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元豐九域志

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Text ID
KR2k0005
Date
1080–1080
Dynasty
宋

Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì 元豐九域志

Gazetteer of the Nine Regions during the Yuánfēng Era by 王存 (奉敕撰)

About the work

A 10-juan imperially commissioned empire-wide gazetteer of the Northern Sòng presented to Shénzōng 神宗 in the leap ninth month of Yuánfēng 3 (1080), edited by Wáng Cún 王存 (1023–1101) — Chéngyì láng zhī zhìgào (Court Gentleman, Drafter) — assisted by the Guǎngé jiàokān Zēng Zhào 曾肇 and the Guānglù chéng Lǐ Décòu 李德芻. Originally proposed in Xīníng 8 (1075) by Liú Shīdàn 劉師旦 to update the Jiǔyù tú 九域圖 of Lǐ Zōng’è 李宗諤 and Wáng Zēng 王曾 (Xiángfú era, ca. 1009), the new work dropped the maps (hence the change of title from tú to zhì) and added detailed dàolǐ (route distances), hùkǒu (households), and tǔgòng (local tribute) figures for every prefecture and county. Compact (10 juan) by comparison with the Tàipíng huányǔ jì KR2k0004 (193 juan) but unmatched in the precision of its numerical data, it is one of the principal primary sources for Northern Sòng administrative geography and a foundational dataset for modern Sòng historical-geographical databases.

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì in 10 juan is by Wáng Cún and others of the Sòng — Chéngyì láng zhī zhìgào (Court Gentleman, Drafter) of Dānyáng — by imperial command. Cún, zì Jìngzhòng 敬仲, was a man of Dānyáng. He passed the jìnshì examination, was assigned as zhǔbù of Jiāxīng, and held office up to Shàngshū yòuchéng (Vice President of the Right of the Department of State Affairs). His doings are given in his Sòngshǐ biography. Earlier, in the Xiángfú era, Lǐ Zōng’è and Wáng Zēng had successively edited the Jiǔyù tú; by Xīníng 8 (1075), the Dūguān yuánwài láng Liú Shīdàn, on the grounds that the names of prefectures and counties had largely been altered, requested authority to re-edit. Whereupon the Guǎngé jiàokān Zēng Zhào and the Guānglù chéng Lǐ Décòu were ordered to do the redaction, with Cún at the head of the project; since the previous book was titled “tú (map)” but had no maps drawn, they requested that it be retitled “zhì (gazetteer)“. By the leap ninth month of Yuánfēng 3 (1080), the book was complete. The present copy contains a presentation preface by Cún and his colleagues, which says: “Since this dynasty came in, the abolitions and creations of prefectures and counties, and the names of garrisons, watchtowers, and forts, and the resources of the mountains, marshes, and parks, are matters which earlier books slighted; we have here taken care to record them. As to the figures of dàolǐ guǎngyù (route distances and breadth), the men of old rarely got them in detail; here, within each prefecture, we first list the prefectural seal, then bring in the neighbouring commanderies, mutually cross-referenced and never confused.” It comprises 23 lù, 4 capital prefectures, 10 secondary prefectures, 242 prefectures, 37 commanderies (jūn), 4 directorates (jiān), and 1,235 counties — set in 10 juan. Wáng Yìnglín 王應麟 says the prose appears in the QǔFù jí 曲阜集, that is, the writing was Zēng Zhào’s. The book begins with the four capitals and ends with the abolished prefectures and commanderies and the huàwài tributary-only states; for each prefecture and county, it follows by lù and lists ranks (chì, jī, wàng, jǐn, shàng, zhōng, xià); next geography; next hùkǒu; next tǔgòng; under each county the tǔgòng is also given in detail, and the headings of named mountains and great rivers are included.

The figures of distance to the capital, distance to the prefectural seat, the sìzhì bādào (four-quarter and eight-direction) totals where the neighbouring commanderies meet, are analysed in the most thread-by-thread way, deeply catching the ancients’ intent in biàn fāng jīng yě (orienting and parcelling out the land); its arrangement is also clean and methodical. Zhào Yǔshí’s 趙與旹 Bīntuì lù 賓退錄 in particular praises its tǔgòng category as recording in full the prescribed quantities of tribute goods, which can serve for evidential investigation — a feature unmatched in other gazetteers. The preface’s claim of “language straight, facts exact” is true to the work itself.

The book was the most highly regarded of its day. Among the populace there also circulated a separate edition with an extra category for gǔjī (antiquities); hence Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū hòuzhì 讀書後志 has the heading “Old and New Jiǔyù zhì”. The present copy is the Míng Máo Jìn 毛晉 yǐngchāo (facsimile manuscript) of the Sòng cutting — that is, the original presentation copy of the Yuánfēng era — afterwards held in Xú Qiánxué’s 徐乾學 Chuánshì lóu 傳是樓. Its calligraphy is clear and bright, with few errors and few lacunae; only the tenth juan was missing, and we have now supplemented it from the manuscript copy in the Zhū Huàn 朱煥 family of Sūzhōu, so that head and tail are again complete. Note: Zhāng Hào’s 張淏 Yúnzá zájì 雲谷雜記 says that after the Southern crossing, the cutting of books in Mǐnzhōng was unrefined: e.g., Mùzhōu 睦州 was first changed to Yánzhōu 嚴州 in the Xuānhé era, and yet the new cutting of the Jiǔyù zhì directly recorded it as Yánzhōu. Now we examine the present copy and find Mùzhōu’s name unaltered, so it can be known that this comes from the Northern Sòng cutting.

Reverently collated and submitted, tenth month, Qiánlóng 46 (1781). 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

The work was commissioned in Xīníng 8 (1075) on the petition of Liú Shīdàn 劉師旦 to revise the obsolete Xiángfú Jiǔyù tú of Lǐ Zōng’è 李宗諤 and Wáng Zēng 王曾, and was completed in Yuánfēng 3 (1080). The principal compiler, Wáng Cún (1023–1101, zì Jìngzhòng, native of Dānyáng), was a jìnshì of Qìnglì 6 (1046) who served Shénzōng as Zhī zhìgào, Hànlín xuéshì, and finally Shàngshū yòuchéng; the working compilers were Zēng Zhào 曾肇 (the younger brother of Zēng Gǒng 曾鞏 and one of the leading drafters of imperial documents in the late Northern Sòng) and Lǐ Décòu 李德芻. The presentation preface — in fact written by Zēng Zhào, as Wáng Yìnglín later observed — sets out the work’s distinctive contribution: explicit and systematic recording of (a) the abolitions and creations of administrative units since the Sòng founding, (b) the names of garrisons, watchtowers, forts (zhènshù chéngbǎo 鎮戍城堡), (c) the resources of the mountains and marshes (shānzé yúhéng 山澤虞衡), and (d) most distinctively, dàolǐ guǎngyù — the inter-prefectural route distances. The result is a uniquely numerically dense gazetteer: 23 lù, 4 jīngfǔ, 10 cìfǔ, 242 zhōu, 37 jūn, 4 jiān, and 1,235 counties, with detailed tribute, household, and route figures for every unit.

The work was popular enough that an unofficial expanded edition with an added gǔjī category circulated alongside the official version (Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū hòuzhì lists both as “old” and “new Jiǔyù zhì”). The Wényuāngé Sìkù copy descends through a Míng Máo Jìn yǐngchāo facsimile of the original Yuánfēng presentation copy, formerly in Xú Qiánxué’s Chuánshì lóu; juan 10 was lost and supplemented from a Sūzhōu Zhū Huàn family manuscript. The retention of “Mùzhōu” 睦州 (renamed Yánzhōu 嚴州 in Xuānhé) confirms that the textual line is Northern Sòng, prior to the Mǐn re-cuttings criticised in Zhāng Hào’s Yúnzá zájì. The standard modern critical edition is Wáng Wènchǔ 王文楚 et al., 2 vols., Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1984, which includes a place-name index and supplements the Wényuāngé text with the Wèishēng yuán 衛升源 / Mǎ Yùnxiāng 馬運湘 Xīndìng Jiǔyù zhì 新定九域志 (the augmented “popular” recension).

The work is one of the foundational sources for the Digital Gazetteer of Song Dynasty China (Hartwell / UCMerced) and is routinely cited in modern Sòng administrative-geographical scholarship. Wilkinson cites it as item 3 in the standard sequence of comprehensive imperial gazetteers (CHNM §16.3.3, §62.3.3.1).

Translations and research

  • Wáng Wènchǔ 王文楚 et al., eds. Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì 元豐九域志. 2 vols. Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1984. Standard modern critical edition with index.
  • Liú Wéiyī 劉緯毅, Sòng-dài fāngzhì kǎo 宋代方志考. Zhōngguó shèhuì kēxué, 2007 — discusses the Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì in the context of the broader Sòng gazetteer corpus.
  • Hartwell, Robert M., et al. Digital Gazetteer of Song Dynasty China (DGSD). UCMerced. Uses the Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì as a principal source for Sòng administrative units.
  • Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual, 6th ed., §§16.3.3, 62.3.3.1.
  • Hope Wright, An Alphabetical List of Geographical Names in Sung China. Paris: École Pratique des Hautes Études, 1956 (revised in JSYS 1992) — uses the Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì as one of three principal sources for Sòng place names.

Other points of interest

The work’s extraordinary precision in sìzhì bādào route distances has made it the principal evidentiary base for Sòng historical road-network reconstruction (e.g., the Sòngdài chéngshì kǎo of Aoyama Sadao). The expanded popular recension (the “Xīn Jiǔyù zhì”) with the added gǔjī category, although criticised by the Sìkù editors as derivative, was equally widely consulted in the Southern Sòng and survives in independent transmission.

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