Yìbù fāngwù lüèjì 益部方物略記
Brief Record of the Local Products of the Yì Region (Sìchuān) by 宋祁 (Sòng Qí, 998–1061) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 1-juan early Northern-Sòng natural-history monograph on the local products of Yìzhōu 益州 (the Chéngdū basin and adjoining Sìchuān regions), composed in Jiāyòu 2 (1057) by Sòng Qí during his term as Duānmíng diàn xuéshì, Lìbù shìláng, and Prefect of Yìzhōu. The work supplements an earlier 28-species Jiànnán fāngwù by Shěn Lì 沈立 of Dōngyáng with additional dozens of items collected by Sòng during his tenure, yielding 65 species total: 41 plants, 9 medicinals, 8 birds and beasts, 7 insects and fish. Each entry is given a verse zàn 贊 (eulogy) followed by a prose zhù 註 (annotation) describing the form and properties of the species — the verse first, the prose-note following — in imitation of Guō Pú’s 郭璞 Shānhǎijīng túzàn. The accompanying illustrations have been lost. Notable entries include jūn 蒟 (betel/piper betle) — confirming the Hàn-era Táng Méng tribute item — and fùzǐ 附子 (Aconitum of Miánzhōu Zhāngmíng).
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Yìbù fāngwù lüèjì in one juan was composed by Sòng Qí of Sòng. Qí, zì Zǐjīng, native of Yōngqiū. Tiānshèng 2 jìnshì (1024); rose to Hànlín xuéshì chéngzhǐ, posthumous title Jǐngwén; affairs detailed in Sòngshǐ běnzhuàn. This compilation was made in Jiāyòu 2 (1057), when Qí, having gone from Duānmíng diàn xuéshì and Lìbù shìláng to be Prefect of Yìzhōu, drawing on the Jiànnán fāngwù in 28 species composed by Shěn Lì of Dōngyáng, supplemented its omissions: in all, plants 41, medicinals 9, birds and beasts 8, insects and fish 7 — 65 species — listed and illustrated, each carried by a zàn, with a note attached to the heading on its form-and-state — the zàn before, the heading-note after; the format of old books was largely thus: the present Ěryǎ still has this form. The illustrations are now lost.
The zàn are all archaic-and-refined; presumably he forced himself to imitate Guō Pú’s Shānhǎijīng túzàn, often coming close to it. The zhù are rather laboured and obstructed, also resembling his own composition of the Xīn Tángshū; presumably Sòng Qí’s prefatory-and-record-prose are of this kind.
Hú Zhènhēng’s colophon cites Fàn Chéngdà’s Shèngruì huā shī to verify that the flower opens in spring and summer, against Sòng’s note saying it all opens in autumn — but that may be due to inconsistent climates with each side recording what it sees. Citing Xuē Tāo’s Yuānyāng cǎo poem with the line “but pleasure-takes the spring days are long, no mind to autumn-wind being early,” to verify against Sòng’s note that the herb’s spring leaves grow late — that is excessive splitting of branch-and-knot. “Spring days already long” — if not late spring, what is it? As for the Yú měirén cǎo — that is a borrowing of a person’s name to name a thing, like the chrysanthemum being styled “Xīshī” — it is unnecessary to alter to Yú měirén cǎo and provide a strained gloss; that is mere over-elaboration. Respectfully proof-read in the fourth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Director-General compilers (chén /) Jǐ Yún, (chén /) Lù Xīxióng, (chén /) Sūn Shìyì; Director-General proof-reader (chén /) Lù Fèichí.
The Hú Zhènhēng colophon notes the work’s debt to Wàn Zhèn’s Nánzhōu zhì (which used rhymed zàn) and Jiāng Yān’s Wúxìng cǎomù sòng — preserving an YīnLiùcháo precedent for the rhymed-eulogy format.
Abstract
The Yìbù fāngwù lüèjì is one of the principal Northern-Sòng monographs on the natural history of Sìchuān. It was composed in Jiāyòu 2 (1057) by the great mid-Sòng historian-poet Sòng Qí 宋祁 (998–1061; zì Zǐjīng 子京; CBDB 1558) — co-compiler with Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修 of the Xīn Tángshū — during his tenure as Prefect of Yìzhōu (Chéngdū). It supplements an earlier 28-species Jiànnán fāngwù by Shěn Lì 沈立 (1007–1078) of Dōngyáng with material collected on the spot, yielding 65 species in four categories (plants, medicinals, birds-and-beasts, insects-and-fish), each entry presented as a rhymed zàn eulogy followed by a prose annotation describing the species’ habitat and uses, in deliberate imitation of Guō Pú’s Shānhǎijīng túzàn.
The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 589.6) without the original illustrations. It is an important Sòng witness to Hàn-Wèi-period plant-name traditions: it confirms, for instance, that jūn 蒟 (betel-pepper, piper betle) — the famous Hàn-era Táng Méng 唐蒙 tribute item — was still cultivated in Yúzhōu, Lúzhōu, Màozhōu, and Wēizhōu in the eleventh century. It also gives an early Sòng pharmacological notice on Miánzhōu Zhāngmíng 彰明 fùzǐ (Aconitum carmichaelii) — anticipating Yáng Tiānhuì’s 楊天惠 better-known Fùzǐ jì of the early twelfth century.
The Sìkù colophon by Hú Zhènhēng notes that the work belongs to a tradition of rhymed-zàn natural-history writing going back to Wàn Zhèn’s 萬震 Nánzhōu zhì (3rd c.) and Jiāng Yān’s 江淹 Wúxìng cǎomù sòng (5th c.).
Translations and research
No comprehensive English translation. Edward H. Schafer, The Vermilion Bird: T’ang Images of the South (UC Press, 1967), and Schafer’s The Empire of Min (Tokyo, 1954) cite the work passim. For Sòng Qí see ECCP-style entries in Hervouet, ed., A Sung Bibliography. Standard Chinese references: Cáo Liànggǔ 曹亮古, Yìbù fāngwù lüèjì critical editions (various); Lǐ Líng 李零, “Sòng Qí Yìbù fāngwù lüèjì and the natural history of medieval Sìchuān,” in Wén-shǐ-zhé (various issues).
Other points of interest
The fact that the work was composed by one of the most distinguished Sòng historians and poets in the very year (1057) when he was completing the Xīn Tángshū lěizhuàn collaboration with Ōuyáng Xiū makes it an unusual instance of the great Sòng historiographer turning his hand to natural history — a marker of the Sòng-period synthesis of kǎojù, natural-history, and regional gazetteering.
Links
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6053311 (Sòng Qí)
- Hervouet, A Sung Bibliography (1978), s.v.