Kuàijī zhì 會稽志
Gazetteer of Kuàijī [Shàoxīng] by 施宿 (zhuàn 撰), with the Xùzhì by 張淏 (zhuàn 撰)
About the work
The earliest extant prefectural gazetteer of Shàoxīngfǔ 紹興府 — historically Yuèzhōu 越州 / Kuàijījùn 會稽郡, the political-historical heart of eastern Zhèjiāng — in 20 juan, sponsored by the prefect Shěn Zuòbīn 沈作賓 and brought through to completion in Jiātài 1 (1201) by Shī Sù 施宿 (1164–1222) as tōngpàn 通判 of Shàoxīngfǔ, working with fǔshì personnel and Yuèzhōu literati including Féng Jǐngzhōng 馮景中, Lù Zǐjù 陸子虡 (Lù Yóu’s son), Wáng Dù 王度, Zhū Nài 朱鼐, and Shào Chízhèng 邵持正 of Yǒngjiā. Lù Yóu 陸游 himself supplied the preface, dated the yǐyǒu day of the twelfth month of Jiātài 1 (i.e. early 1202). The composite Sìkù entry pairs the original Jiātài Kuàijī zhì with its 8-juan continuation, the Bǎoqìng Kuàijī xùzhì 寶慶會稽續志, completed twenty-five years later (1225 / Bǎoqìng 1) by Zhāng Hào 張淏 (originally of Kāifēng, by then settled in Wùzhōu 婺州 and Kuàijī), so that the Sìkù recension presents a single continuous documentary record from earliest antiquity down to Bǎoqìng 1. The work is named Kuàijī zhì — not Shàoxīngfǔ zhì — in conscious imitation of the Cháng’ān, Hénán, Chéngdū, and Xiāngtái zhì traditions, all of which retain the antique jùn-name in the title for cultural prestige.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Kuàijī zhì in 20 juan is by Shī Sù 施宿 et al. of the Sòng; the Xùzhì in 8 juan is by Zhāng Hào 張淏 of the Sòng.
Sù, zì Wǔzǐ 武子, was a man of Húzhōu 湖州, son of sījiàn Yuán Zhī 元之 [Shī Yuánzhī 施元之]. He once served as magistrate of Yúyáo 餘姚 and was advanced to tōngpàn of Shàoxīngfǔ. Hào, zì Qīngyuán 清源, originally of Kāifēng, settled and lived in Wùzhōu 婺州; held office to fèngyì láng 奉議郎. He compiled the Yúngǔ zájì 雲谷雜記 (already collected from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and circulated in print). His native place is briefly recorded in the Jīnhuá zhì; the Xùzhì preface speaks of his “having taken sojourn in this district”, so that he had at one time also chosen to live in Kuàijī.
After the Sòng moved south, Yuèzhōu was promoted to Shàoxīngfǔ; its prefects were uniformly drawn from senior chancellors and ministers, and the prefecture rose to be the foremost of the great fān 藩 (great prefectures) — yet there was no comprehensive tújīng 圖志. The Zhí Lóngtúgé 直龍圖閣 Shěn Zuòbīn became prefect and first drew up the plan for compilation; the Huáwéngé dàizhì 華文閣待制 Zhào Bùjī 趙不迹 and the Bǎowéngé xuéshì 寶文閣學士 Yuán Yuèyǒu 袁說友, in succession, edited and ordered it; but the one who saw the project through from beginning to end was Shī Sù alone. The book was completed in Jiātài 1 (1201); Lù Yóu wrote the preface. The reason it is not called Shàoxīngfǔ zhì but Kuàijī zhì is by analogy with the Cháng’ān, Hénán, Chéngdū, Xiāngtái (相臺) gazetteer titles.
Twenty-five years later, Hào — observing that the institutional and material situation had changed — assembled the events post-Jiātài, supplemented and corrected the original gazetteer, and produced an 8-juan continuation. The work was completed in Bǎoqìng 1 (1225); Hào wrote his own preface. The book does not divide [its content] under large categories: the original zhì contains 117 sub-categories, and the Xùzhì 50, all neither omitted nor over-extended, and ordered with method. Such items as xìngshì 姓氏 (surnames), sòngyíng 送迎 (welcoming and seeing-off), gǔ dìzhái 古第宅 (ancient mansions), gǔ qìwù 古器物 (ancient artefacts), qiú yíshū 求遺書 (the search for lost books), cángshū 藏書 (book-collecting), and so on, are not treated in detail in any other gazetteer; Shī Sù alone could gather them. His treatment is detailed and ample, well worth examination. Hào’s continuation is also concise and sober. This is indeed a fāngzhì of methodological substance.
The Míng-era earlier print is already lost. In Zhèngdé gēngwǔ (1510) the prefectural elder Wáng Yán 王綖 sought out an old base text and re-cut the work for reissue. Today even those blocks are long lost; book-collectors rarely register copies — this is a rare witness.
Reverently collated and submitted, fifth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). 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 Kuàijī zhì is one of the foundational Southern Sòng prefectural gazetteers, and the only one of the major fāngzhì of its rank to bear a Lù Yóu preface — Lù was then 77, retired with the title Zhí Huáwéngé, and a Yuèzhōu native himself. Lù’s preface is itself a substantial document on the strategic and ceremonial significance of Shàoxīng under the Southern Sòng: it was the burial site of Gāozōng’s empress Zhāocí Shènglì 昭慈聖烈, of the Yǒngyòu Imperial Mausoleum (永祐), and of four further imperial tombs (the cuándiàn 欑殿 of the Lín’ān-period mausolea); the fǔ served as the regular base of the LiǎngZhè dōng ānfǔshǐ. Lù’s image of Shàoxīng as one of two great strongholds (with Jīnlíng) anchoring the Southern Sòng polity is a central piece of evidence for the early-thirteenth-century imperial geography. Compilation took several years (the project ran across the tenures of three prefects: Shěn Zuòbīn, Zhào Bùjī, Yuán Yuèyǒu), but was completed in Jiātài 1 (1201). CBDB id 21016 confirms 1163 (index year) for Shī Sù, with floruit 1193–1205 and traceable activity into Jiādìng era through dismissals (1208 from Jīnqí jiànchéng, 1214 Huáinán dōng yùnpàn); the date 1164–1222 frequently cited in modern reference works draws on Shī’s father Shī Yuánzhī’s family record.
The Xùzhì of Zhāng Hào (1225, Bǎoqìng 1) is closely integrated with the original gazetteer: it does not merely add post-Jiātài material but also corrects and supplements the earlier 20 juan. Hào, whose better-known work is the Yúngǔ zájì 雲谷雜記, had relocated from Kāifēng to Wùzhōu 婺州 with the family migration south and at some point took up residence in Kuàijī, hence the appropriateness of his commission. The two works are typically cited together as one of the two finest Southern Sòng prefectural-level zhì (the other being Fàn Chéngdà’s Wújùn zhì KR2k0013); the Sìkù tíyào lists them in a single entry on this view.
The structural innovation is the absence of high-level division-headings (dàmén): the work proceeds by 117 (Jiātài part) plus 50 (Bǎoqìng xù) sub-categories laid out in flat sequence, an organisational decision that produces unusual coverage of items — xìngshì (surname migration), sòngyíng (the etiquette of welcoming and seeing-off prefects), gǔ dìzhái, gǔ qìwù, qiú yíshū, cángshū — that no other Southern Sòng gazetteer treats systematically. The Sìkù editors and the Qīng scholar Lú Wénchāo 盧文弨 alike single out the cángshū and qiú yíshū sub-sections as exceptional contributions to the bibliographic history of Yuèzhōu.
The Sòng print is lost. The standard pre-modern transmission is the Zhèngdé 5 (1510) re-cut by Wáng Yán 王綖, which became the base text used by the Sìkù editors. A Jiāqìng 13 (1808) re-cut from the Cǎijūxuān 採鞠軒 followed; the Cǎijūxuān recension was photo-reprinted in 1926. Modern editions: Yú Tiānxí 余天錫 et al. (eds.), Kuàijī zhì, SòngYuán fāngzhì cóngkān (Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1990), vol. 7; Jiātài Kuàijī zhì and Bǎoqìng Kuàijī xùzhì, with collation by Lǐ Néng (李能), Shàngyú Diǎnjí Chūbǎnshè 上海典籍出版社, 2012 (the standard punctuated edition).
The bracket notBefore 1201 / notAfter 1225 captures the period of active composition, since the Sìkù recension delivers both works as a single integrated text. If one wishes to set the bracket on the original Jiātài Kuàijī zhì alone, both endpoints would be 1201.
Translations and research
No complete English translation. The work is one of the principal Southern Sòng sources for Robert M. Hartwell’s quantitative studies of Yangzi-delta urbanisation and for Hsu Chia-chuan 許嘉娟’s study of Sòng burial practice. Joseph R. Dennis, Writing, Publishing, and Reading Local Gazetteers in Imperial China, 1100–1700 (Harvard, 2015), discusses the Kuàijī zhì as a model Southern Sòng prefectural gazetteer. In Chinese, the foundational study is Wàn Yī 萬毅, “Jiātài Kuàijī zhì zhī zuǎnxiū yǔ shǐyuán kǎo” 嘉泰會稽志之纂修與史源考, Zhèjiāng dàxué xuébào (1995.2). Liǔ Zhélín 柳哲霖, “Jiātài Huì-jī zhì kānwù yī zé” 嘉泰會稽志勘誤一則 (Zhōngguó dìfāng zhì 中國地方志, 2019.1) is a typical specimen of recent textual-criticism work on the gazetteer.
Other points of interest
The Lù Yóu preface is the substantial surviving prose by Lù on Yuèzhōu’s strategic geography; it has been studied as a complement to his Wéinán wénjí 渭南文集 prose corpus. The unusual sub-sections on qiú yíshū and cángshū in juan-(?) of the original zhì offer a Sòng-period inventory of Shàoxīng’s private libraries and book-collectors, and are heavily cited by historians of the book. Note that the catalog meta lists Shī Sù alone as author, in line with the Sìkù convention “[Shī Sù] děng zhuàn” 等撰; in practice the project was a collective enterprise. Zhāng Hào’s Xùzhì deserves a separate cross-link via 張淏 (CBDB id not yet verified — see the person note).