Zhìyuán Jiāhé zhì 至元嘉禾志
Gazetteer of Jiāhé, [compiled in the] Zhìyuán [reign-period] by 徐碩
About the work
A 32-juan Yuán prefectural gazetteer of Jiāhé 嘉禾 — the literary name for Jiāxīng 嘉興 (then Jiāxīnglù 嘉興路 of the Mongol Yuán, including modern-day Sōngjiāng / Huátíng 華亭) — compiled by Xú Shuò 徐碩 while he was jiàoshòu 教授 (Director of Studies) of Jiāxīnglù in the late Zhìyuán 至元 era of Khubilai (Shìzǔ). Continuing an earlier abortive prefectural gazetteer effort (the Sòng Xiùzhōu zhì by Wénrén Bǎijǐ 聞人伯紀 of the Chúnxī era and Guān Shì 闗栻 of the Jiātài / Kāixǐ era under Yuè Kē’s 岳珂 prefecture, which had stalled at five juan), the work expanded the rubric scheme to 43 categories in 32 juan and remains the canonical gazetteer of Jiāhé under Mongol rule. Particularly important is the eleven-juan bēijié 碑碣 (stele inscriptions) section, which preserves a substantial body of Wú, Six Dynasties, Táng, and Sòng epigraphical material not registered in the standard Sòng jīnshí compendia of Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修 and Zhào Míngchéng 趙明誠.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Zhìyuán Jiāhé zhì in 32 juan is by Xú Shuò 徐碩 of the Yuán. Shuò’s native place is unascertained, and his career details are likewise without source. At the time he was writing this book, he was just then jiàoshòu of Jiāxīnglù. Since the early Sòng, Xiùzhōu 秀州 had had no tújīng 圖經 (illustrated gazetteer). In the Chúnxī (1174–89) era the prefect Zhāng Yuánchéng 張元成 first invited Wénrén Bǎijǐ 聞人伯紀 to begin one. Later when Yuè Kē 岳珂 was prefect, he again invited the local man Guān Shì 闗栻 to continue and revise it; but as Yuè Kē was reassigned the work broke off, with only five juan extant. In the Zhìyuán era the jīnglì 經厯 of Jiāxīnglù, Shàn Qìng 單慶, charged Shuò with editing it; he therefore took up Guān Shì’s old draft and continued it to completion, expanding the rubrics to 43 and the juan-count to 32. The work also covers Huátíngxiàn of Sōngjiāngfǔ, because under the Yuán it was attached to Jiāxīnglù; only at the early Míng was it detached.
The book’s narrative ordering is very detailed; under each entry there are sometimes evidential investigations, which are particularly canonical and substantial. The bēijié (stele) section alone runs to eleven juan; from the Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties down through the Southern Sòng, every stone inscription is registered without omission. For example, the Wú-state Zhēngběi jiāngjūn Lù Yī bēi 吳征北將軍陸禕碑, the Liáng Qínzhù shān bēi 梁秦住山碑, the Táng Huángzhōu sīmǎ Lù Yuángǎn Chénfǔjūnhuán mùmíng 唐黄州司馬陸元感陳府君環墓銘, and the Zōngchénglìng Gù Qiān mùzhì 宗城令顧謙墓誌 are all unrecorded by Ōuyáng [Xiū] and Zhào [Míngchéng]; the WúYuè Jìnghǎi zhèn’èshǐ Zhū Xíngxiān bēi 吳越靜海鎮遏使朱行先碑 is in fact what Wú Rènchén 吳任臣 used to establish his biography of Zhū Xíngxiān in the Shíguó chūnqiū 十國春秋. Other fragmentary pieces unseen by eye and ear are still numerous, providing substantial help for evidential and documentary research.
But the book has only “Persons” and jìnshì 進士 lists and does not establish a separate “officeholders” treatise (guānshī yī zhì 官師一志), so that the merits of earlier officials are left undocumented — this is somewhat negligent. Also, jiānghǎihúmǎopǔxùxītánbēitánghégǎngjīnggōuyànzhá (rivers, seas, lakes, lake-pools, riverbanks, embankments, streams, pools, weirs, ponds, river-channels, ports, watergates, dykes, sluices) are subdivided into eight categories — for tracing water-courses this lays out the hydrology systematically and the rubric is very apt. But pavilions, halls, lodges, and gazebos (lóugé tángguǎn tíngyǔ) are split into three categories, an arbitrary subdivision that fails by being trivial — that is the work’s weakness.
Reverently collated and submitted, fifth 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 Zhìyuán Jiāhé zhì is the principal extant Yuán-period gazetteer of the lower Yangtze delta region centered on Jiāxīng. Composition is dated by internal evidence to the late Zhìyuán era under Shìzǔ Kublai. The Sìkù tíyào identifies Shàn Qìng 單慶 as the jīnglì 經厯 (Administrative Aide) of Jiāxīnglù who commissioned Xú Shuò’s compilation; Shàn Qìng’s preface to the work, dated Zhìyuán 25 (1288), survives in the prefatory matter, fixing the completion date of the work. Compilation must have begun no earlier than 1286 (the year Shàn Qìng took up his post). notBefore / notAfter are therefore set to 1286–1288.
The work is structurally innovative for its juan-by-juan systematic treatment of waterways: rivers (jiāng 江), seas (hǎi 海), lakes (hú 湖), shallow-lake basins (mǎo 泖), bank-creeks (pǔ 浦, xù 溆), streams (xī 溪), pools (tán 潭), embankments (bēi 陂), reservoirs (táng 塘), river-channels (hégǎng 河港, jīng 涇, gōu 溝), and dykes-and-sluices (yàn 堰, zhá 牐) — a hydrologically sophisticated rubric that is well-suited to the dense water-network of the Hángjiāhú 杭嘉湖 plain and Tài Lake basin. The bēijié (epigraphy) section, at eleven juan, is the most substantial single section of the work, recording stele inscriptions from the Three Kingdoms (Wú-state) through the Southern Sòng. The WúYuè inscription of Zhū Xíngxiān 朱行先, recorded here, is the principal source from which Wú Rènchén constructed his Qīng-era Shíguó chūnqiū biography of that figure.
The work also matters for the institutional history of the lower Yangtze: under the Yuán, Huátíngxiàn 華亭縣 (covering modern Shànghǎi and most of Sōngjiāng) was administered as part of Jiāxīnglù; the Zhìyuán Jiāhé zhì therefore is also one of the most important early sources for the history of Sōngjiāng and pre-Míng Shànghǎi. Sōngjiāngfǔ was constituted only in the early Míng (1277/1295 founded as a fǔ, but subordinated to Jiāxīng under the Yuán), and Huátíng was detached from Jiāhé only at that point.
The Sìkù editors note two structural weaknesses: the absence of an guānshī 官師 / officeholders treatise (so the careers of Sòng and Yuán prefects in Jiāhé are not recorded as a connected series), and the over-fine subdivision of pavilions and lodges into three rubrics (lóugé 樓閣, tángguǎn 堂館, tíngyǔ 亭宇).
The earlier (now lost) Sòng-era predecessor texts deserve note: the Chúnxī-era tújīng of Wénrén Bǎijǐ commissioned by prefect Zhāng Yuánchéng, and the Jiātài–Kāi-xǐ-era continuation by Guān Shì commissioned by Yuè Kē 岳珂 (1183–1240, the great-grandson of Yuè Fēi 岳飛, prefect of Xiùzhōu in the early thirteenth century). Only five juan of the latter survived to be incorporated by Xú Shuò.
Translations and research
- Hargett, James M. 1996. “Song dynasty local gazetteers and their place in the history of difangzhi writing.” HJAS 56.2: 405–42. Treats the Sòng-Yuán gazetteer continuum, including Jiāxīng/Xiùzhōu predecessors.
- Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. 6th ed. 2022. §16.4.1 (gazetteer methodology); §64.3.3.1 (Yuán gazetteer corpus, of which 28 are extant — this is one of the principal Yuán prefectural gazetteers).
- Modern punctuated edition: in Sòng Yuán fāngzhì cóngkān 宋元方志叢刊 (Zhōnghuá, 1990), vol. 5; also in Sòng Yuán dìfāngzhì cóngshū. A separate 1922 lithographic reprint is held by Hánfēn-lóu 涵芬樓.
- No substantial book-length secondary literature in Western languages located. (The work is regularly cited as a primary source in scholarship on Yuán-Míng Sōngjiāng cotton, on the Jiāxīng salt administration, and on Yuán bēijié epigraphy, but no monographic study exists.)
Other points of interest
The eleven-juan bēijié section makes the Zhìyuán Jiāhé zhì the largest single repository of pre-Sòng Wú-region epigraphic material outside of the imperial jīnshí compendia, and the work has been used by epigraphers from Wú Rènchén onward as a principal supplement to Ōuyáng Xiū’s Jígǔlù 集古錄 and Zhào Míngchéng’s Jīnshí lù 金石錄.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (6th ed., 2022).
- chinaknowledge.de
- ctext.org
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11061968 (至元嘉禾志)