Dūchéng jìshèng 都城紀勝
Record of the Splendours of the Capital (i.e. Línān / Hángzhōu) by 耐得翁 (Nàidéwēng, fl. 1235) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 1-juan Southern-Sòng monograph on the urban culture of Línān 臨安 (Hángzhōu), the Southern-Sòng xíngzài (temporary capital). Composed in Duānpíng 2 (1235) by an author who concealed his name under the hào “Nàidéwēng” 耐得翁 (“the Old Man Who Endures”). The work is divided into fourteen subject-categories: markets (shìjǐng), trades (zhūháng), wineshops (jiǔsì), restaurants (shídiàn), tea-houses (cháfáng), the Sìsī liùjú (court-and-private-banquet service-corps), variety-theatres (wǎshè zhòngjì), social-religious associations (shèhuì), gardens and parks (yuányuàn), boats (zhōuchuán), shop-stalls (pùxí), wards and gardens (fāngyuàn), idlers (xiánrén), and the “non-Three-Teaching outsiders” (Sānjiào wàidì, i.e. the heterodox sects). The work is the earliest of a sub-genre of Southern-Sòng nostalgic-and-celebratory monographs on Hángzhōu (later including KR2k0118 Mèngliáng lù, KR2k0119 Wǔlín jiùshì) that are the principal documentary sources for Southern-Sòng urban-popular culture.
The Sìkù copy is preceded by an imperial preface (yùtí) by the Qiánlóng emperor in seven-character heptasyllabic verse, who criticises the author for celebrating Hángzhōu’s prosperity at a time (1235) when the Southern Sòng had recently joined the Mongol attack on the Jīn (1234) and was within a generation of its own destruction. The Qiánlóng prologue notes that the author concealed his name precisely because he knew the work, written in a tone of self-congratulation in a moment of strategic complacency, would invite ridicule from later generations.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Dūchéng jìshèng in one juan does not bear the name of its compiler, but is signed Nàidéwēng. The book was completed in Duānpíng 2 (1235) and records all the small affairs of Hángzhōu, divided into fourteen mén — markets, trades, wineshops, restaurants, tea-houses, the Sìsī liùjú, wǎshè zhòngjì, shèhuì, yuányuàn, boats, shop-stalls, wards, idlers, and Sānjiào wàidì — narrated in considerable detail; one can see from it the general outline of customs and mínfēng after the Crossing-South.
Examining: when Gāozōng halted at Línān, it was called xíngzài; although his pleasures by lake and mountain already had no thought of recovering the Central Plains, the term was not changed. Hence in Qiándào, when Zhōu Cóng compiled the Línān zhì, he still used the old appellations for the imperial gardens and the Hundred Officials’ bureaus; Qián Yuèyǒu’s gazetteer also followed it. This work directly bears the title “Dūchéng” — the official documents merely flowed in their old set forms, while the people, with eyes-and-ears long steeped, took it to be a permanent settlement.
Further, the histories record that in Duānpíng 1 (1234) Mèng Gǒng joined the Yuán army to extinguish the Jìn. At that time the old enemy was gone and new troubles had not yet appeared; men dwelt as swallows nest in eaves of a hall, with no further long view. This work was made in Duānpíng 2 (1235), exactly when scholars and warriors were idling in negligent merry-making — hence the rush toward extravagance, reaching this point. The author wished to celebrate the prosperity, yet himself knew that hasty peacefulness was shameworthy; therefore he concealed his name and did not record it.
We have respectfully read the imperial title-poem and noted with awe how the imperial inspection penetrated to its subtle meaning. Were we to summon up the author and question him, he would also have nothing to say in defence. Since the old traces and bequeathed reports it contains are still useful for kǎohé, we record it. Respectfully proof-read in the eleventh month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Abstract
The Dūchéng jìshèng is the earliest of the Southern-Sòng monographs on the urban culture of Línān (Hángzhōu), and the model for the later Mèngliáng lù KR2k0118 of Wú Zìmù (1274) and Wǔlín jiùshì KR2k0119 of Zhōu Mì (post-1276). It was composed in Duānpíng 2 (1235) by an author who took the hào “Nàidéwēng” 耐得翁 (“the One Who Endures”), concealing his actual identity. Modern scholarship has tentatively identified him with one Zhào Shīmèi 趙師美 of the Sòng imperial clan (per Zhōu Mì’s Guǐxīn záshí), though this is not universally accepted; the Lìshì rénmíng dà cídiǎn tentatively gives Zhào.
The work treats Hángzhōu’s urban-popular culture in 14 categories, with valuable detailed descriptions of the wǎshè variety-theatres (the principal source for early Southern-Sòng entertainment culture, zájù drama, qǔyì arts, storytelling, magic, and acrobatics), the Sìsī liùjú private-and-public banquet-service guilds (a unique source for Sòng-period professional catering), the markets and trades, and the social-religious associations (shèhuì).
The work was written in a tone of urban self-celebration that the Qiánlóng emperor (in his prefatory verse to the Sìkù copy) sharply criticised as showing strategic complacency only forty years before the Mongol conquest of the south (1276). The Sìkù tíyào notes that the author concealed his name precisely because he was aware of this — choosing the hào “Nàidéwēng” with its self-deprecating implications.
The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 590.1).
Translations and research
- Jacques Gernet, Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250–1276 (Stanford, 1962), uses the Dū-chéng jì-shèng as one of its principal source-texts.
- Lin Yutang, Imperial Peking (NY, 1961, brief reference).
- Stephen H. West, “Playing with Food: Performance, Food, and the Aesthetics of Artificiality in the Sung and Yuan,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 57.1 (1997): 67–106.
- Ye Xiaoqing, The Dianshizhai Pictorial: Shanghai Urban Life, 1884–1898 (Ann Arbor, 2003) — for comparative urban-history.
- Wilkinson §74.4.
- Zhōu Mì 周密, Guǐxīn zá-shí 癸辛雜識 (KR3j0093), records the Nài-dé-wēng identification with Zhào Shī-mèi.
Other points of interest
The wǎshè zhòngjì section is the single most important pre-Yuán Chinese-language source for Sòng-period urban entertainment culture — including the only documentary sources for early zájù dramatic structure, gōngdiào musical performance, professional storytelling sub-genres, puppet theatre, and other popular arts that would later flow into Yuán zájù.
Links
- Wikidata
- Gernet, Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion (Stanford, 1962)
- Wilkinson §74.4