Cháng’ān zhì 長安志
Gazetteer of Cháng’ān by 宋敏求 (Sòng Mǐnqiú, 1019–1079) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 20-juan Northern Sòng monograph on the Sòng-era Jīngzhàofǔ (Cháng’ān) region, the foundational documentary monograph on Cháng’ān as historical capital and the most important pre-Yuán urban-historical compilation in the Chinese tradition. Composed by Sòng Mǐnqiú (1019–1079), the great Sòng-era bibliophile and kǎogé scholar, drawing on Wéi Shù 韋述’s lost Táng Xījīng jì and many other sources, expanding it tenfold (per Sīmǎ Guāng’s praise). Coverage: city walls, government offices, mountains and rivers, road distances, fords and bridges, postal stations, customs and products, palaces and shrines, monasteries and temples — including the location of every Táng-era residence of literati and high officials. Praised by the Sìkù tíyào as the foundational source for our knowledge of Táng Cháng’ān; subject to one Sòng-Yuán-era critique (Chéng Dàchāng’s Yōnglù KR2k0094) noting some classification confusions, but the Sìkù tíyào defends the work as a “lofty timber not impaired by inch-snags.”
Tiyao
We respectfully note: this is the work of Sòng Mǐnqiú 宋敏求 of the Sòng. Mǐnqiú has the Táng dàzhàolìng, already catalogued. This compilation examines and corrects the antiquarian sites of the Chángguān (Cháng’ān region). Because Wéi Shù 韋述 of the Táng’s Xījīng jì was sketchy and incomplete, he therefore extensively gathered from many books, comparing and verifying to make a book.
For city walls, government offices, mountains and rivers, road distances, fords and bridges, postal stations, down to local customs and products, palaces and dwellings, monasteries and abbeys — the most minute is fully presented. The wards-and-markets’ twists and turns, and the locations of shìdàfū residences of the Táng’s flourishing time — all can each name their place, brilliant as if pointing to the palm.
Sīmǎ Guāng once judged that, examined against Wéi’s record, this is more than tenfold in detail. Now Wéi-shi’s book has long been lost; this gazetteer’s refined-and-broad, vast-and-abundant — the bequeathed matters of the Old Capital, by means of it gain transmission. It is in fact what other dìzhì cannot reach.
Chéng Dàchāng’s Yōnglù KR2k0094 says that its citation by category is most clear and analytic. Yet examined in detail, it cannot avoid times having multiplicity. As, for example, Qūtái having entered Wèiyāng, then again entering San-Yōng — this is dividing one into two. The Chángmén Palace is outside the imperial precincts, by the Chángmén pavilion-side; yet listed within the Chángxìn Palace — this loses its position. Further the palaces, halls, parks, and reserves often only preserve the name without recording the matter, so there is no way to trace and verify, etc. Although his words are not without basis, in fact this is a lofty material that should not be considered defective for an inch-snag.
Mǐnqiú further has the Hénán zhì, with editorial form slightly different but equally called full and broad. Today it is no longer extant. Further Yáng Shèn’s Dānqiān lù says that Dù Cháng’s Huáqīnggōng shī, seen in Cháng’ān zhì as among the verses, “Xiǎofēng (dawn breeze)” was made into “Xiǎoxīng (dawn star)” — examining the present version, indeed there is no such poem. Since Yáng Shèn delights in falsely attributing to old books, it is not enough as evidence — not that this gazetteer has any lacuna there. Only Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì records the existence of Zhào Yànruò’s preface; the present version does not have it; it must belong to manuscript-loss.
Abstract
The Cháng’ān zhì of Sòng Mǐnqiú is the foundational documentary monograph on Cháng’ān as historical capital. Its author Sòng Mǐnqiú (1019–1079, zì Cìdào 次道; CBDB id) was one of the most important bibliophile-historians of the early Northern Sòng — son of Sòng Shòu 宋綬 (the great early-Sòng kǎogé scholar), curator of the Imperial Library, and a principal compiler of the Táng dàzhàolìngjí and the Hénán zhì. The Cháng’ān zhì is his principal monograph on the Cháng’ān region.
The work superseded Wéi Shù 韋述’s lost mid-Táng Xījīng jì (the principal Táng monograph on Cháng’ān), with Sīmǎ Guāng’s testimony that Sòng’s compilation expands the Táng baseline tenfold. The Sìkù tíyào defends the work against Chéng Dàchāng’s Yōnglù critique of category-confusion (e.g. the Qūtái placement under both Wèiyāng and San-Yōng; the Chángmén Palace listed under Chángxìn Palace), endorsing the work as the most authoritative pre-Yuán Cháng’ān source. The text is preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 587.3); was integrated by Lǐ Hǎowén’s Yuán Cháng’ān zhìtú (KR2k0096) which is now bound together with it in some editions.
Translations and research
No complete English translation. Extensively cited in: Victor Cunrui Xiong, Sui-Tang Chang’an: A Study in the Urban History of Medieval China (Michigan, 2000) — the principal English-language monograph on Táng Cháng’ān, with the Cháng’ān zhì as principal source; Susan Whitfield, Life Along the Silk Road (UC Press, 1999); Edward H. Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand (UC Press, 1963), all using the work as a primary topographical source. Standard Chinese critical edition: Xīn Déyǒng 辛德勇 et al., Cháng’ān zhì (Sānqín, 2013).
Other points of interest
The Cháng’ān zhì is the most important Chinese monograph on a single historical city before the Yuán-era, and a foundational work for all subsequent Chinese urban-historical studies. Its method of using ward-by-ward listing of Táng shìdàfū residences is the principal source of our knowledge of the social geography of Táng Cháng’ān.