Yuèyáng fēngtǔ jì 岳陽風土記
Record of the Customs and Topography of Yuè-yáng by 范致明 (Fàn Zhìmíng, jìnshì 1099) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 1-juan Northern-Sòng fēngtǔ and antiquarian monograph on Yuèzhōu 岳州 (Yuèyáng, on the eastern shore of Dòngtíng Lake), composed during the author’s relegation as supervisor of commercial taxation (Xuāndé láng jiān shāngshuì) in Yuèzhōu after his Yuánfú (1098–1100) advancement. Not divided into thematic sections, the entries proceed in order of their substance — but the work is unusually careful in its critical handling of administrative-history changes (yángé), mountain-and-river toponymy, and the persistence or disappearance of ancient sites. It systematically corrects errors in the Tàipíng huányǔ jì, the Yuèzhōu tújīng, the Hànyáng tújīng, the Tōngdiǎn, the Shuǐjīng zhù, and Shěn Yàzhī’s Xiāngzhōng yuàn jì on points of local topographical fact (e.g. the relation of the Yangzi to Dòngtíng Lake; the identification of the Zhèngwáng miào with Zhèng Wénxiù not Zhèng Délín; the correct location of Cáo Cāo’s defeat at Wūlín; the identification of Huáróng with the ancient Zhānghuá tái). The Sìkù tíyào commends it as one of the finest examples of the Sòng fēngtǔ genre.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Yuèyáng fēngtǔ jì in one juan was composed by Fàn Zhìmíng of Sòng. Zhìmíng, zì Huìshū, native of Jiànān; in the Yuánfú era (1098–1100) he ascended to jìnshì. This compilation is what he made when banished to Yuèzhōu serving as Xuāndé láng and supervisor of commercial taxation. He does not divide the work into subjects but records each matter as it comes. Although the book is one juan, on prefectural-and-county changes-and-evolution, on mountain-and-river alterations, on the survival or disappearance of ancient traces — its evidence is especially detailed.
[Among examples:] Lè Shǐ’s Tàipíng huányǔ jì says that the Great River flows into Dòngtíng; Zhìmíng says that Dòngtíng meets the Yangzi but the Yangzi does not flow into Dòngtíng — only when the JīngJiāng in summer-autumn floods does it backflow into it, and after five days returns; this is called “fānliú shuǐ.”
The tújīng takes the Zhèngwáng miào to be Zhèng Délín; Zhìmíng says it is Zhèng Wénxiù of late Suí, who together with Dǒng Jǐngzhēn established Xiāo Xiǎn — therefore to the north there is also a Dǒngwáng miào.
Shěn Yàzhī’s Xiāngzhōng yuàn jì says that on the Yuèyáng tower one heard the song of the fànrén (rafters); Zhìmíng verifies by topography and says that a song from a boat could not be made out from the tower.
Dù Yòu’s Tōngdiǎn says that in Bāqiū Lake there is Cáozhōu — that is, where Cáo Gōng was defeated by Wú and burned the ships, now forty lǐ south of the county; Zhìmíng says that today west of the county there is only the Cáo Gōng dù, but in topography it bears no relation whatever to the meeting-point of Zhōu Yú and Cáo Cāo.
The Hànyáng tújīng says that Chìbì is Wūlín; Zhìmíng says that since Cáo Cāo had already arrived at Bāqiū, then Sūn and Liú must have met him at Bālíng / Jiāngxià — what is called Wūlín is Wūlí kǒu, and originally has nothing to do with Hànyáng.
The world-tradition takes Huáróng to be the Zhānghuá tái; Zhìmíng says the old terrace was at Jǐnglíng, while Huáróng is a Suí county that took the ancient name of Róngchéng.
Zhèng Dàoyuán’s Shuǐjīng zhù says that the Lǐ meets the Yuán and only then enters the Lake; Zhìmíng says that although the Lǐ and the Yuán are connected, each enters the Lake separately — the Lǐ at Lǐkǒu, the Yuán at Dǐngjiāng kǒu — all confidently with documentary support, different from other gazetteers’ fanciful interpolations.
The remaining lost reports and bequeathed events are useful for selection; the narration is unusually elegant and clean. Among Sòng-period fēngtǔ writings it can be considered a fine text. Respectfully proof-read in the second month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780).
Director-General compilers (chén /) Jǐ Yún, (chén /) Lù Xīxióng, (chén /) Sūn Shìyì; Director-General proof-reader (chén /) Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Yuèyáng fēngtǔ jì is one of the most highly regarded Sòng fēngtǔ monographs, composed in early Chóngníng / Dàguān (ca. 1102–1110) by Fàn Zhìmíng 范致明 (zì Huìshū 晦叔, native of Jiànān 建安 in Mǐn; CBDB 12975, jìnshì 1099). After his jìnshì under Zhézōng he was banished to Yuèzhōu (Yuèyáng) under Huīzōng as a Xuāndé láng with concurrent supervision of commercial taxation; the present work was composed during that exile.
The work is exceptional for its critical handling of local toponymy and administrative history. Each entry confronts an inherited identification — drawn from the Tàipíng huányǔ jì, the Yuèzhōu and Hànyáng tújīng, the Tōngdiǎn, the Shuǐjīng zhù, or Shěn Yàzhī’s Xiāngzhōng yuàn jì — and either confirms or corrects it on the basis of personal observation and kǎozhèng analysis. The corrections of the Cáo Cāo / Chìbì / Wūlín topography in light of the geography of the Three-Kingdoms naval campaign of 208 CE are particularly important.
The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 589.7).
Translations and research
No comprehensive English translation. The work is regularly cited in studies of Three-Kingdoms historical geography and Dòng-tíng Lake hydrology. See Rafe de Crespigny, Generals of the South: The Foundation and Early History of the Three Kingdoms State of Wu (Canberra, 1990), and de Crespigny’s A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (Brill, 2007). For the historical hydrology of Dòng-tíng Lake see Pierre-Étienne Will, Bureaucracy and Famine in Eighteenth-Century China (Stanford, 1990), and Liú Pī-ōu 劉沛歐, Dòng-tíng hú yánjiū 洞庭湖研究.
Links
- Wikidata: Sòng person not yet linked
- de Crespigny, Generals of the South (Canberra, 1990)