Lǐngbiǎo lùyì 嶺表錄異
Records of the Strange Things Beyond the Ridges by 劉恂 (Liú Xún, late-Táng / Five-Dynasties) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 3-juan late-Táng / early Five-Dynasties fēngtǔ monograph on the natural products and customs of Lǐngnán (the lands south of the Five-Ridges), composed by Liú Xún 劉恂 — Sīmǎ of Guǎngzhōu under Zhāozōng (r. 888–904) — who, after his term ended, settled in Nánhǎi rather than return to the war-torn metropolitan region. The work survives in fragmentary and reconstituted form: it was completely lost in the late Mǐng, with only a few short fragments preserved in the Bǎichuān xuéhǎi and Shuōfú; the Sìkù compilers reconstructed three juan from passages in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn supplemented by citations in the Tàipíng huányǔ jì, Tàipíng guǎngjì, and Tàipíng yùlǎn. The reconstructed text is the principal extant pre-Sòng documentary witness for Lǐngnán natural history, and is uniquely valuable for its treatment of marine creatures, tropical plants, and southern customs unknown in the metropolitan tradition.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Lǐngbiǎo lùyì in three juan, the old text headed “composed by Liú Xún of the Táng.” The Sòng monk Zànníng’s Sǔnpǔ says that Xún under Zhāozōng was sent forth as Sīmǎ of Guǎngzhōu; on completing his term Cháng’ān was disturbed, so he settled in Nánhǎi and composed the Lǐngbiǎo lù. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí also says he was a man of Zhāozōng’s time. But examining the work, it says “Táng Qiánfú 4 (877),” and again “Táng Zhāozōng upon ascending the throne” — a Táng subject ought to refer to his sovereign as such; he should not directly call him by the dynasty-style; nor should a Zhāo-zōng-era man use the posthumous title in advance. Probably the work was completed in the Five Dynasties.
The YuèDōng yúdì works such as Guō Yìgōng’s Guǎng zhì and Shěn Huáiyuǎn’s Nányuè zhì have all been lost; among what the various authors cite, Xún’s compilation is the oldest. But the Bǎichuān xuéhǎi and Shuōfú preserve only a few lacunose pages, head and tail incomplete. They merely transcribed a few entries from encyclopedias to fill out the title. Xún’s original recension has long been lost.
The Sòng compilations Tàipíng huányǔ jì, Tàipíng guǎngjì, and Tàipíng yùlǎn cite extensively, but with many gaps. Only the entries scattered in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn are systematically arranged and can be edited; we have therefore gone juan by juan to gather them and supplement them with citations from various other works, arranging the text. It still forms three juan, restoring the Tángzhì’s old number. Although volumes of the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn are missing and impossible to verify — there must be one or two omissions — checking against the various other works it appears that eight or nine parts in ten are recovered. Táng works transmitted to the world are rare; even broken slips and dilapidated chapters are worthy of treasuring. Now from amid the lost-and-scattered, the complete chapters have been re-formed, so that what 300–400 years of broad-learned gentlemen have not seen is suddenly returned to its old appearance — a treasure indeed.
The format of Xún’s book is unrecoverable, so we do not dare force a divisional arrangement; we have only allowed each entry to be grouped with its kind, for the convenience of inspection. The records are abundant; the prose is ancient and refined; in matters of insects, fish, plants, and trees the records are especially numerous; the philological glosses on names and meanings are mostly precise and exact. Yè Tíngguī’s Hǎilù suìshì, in glossing the Ěryǎ kuílù, cites this work’s wǎlǒng (tile-roof oysters) to verify it. Zhāng Shìnán’s Yóuhuàn jìwén cites Guō Pú’s Ěryǎ zhù on the rhinoceros having three horns, then refers to the present work’s saying “two horns” to argue against him. From every age the kǎojù scholars have used the work as evidence; it is not only the gnomon of cartographic-gazetteer literature, but also a stream of the Cāngyǎ tradition, of much utility in xiǎoxué — not slightly so.
The various works cite the title sometimes as Lǐngbiǎo lù, sometimes as Lǐngbiǎo jì, sometimes as Lǐngbiǎo yìlù, sometimes as Lǐngbiǎo lùyì jì, sometimes as Lǐngnán lùyì — examining the words and phrases, all are this same work; presumably because the original was lost and the texts came down through chains of transcription, in transmission a number of names have arisen. Only the title under which the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn records it agrees with the Tángzhì; we have therefore followed that to preserve its truth. Respectfully proof-read in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 41 (1776).
Director-General compilers (chén /) Jǐ Yún, (chén /) Lù Xīxióng, (chén /) Sūn Shìyì; Director-General proof-reader (chén /) Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Lǐngbiǎo lùyì is one of the principal late-Táng documentary monographs on the natural history and ethnography of Lǐngnán, ranking with the Běihù lù KR2k0106 of Duàn Gōnglù as a key witness to the lost pre-Sòng fēngtǔ literature. Its author Liú Xún 劉恂 (otherwise undocumented; the Sǔnpǔ of the Sòng monk Zànníng is the principal source for his career) served as Sīmǎ of Guǎngzhōu under Zhāozōng (r. 888–904), and following the political collapse at the Cháng’ān end of his term, settled in Nánhǎi, where he composed the present work. The Sìkù tíyào notes — on the strength of internal references calling Zhāozōng by his temple-title — that the work as a whole was completed only after Zhāozōng’s death (i.e. early Five Dynasties, ca. 905–940).
The work treats Lǐngnán natural products in three juan: aquatic creatures (juan 1), terrestrial fauna and birds (juan 2), and plants and trees (juan 3), with substantial entries on local customs, foods, and unusual phenomena throughout. It is uniquely valuable for its careful philological glosses, its early documentation of southern technical terms, and its records of southern marine biota (oysters, wǎlǒng tile-roof oysters, sharks, rhinoceros). The Yè Tíngguī Hǎilù suìshì, Zhāng Shìnán Yóuhuàn jìwén, Lù Yóu Lǎoxuéān bǐjì, and other Sòng works regularly cite it as a textual authority.
The original was lost by the early Míng. The Sìkù tíyào reconstruction is based on (i) entries scattered through the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, (ii) citations in Tàipíng huányǔ jì, Tàipíng guǎngjì, Tàipíng yùlǎn, and (iii) the Sòng / Yuán lèishū tradition — yielding the present 3-juan text. Title variants (Lǐngbiǎo lù, Lǐngbiǎo jì, Lǐngbiǎo yìlù, Lǐngbiǎo lùyì jì, Lǐngnán lùyì) all refer to this same work and indicate the multiplicity of its surviving textual streams.
The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 589.5).
Translations and research
No comprehensive English translation. Edward H. Schafer’s The Vermilion Bird: T’ang Images of the South (UC Press, 1967) uses the Lǐng-biǎo lùyì extensively as one of its principal Chinese sources. See also Hugh Clark, Community, Trade, and Networks: Southern Fujian Province from the Third to the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1991). For the textual reconstruction see Lǐ Lì 李力, Lǐngbiǎo lùyì jiào-bǔ 嶺表錄異校補 (Guǎngzhōu: Guǎngdōng rénmín, 1983).
Links
- Wikidata
- Schafer, The Vermilion Bird (UC Press, 1967)