Běihù lù 北戶錄
Records of the North-Facing Doors (i.e. Lǐngnán) by 段公路 (Duàn Gōnglù, 9th c.) — zhuàn 撰; with annotations by 龜圖 (Guītú) — zhù 註
About the work
A 3-juan late-Táng fēngtǔ (geographical-customs) treatise on the lands “facing North” — Lǐngnán, qua lying south of the Five-Ridges and architecturally with their doors opening northwards — assembled from the author’s personal observations during his travels in the South. Composed in the Xiántōng 咸通 era (860–874) of Yìzōng’s reign by Duàn Gōnglù, grandson of the chief minister Duàn Wénchāng 段文昌. The work is divided thematically and is principally devoted to natural products — flora, fauna, marine creatures, regional foodstuffs — and local customs of the Lǐngnán region; each entry is followed by extensive annotations attributed to one Guītú 龜圖, Dēngshìláng and former Cānjūn, presumed to be a kinsman of Duàn but unidentified in the Tángshū genealogical tables. Title “Běihù” derives from the standard Chinese trope (already in the HòuHàn shū) of houses south of the equator opening their doors northward to the sun.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Běihù lù in three juan was composed by Duàn Gōnglù of the Táng (the Xuéhǎi lèibiān writes “Gōnglù” with lù 璐 — a zì error). The Xīn Tángshū yìwénzhì calls him grandson of the chief minister Wénchāng — therefore he should be a man of Línzī. The Xuéhǎi lèibiān makes him of Dōngmóu, but its source is unclear. His career — beginning, middle, end — cannot be ascertained; we know only from the heading that he held office as Magistrate-Aide of Wànnián county in Jīngzhào. From mention in the work of Xiántōng 10 (869) we know him to have been a man of Yìzōng’s time. The work records the customs and topography of Lǐngnán very fully, and is especially detailed on natural products. Its citations are also extremely thorough: works such as the Huáinán wànbì shù, Guǎng zhì, Nányuè zhì, Nányì yìwù zhì, Huìyào língzhī túshuō, Chén Cángqì’s Běncǎo, Tángyùn, Guō Yuánshēng’s Shùzhēng jì, Línhǎi yìwù zhì, TáoZhūgōng’s Yǎngyú jīng, Míngyuàn, Máoshī yìyì, Chuánshén jì, Zìlín, Guǎngzhōu jì, the Fúnán zhuàn — all today scattered and lost — by means of this we glimpse one or two passages. Even what it cites of Zhāng Huá’s Bówù zhì much exceeds the present text, and serves to verify the genuineness of the received recension.
The annotation-text by Dēngshì láng and former Cānjūn Guītú is fairly substantial. The Zhuàn does not record his surname; he seems to be of Gōnglù’s clan; but the Tángshū chéngxiàng shìxì biǎo does not record his name, and we cannot know for certain. The Tángzhì yìwén makes the title Běihù zálù — we suspect “zá” is a transcription-redundancy. The three juan agree with the present text. The Xuéhǎi lèibiān edition has only one juan and contains 51 entries on natural products — not the complete book; the works recorded by Cáo Róng are often like this and not worth deep cross-questioning. Respectfully proof-read in the fourth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
The original preface by Lù Xīshēng 陸希聲 (the late-Táng minister, here as Yòu shíyí nèi gōngfèng) describes Duàn Gōnglù as zì “Dōngmóu Duànjūn Gōnglù,” grandson of the Zōupíng gōng (i.e. Duàn Wénchāng), who as a young man already loved books and learning, served in Lǐngnán, and on his travels recorded the customs, foods, music, and natural products of the local people in this work — Lù vouches for Duàn’s veracity and contrasts his sober treatment with the wild fictions of typical xiǎoshuō.
Abstract
The Běihù lù is the principal late-Táng documentary monograph on the natural history and ethnography of Lǐngnán (modern Guǎngdōng, Guǎngxī, and Hǎinán). Its author Duàn Gōnglù 段公路 (fl. mid-to-late ninth century), grandson of the Yuánhé / Chángqìng chief minister Duàn Wénchāng 段文昌 (773–835) of Línzī 臨淄, served as Magistrate-Aide (xiànwèi) of Wànnián 萬年 county in Jīngzhào. The work was compiled during his service in Lǐngnán; the latest internal date is Xiántōng 10 (869), giving the terminus post quem. The original preface by Lù Xīshēng 陸希聲 places the composition before Guānghuà 1 (898) at the latest.
The work’s principal scholarly contribution is its citation of pre-Táng works that are otherwise lost — Huáinán wànbì shù, the Guǎng zhì of Guō Yìgōng 郭義恭, the Nányuè zhì of Shěn Huáiyuǎn 沈懷遠, the Nányì yìwù zhì, Línhǎi yìwù zhì, the Yǎngyú jīng attributed to Táo Zhūgōng (Fàn Lǐ), the Zìlín, the Guǎngzhōu jì, the Fúnán zhuàn, and many others — making it a key witness to the lost geographical literature of pre-Táng China. It is moreover the textually-secure foundation of all later Lǐngnán monographic literature (the Lǐngbiǎo lùyì KR2k0108, the Lǐngwài dàidá KR2k0116, etc.).
The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 589.3). The Xuéhǎi lèibiān one-juan abridgement is fragmentary; the Sìkù 3-juan recension is the standard text.
The annotator “Guītú” 龜圖 — Dēngshì láng and former Cānjūn — is unidentified beyond his probable kinship with Duàn Gōnglù.
Translations and research
No comprehensive English translation. The work is regularly cited in studies of pre-modern Lǐng-nán historical anthropology and ethnobotany; see Hugh Clark, Community, Trade, and Networks: Southern Fujian Province from the Third to the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1991), and Edward H. Schafer, The Vermilion Bird: T’ang Images of the South (UC Press, 1967), which uses the Běihù lù extensively. For the Lǐng-nán lost-text tradition see also Schafer’s The Empire of Min (Tokyo, 1954).
Links
- Wikidata
- Schafer, The Vermilion Bird (UC Press, 1967)