíyuè jiǎchén 11/甲辰; the present book, yǐsì 乙巳. There is also a single edict by the Sòng Tàizǔ to the HòuShǔ ruler 孟昶 Mèng Chǎng, with much wording diverging from the Sòngshǐ version. All such matters are useful for collation. Chén Zhènsūn names the author Píngyáng Jù Yánqìng 平陽句延慶. The book consistently praises the HòuShǔ ruler — perhaps the work of a Shǔ man. There is a 孟昶-period jiàoshūláng of Huáyáng named 句中正 Jù Zhōngzhèng who later entered the Sòng as Túntián lángzhōng 屯田郎中; perhaps Jù Yánqìng was of the same lineage. Píngyáng may then be a corruption of Huáyáng.
Abstract
句延慶 Jù Yánqìng (zì Chāngyì 昌裔), a former Sìchuān magistrate of unclear origin (the Sìkù editors plausibly suggest he was of Shǔ ancestry, possibly of the same Huáyáng Jù 華陽句 lineage as 句中正 Jù Zhōngzhèng, the HòuShǔ jiàoshūláng who later joined the Sòng), produced this book in Kāibǎo 3 (970) at the request of Liú Wèi 劉蔚, Mìshūchéng and magistrate of Róngzhōu — making the composition date precisely 970. The original revision (per Chén Zhènsūn) covered 868–965 and was 8 juàn; the present text is 4 juàn, beginning at 885, and is regarded by the Sìkù editors as Jù’s original (the further extension to 1009 reported by Chén Zhènsūn being a later addition). Despite the title’s “qíjiùzhuàn” 耆舊傳 (biographies of the elders), the work is an annalistic record of the Former and Latter Shǔ — uniquely valuable for its preservation of original imperial decrees, memorials, and proclamations of the two Shǔ courts, often quoted at full length where the Sòngshǐ gives only summaries. It is one of the principal sources for 張唐英 Zhāng Tángyīng’s Shǔ Táowù KR2i0016 and 吳任臣’s Shíguó Chūnqiū KR2i0021.
Translations and research
- Standard modern Chinese edition: in Wǔ-dài shǐ-shū huì-biān 五代史書彙編 (Hangzhou, 2004).
- Hugh R. Clark. 2009. “The Southern Kingdoms between the T’ang and the Sung”. In Cambridge History of China vol. 5, pt. 1: The Sung Dynasty and Its Precursors, 907–1279, ed. Denis Twitchett and Paul Jakov Smith. Cambridge: CUP. — Major Western treatment of the regional regimes.
- No standalone English translation.
Other points of interest
The book’s preservation of the original text of imperial decrees of 王建 Wáng Jiàn and 孟昶 Mèng Chǎng — including a fragment of Mèng Chǎng’s famous Guǎngzhèng 廣政 4 (941) Guānzhēn 官箴 (admonition to officials) which contains the often-quoted lines ěrfèng ěrlù míngāo mínzhī xiàmín yìnüè shàngcāng nánqī 爾俸爾祿、民膏民脂、下民易虐、上蒼難欺 — is its most lasting contribution. (The Guānzhēn lines were later inscribed by Sòng Tàizōng on the Jièshí 戒石 monument of every Sòng prefecture.)