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元和郡縣志

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Text ID
KR2k0003
Date
813–814
Dynasty
唐

Yuánhé jùnxiàn zhì 元和郡縣志

Maps and Gazetteer of the Provinces and Counties of the Yuánhé Era by 李吉甫 (撰)

About the work

The earliest extant comprehensive geography of the Chinese empire, originally in 40 juan plus 2 juan of mùlù with maps prefacing each zhèn 鎮, by the Táng chief minister Lǐ Jífǔ 李吉甫 (758–814), presented to Xiànzōng 憲宗 in Yuánhé 8 (813). The original title was Yuánhé jùnxiàn túzhì 元和郡縣圖志 (Maps and gazetteer of the provinces and counties of the Yuánhé era); the maps were already lost by the Sòng, leaving only the gazetteer text behind, whence the abbreviated title Yuánhé jùnxiàn zhì under which it is known today (Wilkinson, CHNM §61.3.3). It is the model and origin of every subsequent imperial yītǒng zhì 一統志 down to the DàQīng yītǒng zhì, and one of the principal supplements to the geographical treatises of the two Tángshū. It is the first item in the Sìkù dìlǐlèi 地理類 zǒngzhì 總志 sub-category.

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Yuánhé jùnxiàn zhì in 40 juan is by Lǐ Jífǔ of the Táng. Jífǔ, zì Hóngxiàn 宏憲, was a man of Zànhuáng 贊皇 in Zhàozhōu 趙州, son of the Chief Minister Lǐ Qīyún 李栖筠. By privilege he was appointed Zuǒ Sīyù shuàifǔ Cángcáo cānjūn (granary aide of the Left Imperial Insignia Guard); in the early Zhēnyuán era he was Tàicháng bóshì (erudite of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices); his offices reached Zhōngshū shìláng tóng zhōngshūménxià píngzhāngshì (vice president of the Secretariat, joint manager of the Secretariat-Chancellery). His posthumous epithet was Zhōngyì 忠懿. His doings are given in the Tángshū biography. According to Hóng Mài’s 洪邁 (Sòng) postface, the work was presented in Yuánhé 8 (813); however, the entry in the book on the re-establishment of Yòuzhōu 宥州 falls in Yuánhé 9 (814) — this matter was Jífǔ’s own administrative responsibility, and after the book had been completed he himself added the entry in. Before the text is Jífǔ’s own preface, which says: it begins with Jīngzhào fǔ and ends with Lǒngyòu dào, comprising 47 zhèn, in 40 juan. For each zhèn a map preceded the prose, with the mùlù taking up two further juan, totalling 42 juan, hence the title Yuánhé jùnxiàn túzhì. After the text is Chéng Dàchāng’s 程大昌 Chúnxī 2 (1175) postface, which observes that the maps are by then lost, leaving only the gazetteer; thus the Shūlù jiětí 書錄解題 records only “Yuánhé jùnxiàn zhì in 40 juan”. The present copy is further missing juan 19, 20, 23, 24, 26, 36; juan 18 is half lost, and juan 25 is missing two pages — and so it is no longer the Sòng-edition shape. The continuity of the piān and mùlù is hard to follow, much as with the Shuǐjīng zhù 水經注 (originally 40 juan, with five lost by the Sòng, leaving 21 watercourses missing); the Southern Sòng cutter still kept the work in 40 juan to preserve the running order. Following that example, we again redivide it into 40 juan for ease of consultation, noting the lacunae within each juan to preserve the original sequence.

The Tángshū gives 54 juan, but checking against Jífǔ’s own preface this is shown to be a Tángshū error. Again: by the Táng liùdiǎn 唐六典 and the geographical treatises of the Jiù- and XīnTángshū, in the early Zhēnguān reign the empire was divided into ten dào: 1 Guānnèi, 2 Hénán, 3 Hédōng, 4 Héběi, 5 Shānnán, 6 Lǒngyòu, 7 Huáinán, 8 Jiāngnán, 9 Jiànnán, 10 Lǐngnán. Our text demotes Lǒngyòu to 10th — presumably because, having fallen to Tǔbō from the mid-dynasty on, it was relegated to the back. The Huáinán dào falls in the present text’s missing juan; comparing the prefectures it lists for Huáinán in the Tángshū, we find that the present text’s Hénán dào contains Shēnzhōu 申州 and Guāngzhōu 光州, attached after Càizhōu 蔡州, and the Jiāngnán dào contains Qízhōu 蘄州, Huángzhōu 黃州, and Ānzhōu 安州 attached after Èzhōu 鄂州 and Miǎnzhōu 沔州. This looks at first like a copyist’s slip, but the Tángshū fāngzhèn biǎo 方鎮表 shows that in Dàlì 14 (779) the Huáixī jiédùshǐ was re-seated at Càizhōu and presently renamed ShēnGuāngCài jiédùshǐ; that in Yǒngtài 1 (765) Qízhōu and Huángzhōu were attached to ÈYuè command, the Èzhōu dūtuánliàn shǐ being raised to guānchá shǐ with Yuè, Qí, Huáng prefectures added to its territory; and that in Yuánhé 1 (806) the Èzhōu guānchá shǐ was raised to Wǔchāngjūn jiédùshǐ with Ānzhōu and Huángzhōu added. So Shēnzhōu and Guāngzhōu had once been transferred from Huáinán to Hénán, and Qí, Ān, Huáng had once been transferred from Huáinán to Jiāngnán; the Tángshū yìwén zhì simply forgot to update its corresponding categories — the present text is not garbled.

The yùjì and tújīng recorded in the Suí and Táng monographs have all alike been lost; what survives today is, of all such works, the most ancient, and its arrangement also the most correct. Later works may add to or subtract from it, but none have been able to escape its template. We accordingly place it at the head of the comprehensive geographies, to record the source from which the various schools descend.

Reverently collated and submitted, eleventh month, Qiánlóng 46 (early 1782). Editors-in-chief: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General collation officer: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

Lǐ Jífǔ — zǎixiàng (chief minister) of Xiànzōng’s reign and one of the architects of the yuánhé zhōngxìng 元和中興 — composed the work during his second period of ministerial service (807–814) as a documentary complement to his programme of reasserting central control over the regional military commands (fāngzhèn 方鎮). The work’s organising unit is therefore the zhèn — a frame coextensive with the political geography of the post-755 Táng — rather than the canonical dào of Zhēnguān; this is signalled in the original title’s coupling of jùnxiàn with the zhèn-by-zhèn maps that prefaced each section. Each zhèn is treated under sub-headings of xìngfèi 興廢 (rise and decline of administrative units), cáozhuǎn 漕轉 (granaries and transport), gōngfù 貢賦 (tribute and taxes), gǔdá 古達 (ancient sites), and others; especial attention is given to military choke-points (xiǎnzǔ 險阻) and to the manpower and grain figures of each zhèn. The work uses Kāiyuán-period (713–741) and Yuánhé-period (806–820) household figures.

The original 40 juan of gazetteer plus 2 juan of mùlù and per-zhèn maps (totalling 42 juan, hence the original title) were already incomplete by the Sòng: the maps were entirely lost (Chéng Dàchāng’s Chúnxī-2 postface, 1175), and several juan of the prose disappeared as well, so that the Sòng-onward editions and shūlù simply call the surviving 40-juan core the Yuánhé jùnxiàn zhì. The Wényuāngé Sìkù copy reflects this further-reduced Sòng recension; juan 19, 20, 23, 24, 26, 36 are wholly missing, juan 18 is half lost, and juan 25 lacks two pages. The Sìkù editors reorganised the surviving text into 40 numbered juan, marking lacunae at the appropriate places, exactly as the Sòng cutters had done with the Shuǐjīng zhù.

Modern reconstruction has restored some of the lost matter from quotations in the Tàipíng yùlǎn 太平御覽, the Tàipíng huányǔ jì (KR2k0004), and the Yuán hé xìng zuǎn 元和姓纂. The standard modern critical edition is Hè Cìjūn 賀次君 (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1983, 2 vols.), which underlies most subsequent scholarly use; an annotated reprint with index appeared from Tianjin Guji 1995. Hiraoka Takeo’s 平岡武夫 Tōdai no gyōsei chiri (1956) provides indexes covering the Yuánhé jùnxiàn túzhì alongside the two Tángshū geographical treatises and the Táng liùdiǎn.

The work is one of the foundational primary sources for Táng historical geography and for the territorial organisation of the fāngzhèn system; the date of composition is securely fixed by Hóng Mài’s postface and the Yòuzhōu re-establishment entry to Yuánhé 8–9 (813–814), the very last year of Lǐ Jífǔ’s life.

Translations and research

  • Hè Cìjūn 賀次君, ed. Yuánhé jùnxiàn tú-zhì 元和郡縣圖志. 2 vols. Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1983. The standard modern critical edition.
  • Hiraoka Takeo 平岡武夫. Tōdai no gyōsei chiri 唐代の行政地理. Vol. 2 of T’ang civilization reference series. Kyōto, 1956. Indexes the Yuánhé jùnxiàn tú-zhì alongside the two Tángshū geographical treatises and the Táng liùdiǎn. Chinese tr. Tángdài de xíngzhèng dìlǐ. Shànghǎi gǔjí, 1989.
  • Hartwell, Robert M., et al. Tang and Song Geographical Database. The Yuánhé jùnxiàn zhì is one of the principal sources for the Táng layer of the database (now CHGIS).
  • Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual, 6th ed., §16.3.3 (“Comprehensive Gazetteers”) and §61.3.3 (“Geography” of the Táng). The principal English-language anchor for the work and its position in the Táng geographical corpus.
  • Twitchett, Denis, ed. Cambridge History of China, vol. 3, “Sui and T’ang China, 589–906” (CUP, 1979) — uses the work routinely in chapters on Táng administrative and economic geography.

Other points of interest

The work is the formal model of every subsequent comprehensive imperial gazetteer (the Sòng Tàipíng huányǔ jì, the Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì, the DàYuán dà yītǒng zhì, the DàMíng yītǒng zhì, and the DàQīng yītǒng zhì — see KR2k0004, KR2k0005, KR2k0008, KR2k0009); the Sìkù tiyao places it at the head of the zǒngzhì sub-category for precisely this reason. The work also pre-empts the later development of the fāngzhèn biǎo 方鎮表 of the Xīn Tángshū by half a century.

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