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歷代帝王宅京記

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Text ID
KR2k0057
Date
1660–1682
Dynasty
清

Lìdài dìwáng zháijīng jì 歷代帝王宅京記

Records of the Capitals of Successive Dynasties’ Sovereigns by 顧炎武 (Gù Yánwǔ, 1613–1682) — zhuàn 撰

About the work

A 20-juan historical-geographical study of the capitals of successive Chinese dynasties from Fúxī through to the Yuán, by the Míng-loyalist polymath Gù Yánwǔ. The first two juan are general (zǒnglùn 總論) and the remaining eighteen treat the capitals individually by dynasty, recording in each case the city walls, palaces, ward-and-market layouts, temples and monasteries, with dates of foundation and historical events. The model declared by Gù himself is the Sòng-era pair Yōnglù 雍錄 (Chéng Dàchāng KR2k0094) and Cháng’ān zhì 長安志 (Sòng Mǐnqiú KR2k0092) — the two most authoritative pre-Yuán Cháng’ān urban-historical compilations.

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Lìdài dìwáng zháijīng jì in 20 juan is the work of Gù Yánwǔ of our dynasty. What it records is the institutions of capital establishment of successive dynasties, beginning above with Fúxī and ending below with the Yuán. Following the editorial conventions of the Yōnglù and the Cháng’ān zhì, it sets out in full the city-walls, palace-quarters, towns-and-wards, temples and monasteries, together with the dates and circumstances of their establishment. The first two juan form the general treatise; the latter eighteen juan give detailed coverage by dynastic period of the beginning-and-end of each. Citation is detailed and accurate, and the textual investigation is also remarkably refined and judicious — for geographical scholarship is the area in which Yánwǔ is by long custom pre-eminent.

The manuscript copies of this work are not uniform. The version submitted by Zhèjiāng was only the two juan of the general preface. Compared with the present version, the latter contains in addition the entry on Táng Dàizōng’s reign, Guǎngdé 1/10 (763), in which the Tǔbō (Tibetans) violated the imperial precincts and the emperor sojourned at Shǎnzhōu, and the entry on Yuán Shùndì, Zhìyuán 25 (1288), changing the Nánjīng circuit to Biànjīng circuit, the Běijīng circuit to Wǔpíng circuit, the Xījīng circuit to Dàtóng circuit, the Dōngjīng circuit to Liáoyáng circuit. As there has been no printed block, the rotating manuscript transmission could not avoid corruptions, lacunae, and inconsistencies. The present is the version submitted from Húběi: complete from beginning to end, comparatively full and finished, and so on its juan-divisions we record it.

Reverently collated and submitted, second month, Qiánlóng 45 (1780). General Editorial Officers Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅; General Collation Officer Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Lìdài dìwáng zháijīng jì is one of the principal monuments of Gù Yánwǔ’s historical-geographical scholarship, alongside his Tiānxià jùnguó lìbìng shū 天下郡國利病書 and Zhàoyù zhì 肇域志. Its declared model is the Sòng-era Yōnglù and Cháng’ān zhì, but its scope is far more ambitious — covering all the major dynastic capitals from the legendary Fúxī through to the Mongol Yuán, with substantial coverage of pre-Qín capitals (the Three Dynasties), Han Cháng’ān, Eastern-Han Luòyáng, CáoWèi Yè, Sòng Biànjīng (Kāifēng), LiáoJīn Yānjīng, and Yuán Dàdū. The work is a compilation of textual sources rather than a travel-record; its principal value lies in its careful citation of pre-Sòng historiographical and archaeological sources for each capital, with Gù’s own kǎozhèng annotations marking the author’s distinctive contribution.

The work circulated in manuscript only during the Qīng dynasty and was first printed in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū version on the basis of the Húběi-submitted manuscript. The Sìkù tíyào explicitly notes the variant versions: the Zhèjiāng-submitted manuscript carried only the zǒnglùn 總論 first two juan, while the Húběi version carried the full 20 juan with two additional substantive entries on Táng (763 Tǔbō incursion) and Yuán (1288 circuit-name reform). The work was a major source for Qián-Jiā-era kǎojù studies of pre-modern Chinese urban history, and remains a foundational reference for the historical geography of the imperial capitals. Wilkinson §3.1.3 cites Gù Yánwǔ as the principal authority on dynastic toponymy.

Translations and research

No comprehensive English translation. Cited or excerpted in: Hok-lam Chan, Legends of the Building of Old Peking (Chinese University Press, 2008); Nancy Steinhardt, Chinese Imperial City Planning (Hawaii, 1990); Victor Cunrui Xiong, Capital Cities and Urban Form in Pre-modern China: Luoyang, 1038 BC to AD 938 (Routledge, 2017). For the historiographical position of the work see Joël Thoraval, “Gu Yanwu et la géographie historique,” Études chinoises 17 (1998); Willard J. Peterson, “The Life of Ku Yen-wu (1613–1682),” HJAS 28 (1968) and 29 (1969). Chinese standard reference: Hú Wén-kǎi 胡文楷, Gù Yánwǔ nián-pǔ 顧炎武年譜 (Shānghǎi gǔjí, 1985).

Other points of interest

The work’s two-fold structure — zǒnglùn (general treatise) followed by chronologically-ordered detailed treatments — was an editorial innovation that influenced later Qīng historical-geographical compilation. The zǒnglùn in particular contains Gù’s most concentrated theoretical statement on the political and ritual significance of imperial capital establishment.

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