昌國州圖志

Chāngguózhōu túzhì 昌國州圖志

Illustrated Gazetteer of Chāngguó-zhōu by 馮福京 with the jiàoyù of Yīnxiàn 郭薦

About the work

A seven-juan Yuán illustrated prefectural gazetteer of Chāngguózhōu 昌國州 — the Zhōushān 舟山 archipelago off the Níngbō coast, modern Dìnghǎi 定海 / Zhōushānshì — completed in the seventh month of Dàdé 2 (1298) under the zhōu pànguān 州判官 (subprefectural assistant) Féng Fújīng 馮福京 of Tóngchuān 潼川 (modern Sānlí 三里 in northern Sìchuān). The actual compilation was carried out by Guō Jiàn 郭薦, jiàoyù 教諭 (Instructor) of the Yīnxiàn 鄞縣 school, working from an old gazetteer Féng had recovered after a year’s search. Chāngguózhōu had been promoted from county to prefecture status in Zhìyuán 15 (1278); this is the first proper gazetteer of the prefecture and the foundational record of pre-Míng Zhōushān.

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Chāngguózhōu túzhì in seven juan is by Féng Fújīng 馮福京 and Guō Jiàn 郭薦 of the Yuán, written together. Fújīng was a man of Tóngchuān 潼川 and held office as pànguān 判官 of Chāngguózhōu; Jiàn’s native place is unascertained, but he held office as jiàoyù 教諭 of Yīnxiàn 鄞縣. Chāngguózhōu is the present Dìnghǎixiàn 定海縣. In Sòng Xīníng 6 (1073) it was set up as Chāngguóxiàn; in Yuán Zhìyuán 15 (1278) it was first promoted to prefecture. This book was completed in the seventh month of Dàdé 2 (1298).

It is divided into eight rubrics: xùzhōu 敘州 (the prefecture), xùfù 敘賦 (taxation), xùshān 敘山 (mountains), xùshuǐ 敘水 (waters), xùwùchǎn 敘物產 (products), xùguān 敘官 (officeholders), xùrén 敘人 (worthies), xùcí 敘祠 (shrines). It is prefaced by Fújīng’s preface, in which he narrates that he obtained the old gazetteer and entrusted Jiàn and the others to revise and edit it, while Fújīng himself examined and confirmed the work. Its primary aim was to delete superfluous verbiage; thus the book is concise and substantial, not inferior to Kāng Hǎi’s 康海 Wǔgōng zhì 武功志 (KR2k0030) or Hán Bāngjìng’s 韓邦靖 Cháoyì zhì 朝邑志 (KR2k0031). Hǎi’s and Bāngjìng’s books are vigorously praised by writers, but this book has not been much celebrated in the world — perhaps because its date is somewhat distant and manuscript copies have rarely circulated. According to the original table of contents, at the head of the book there ought to be three illustrations: Huánshān 環山 (the encircled mountain map), Huánhǎi 環海 (the encircling-sea map), and Pǔtuóshān 普陀山. The very name túzhì 圖志 (“illustrated gazetteer”) in fact derives from these. The present copy does not contain them — they must have been lost by later copyists.

Reverently collated and submitted, eleventh 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 Chāngguózhōu túzhì is a precisely-dated Yuán prefectural gazetteer of the Zhōushān archipelago. It is the second-oldest extant gazetteer of the islands (preceded only by the now-fragmentary Sòng Chāngguóxiàn tújīng of which only excerpts survive in this work). Féng Fújīng’s preface, dated the first day of the seventh month of Dàdé wùxū (1298), is itself a substantial historiographical essay on the dangers of fúcí 浮詞 (florid, hollow phrasing) in late Sòng prefectural-gazetteer writing — Féng denounces what he sees as the systemic falsification of population, products, military terrain, and tax assessments in late Sòng gazetteer-tradition: “where households are few, they are recorded as many; where customs are unsuited, they are claimed as plentiful; where the terrain is exposed, it is described as defensible; where tribute is meager, it is reported as abundant.” He explicitly invokes Xiāo Hé 蕭何 entering the Qín capital and seizing the maps and registers as the historical model for the proper documentary purpose of the prefectural gazetteer.

The eight-rubric scheme (xùzhōu, xùfù, xùshān, xùshuǐ, xùwùchǎn, xùguān, xùrén, xùcí) is conspicuously austere — closer to the tújīng tradition than to the elaborate Sòng prefectural-gazetteer norms — and the Sìkù editors place it in the same lineage of “concise but substantial” (jiǎn ér yǒu yào 簡而有要) gazetteer-writing as Kāng Hǎi’s Wǔgōng-county gazetteer (1519, KR2k0030) and Hán Bāngjìng’s Cháoyì-county gazetteer (ca. 1518–19, KR2k0031). The original maps — Huánshān, Huánhǎi, and Pǔtuóshān — were lost during transmission; they justified the title túzhì (illustrated gazetteer) and would have been the earliest surviving cartographic representations of the Pǔtuó pilgrimage island.

The work is a major source for: (a) the institutional and tax history of Yuán-period Zhōushān; (b) the early Yuán Buddhist establishment on Pǔtuóshān; (c) the maritime salt-administration of the islands; (d) the WúYuè and Sòng prefectural lineage of the archipelago. The catalog meta lists only Féng Fújīng as author; the Sìkù tíyào and Féng’s own preface make explicit that the working compiler was Guō Jiàn (with assistance from other prefectural school officers), under Féng’s supervision and final review.

A note on the geography: Chāngguózhōu under the Yuán covered roughly the modern Zhōushān 舟山 archipelago including Pǔtuó 普陀, Dàishān 岱山, and Shèngsì 嵊泗 islands. The prefectural seat (in modern Dìnghǎi 定海) was renamed Dìnghǎixiàn early in the Míng (Hóngwǔ 2 = 1369) and incorporated into Níngbōfǔ; the prefectural status was not restored until the Qīng.

Translations and research

• No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. The work is regularly cited in scholarship on Yuán-Míng Zhōushān coastal administration, on Pǔtuó-shān religious history (e.g. Marcus Bingenheimer’s work on the Pǔtuó-shān gazetteer tradition), and on East Asian maritime trade.
• Hargett, James M. 1996. “Song dynasty local gazetteers and their place in the history of difangzhi writing.” HJAS 56.2: 405–42. Background on the Sòng-Yuán gazetteer continuum.
• Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. 6th ed. 2022. §§16.4.1, 64.3.3.1.
• Modern punctuated edition: in Sòng Yuán fāngzhì cóngkān 宋元方志叢刊 (Zhōnghuá, 1990), vol. 6.
• Bingenheimer, Marcus. Island of Guanyin: Mount Putuo and Its Gazetteers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Treats the Chāngguó-zhōu túzhì as the earliest substantial prefectural attestation of the Pǔtuó religious establishment, predating the dedicated mountain gazetteers.

Other points of interest

Féng Fújīng’s preface is one of the earliest sustained polemics in Chinese gazetteer-historiography against the genre’s tendency to flattery and falsification. His denunciation of the guāngnínglǐ sānzhāo 光寧理三朝 (the Guāngzōng / Níngzōng / Lǐzōng era) Sòng prefectural gazetteers as “the deceitful brushwork of the prefects’ boastful exaggerations” (hóumù kuāzhāng zhī dànbǐ 侯牧誇張之誕筆) is unusually frank for a gazetteer compiler describing his own genre. The work’s title túzhì 圖志 (rather than the more common zhì) reflects the genre’s older tújīng 圖經 origins; the loss of the three illustrations from the Sìkù copy represents a real loss to the early cartographic record of the Zhōushān archipelago and the Pǔtuó pilgrimage site.

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (6th ed., 2022).
• chinaknowledge.de
• ctext.org
• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11039700 (昌國州圖志)