Yóu Chéngnán jì 遊城南記
Record of an Excursion to the South of the City (i.e. of Chángān) by 張禮 (Zhāng Lǐ, fl. 1086) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 1-juan Northern-Sòng yóujì (travel-record) — the first work in the Sìkù dìlǐ category 9 (yóujì zhī shǔ) — composed by Zhāng Lǐ in Yuányòu 1 (1086), recording his and his friend Chén Wéimíng’s 陳微明 (a Chǔ / Húběi native) excursion through the southern environs of Chángān (modern Xī’ān) in search of the ancient Táng-period ward (fāng) and monastery sites. With self-annotation by the author. The work is the principal Sòng-period documentary monograph on the post-Táng topography of Chángān’s south suburb and on the surviving traces of the Táng imperial-capital topography one and a half centuries after the dynasty’s collapse. Notable for its critical kǎozhèng of received topographical information: it corrects, e.g., the Jiāhuà lù’s assignment of the start of Cíēn sì tímíng (the famous Cíēnsì wall of jìnshì graduate signatures) to Zhāng Jǔ — Zhāng Lǐ cites the Táng dēngkē jì showing only Zhāng Tái (Dàzhōng 13 / 859 jìnshì) and no Zhāng Jǔ — and corrects the Chángān zhì’s identification of the Zhāngjìng sì with Yú Cháoēn’s villa. The work also lists the surviving jīnshí steles and inscriptions in the area; later interlinear xùzhù (continuation-notes) by an unidentified Jīn-period or early-Yuán hand record events down to the Xīnmǎo (1231) Mongol-Jīn warfare.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Yóu Chéngnán jì in one juan was composed by Zhāng Lǐ of Sòng. Lǐ, zì Màozhōng, native of Zhèjiāng. In Yuányòu 1 (1086) with his friend, the Chǔ-man Chén Wéimíng, he travelled to the south of Chángān city, visiting the old sites of the Táng capital, and so composed this record, with self-annotation. All gates, wards, monasteries, gardens, villages, and the bequeathed traces of former worthies — those seen in books and documents — are described in great detail.
For example, the Jiāhuà lù records the Cíēn sì tímíng as beginning with Zhāng Jǔ; Lǐ cites the Táng dēngkē jì — among jìnshì there is Zhāng Tái who passed in Dàzhōng 13 (859), but no Zhāng Jǔ. Further, the Chángān zhì records that the Zhāngjìng sì was originally the villa of Yú Cháoēn, later established as a monastery for the Zhāngjìng empress, hence the name; Lǐ then takes the Sòng-era monastery’s foundation-site, comparing the geographical position with what the zhì records, and suspects that it is no longer the original site. He is able to base his arguments on what he has observed and to verify them — his evidence is rather typical and substantial. The jīnshí steles and inscriptions he lists can also cross-verify with the Jígǔ lù and the various other works.
Beneath each item there are sometimes continuation-notes; we do not know who added them. Among these, there are Jīn-dynasty era-names; the Jiànfú sì item also has a phrase about Xīnmǎo migration. Examining: Xīnmǎo is Zhèngdà 8 (1231) of the Jīn Āizōng. The histories record that in that year, fourth month, the Yuán troops took Fèngxiáng; the two xíngshěng abandoned Jīngzhào and moved the inhabitants to Hénán. What is called “migration” must be this matter. So [the annotator was] a man of late-Jīn / early-Yuán. Respectfully proof-read in the eleventh month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Director-General compilers (chén /) Jǐ Yún, (chén /) Lù Xīxióng, (chén /) Sūn Shìyì; Director-General proof-reader (chén /) Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Yóu Chéngnán jì is the principal Northern-Sòng monograph on the post-Táng topography of southern Chángān, composed by Zhāng Lǐ 張禮 (zì Màozhōng 茂中, native of Zhèjiāng; fl. Yuányòu 1 / 1086) in collaboration with Chén Wéimíng 陳微明 of Chǔ. It is the first item in the Sìkù dìlǐ category 9 (yóujì zhī shǔ, the travel-record sub-genre). Its value is twofold: (i) as the earliest extant Chinese-language yóujì on Chángān recording the post-Táng topography from on-the-ground inspection, with documentation of which Táng-period imperial wards, monasteries, villas, and bequeathed traces still survived to the Yuányòu era 150 years after the dynasty’s fall; (ii) as a model of early kǎozhèng method applied to topographical and jīnshí questions, with critical engagement with the Jiāhuà lù, the Chángān zhì of Sòng Mǐnqiú, and the inherited gazetteer tradition. The work also lists the jīnshí steles and inscriptions surviving in the area, providing material for the Jígǔ lù and the later epigraphic tradition.
The continuation-notes (xùzhù) appended below individual entries are by an unknown Jīn-Yuán-transition annotator (probably ca. 1230s) who recorded events down to the Xīnmǎo (1231) Mongol-Jīn warfare in Chángān, including the Mongol capture of Fèngxiáng and the abandonment of Jīngzhào by the two xíngshěng that year.
The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 593.1).
Translations and research
No comprehensive English translation. The work is a key source for studies of post-Táng Cháng-ān topography. See Heng Chye Kiang, Cities of Aristocrats and Bureaucrats: The Development of Medieval Chinese Cityscapes (Singapore: NUS Press, 1999); Victor Cunrui Xiong, Sui-Tang Chang’an: A Study in the Urban History of Medieval China (Ann Arbor, 2000); Hè Yè-jū 賀業鉅, Zhōngguó gǔ-dài chéng-shì guī-huà shǐ-lùn 中國古代城市規劃史論. For the yóu-jì genre see James M. Hargett, Stairway to Heaven: A Journey to the Summit of Mount Emei (SUNY, 2006), and his entries in Wilkinson §74.
Other points of interest
The work, composed jointly by a Zhèjiāng man and a Húběi man visiting the abandoned Táng capital, exemplifies the Sòng-period sense of metropolitan-recovery — the capital recoverable only through yóujì-style on-the-ground inspection a century-and-a-half after the Wǔdài destruction. Together with Sòng Mǐnqiú’s Chángān zhì (the principal text-based companion), it forms one of the foundational pair of Sòng monographs on Táng-period Chángān.
Links
- Wikidata: not yet linked
- Xiong, Sui-Tang Chang’an (Ann Arbor, 2000)