Shízhù jì jiānshì 石柱記箋釋
Annotated Edition of the Stone-Pillar Record by 鄭元慶 (Zhèng Yuánqìng, b. 1660) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 5-juan early-Qīng annotated and supplemented edition of the Shízhù jì 石柱記 — a long-lost Táng-era stone-pillar inscription recording the mountains, rivers, tombs, ancient sites and ancient implements of Húzhōu 湖州 (Wúxīng 吳興) in Zhèjiāng, traditionally attributed to Yán Zhēnqīng 顏真卿 (709–785). The original stone, once erected at Zhùshān 杼山, had been buried in silt and lost long before the Sòng. Zhèng Yuánqìng — a Húzhōu native — recovered a rare Sòng printed edition of the Shízhù jì during his work on the new prefectural gazetteer (compiled 1701, Kāngxī xīnsì); Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊 of Xiùshuǐ 秀水 supplemented the records for Déqīng 德清 and Wǔkāng 武康 counties on the model of the Táng original; Zhèng then drew on a wide range of texts to provide critical annotations.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Shízhù jì jiānshì in five juan is the work of Zhèng Yuánqìng of our dynasty. Yuánqìng, zì Zhǐqí 芷畦, native of Guīān 歸安. The mountains and waters of Wúxīng are pure and beautiful; from the Six Dynasties on it has been called a famous commandery of the Southeast. From Táng times there was carved the Shízhù jì, which was set up at Zhùshān; it recorded that prefecture’s mountains, rivers, tombs, ancient sites and ancient implements in great detail. After it had been transmitted for many ages, the years and the names became blurred and unascertainable. Ōuyáng Xiū, in compiling the Jígǔ lù, held that for the unusual vigour of its brush-strokes, none other than Yán Zhēnqīng could have written it. Sūn Jué, when he was prefect of Húzhōu, gathered the stone-tablets and steles within the territory and built the Mòmiào tíng to store them — thirty-two pieces in all. The Shízhù was buried and silted over, and the Shízhù jì came to be lost and was no longer to be seen.
In Kāngxī xīnsì (1701) Yuánqìng, having completed the recompilation of the prefectural gazetteer, again sought out and obtained a Sòng-printed Shízhù jì, which is rarely seen in the world. But the original Húzhōu copy treated only three of the five counties; Zhū Yízūn of Xiùshuǐ accordingly, on the model of its arrangement, gleaned the records of Déqīng and Wǔkāng counties and edited and supplemented it. Yuánqìng selected from the various works material to provide annotation; his evidence is detailed and his examination precise — the work is fairly broad and rich and worth taking up. Although it cannot include without remainder all the excellent things of one prefecture, the lost ordinances and bequeathed reports — their general outlines are already roughly contained here; and it is something on which those investigating documents and reverently questioning must necessarily draw.
In the first month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781) we respectfully presented the corrected version. Director-General compilers (chén /) Jǐ Yún (紀昀), (chén /) Lù Xīxióng (陸錫熊), (chén /) Sūn Shìyì (孫士毅); Director-General proof-reader (chén /) Lù Fèichí (陸費墀).
Abstract
The Shízhù jì jiānshì is one of the principal early-Qīng monuments of local-historical philology for the lower Yangzi. Its base text — the Shízhù jì — was a Táng stone-pillar inscription erected on Zhùshān in Húzhōu, traditionally attributed to the calligrapher and statesman Yán Zhēnqīng (709–785) on the strength of Ōuyáng Xiū’s stylistic judgement in the Jígǔ lù 集古錄. The inscription was already largely illegible by the Northern Sòng — Sūn Jué 孫覺 (1028–1090), as prefect of Húzhōu, gathered the surviving steles into the Mòmiào tíng 墨妙亭 — and the stone itself was eventually lost to silting.
Zhèng Yuánqìng (b. 1660; CBDB 83738), zì Zhǐqí 芷畦, of Guīān 歸安 (today’s Húzhōu), recovered a rare Sòng printed text of the Shízhù jì in 1701 (Kāngxī xīnsì) while compiling the new Húzhōu prefectural gazetteer. Because the recovered Táng original treated only three of Húzhōu’s five counties (omitting Déqīng 德清 and Wǔkāng 武康), Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊 (1629–1709) of nearby Xiùshuǐ 秀水 supplemented the missing material on the Táng model. Zhèng then provided critical annotation drawing on a broad range of bibliographic sources. The work was submitted to the Sìkù compilers in Qiánlóng 46 (early 1781) under the direction of Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅, and Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
The work belongs to a small group of early-Qīng kǎo-jù-style local epigraphic-philological projects (the Húzhōu fǔzhì of 1702 being its companion volume), and its textual recovery of a Sòng print of the Shízhù jì makes it the principal modern witness to the Táng inscription. Preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 588.5).
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located in European languages. Standard Chinese references treat the work in the context of the historiography of Hú-zhōu local gazetteers; see entries on Hú-zhōu local-historical writing in standard reference works (Zhōngguó dìfāngzhì zǒnglù 中國地方志綜錄). Yán Zhēnqīng’s calligraphic œuvre and the Shízhù jì attribution are treated in McNair, Amy, The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics (Honolulu, 1998).
Links
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11128524 (Zhèng Yuánqìng)
- McNair, The Upright Brush (Honolulu, 1998)