Hànlín zhì 翰林志
Treatise on the Hànlín Academy by 李肇 (Lǐ Zhào, 撰)
About the work
The Hànlín zhì in 1 juǎn is the earliest surviving administrative monograph on the Hànlín Academy. It was completed by Lǐ Zhào 李肇, then Hànlín Academician (翰林學士) and Junior Director of Manufactures (將作少監), in Yuánhé 14 (819). It documents the founding and growth of the Tang Hànlín Academy, its location at the Yíntái 銀臺 Gate within the Daming Palace, the differentiation between the original “outer” Academy (which had housed performers, physicians, and other technical specialists) and the new “Eastern Hànlín” or Xuéshì yuàn 學士院 established by Xuánzōng 玄宗 to handle imperial drafting, the Academicians’ duties of drafting edicts (zhìgào 制誥) and edict-rescripts (chìshū 敕書), and the customs and protocols of the office. The work became the model and source for every subsequent Hànlín treatise: it is incorporated whole into Hóng Zūn’s 洪遵 Hànyuàn qúnshū 翰苑羣書 (KR2l0004) and is the foundational reference for Sòng, Míng, and Qīng works on the same subject.
Tiyao
The editors respectfully submit that the Hànlín zhì in 1 juǎn was composed by Lǐ Zhào of the Tang. Zhào’s Guóshǐ bǔ 國史補 carries the byline “Director of the Left Office of the Department of State Affairs” (尚書左司郎中), while the present work bears “Hànlín Academician, Reminder-of-the-Left” (翰林學士左補闕). Wáng Dìngbǎo’s 王定保 Zhīyán 摭言 also says that Zhào was a Drafter in the Secretariat (中書舍人) in the Yuánhé reign, and the Xīn Tángshū “Treatise on Bibliography” (藝文志) likewise records that Zhào was a Hànlín Academician, was demoted for recommending Bó Qí 柏耆, and went down from Drafter in the Secretariat to Junior Director of Manufactures. Examining Tang official titles, it appears that he transferred from the Left Office to Reminder-of-the-Left and entered the Hànlín, was later made Drafter in the Secretariat, and after his offence was demoted; the Guóshǐ bǔ and the present work each bear the title he held at the time of composition.
In Tang times, the Hànlín Yuàn lay within the Yíntái Gate, behind the western corridor of the Línde Hall 麟徳殿, and was the office of duty Academicians (待詔). The “Treatise on the Hundred Offices” (百官志) of the Xīn Tángshū says: “Wherever the imperial carriage rests, there must be men of letters and classical learning, down to diviners, doctors, and craftsmen — all on duty in a separate hall in case of summons.” Wéi Zhíyì’s 韋執誼 Hànlín yuàn gùshì 翰林院故事 likewise says the place was where those summoned for arts and crafts were lodged: originally established to receive miscellaneous specialists, not for the literary attendants. It was only when Xuánzōng established the Hànlín Duty-Attendants and Suppliers (翰林待詔供奉), and the Jíxián Yuàn 集賢院 Academicians took charge of imperial drafting, that the office became important; later the Academicians were renamed Xuéshì 學士 and given a separate Xuéshì Yuàn 學士院 known as the “Eastern Hànlín Yuàn.” From then on, although the original Hànlín Yuàn still received men of arts and crafts on duty (such as the diviner Sāng Dàomào 桑道茂 in Dézōng’s reign), the name Hànlín effectively belonged to the Xuéshì Yuàn, which became the fixed appointment for Confucian officials thereafter.
Zhào’s book was completed in Yuánhé 14 (819) and is recorded in both the Tang and Song “Treatises on Bibliography.” Its account is comprehensive and orderly, the most thorough treatment of the duties of one dynasty’s Court men of letters. Sòng Hóng Zūn’s 洪遵 compiled Hànyuàn qúnshū 翰苑羣書 already incorporates this work in full, but as the oldest source on Hànlín institutional precedents, we still record the standalone version to preserve the foundation. Respectfully collated, twelfth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Abstract
Lǐ Zhào (fl. early ninth century) is the same person as the author of the Tang guóshǐ bǔ 唐國史補, the well-known anecdotal supplement to Tang history. According to Xīn Tángshū 藝文志, he was demoted from Drafter in the Secretariat to Junior Director of Manufactures after being implicated in the impeachment of Bó Qí 柏耆. The Hànlín zhì thus dates from after his demotion, when he was attached to the Hànlín Academy with the lower rank of Reminder-of-the-Left. The document is the earliest extant institutional account of the Tang Hànlín — an institution which had only crystallized in its mature form (an Academy entrusted with imperial drafting, separated from the older “outer” Academy of artisan attendants) in Xuánzōng’s reign, less than a century before. The work is thus a near-contemporary witness to the early consolidation of the imperial drafting bureau, and its distinction between the older miscellaneous Hànlín and the new Xuéshì Yuàn 學士院 is a central piece of evidence for Tang central-government history. The Hànlín zhì survives because Hóng Zūn included it as the lead text of his Sòng-era Hànyuàn qúnshū (1173).
Translations and research
- Bischoff, F. A. 1963. La forêt des pinceaux: Étude sur l’Académie du Hanlin sous la dynastie des T’ang et traduction du Han lin tche. Bibliothèque de l’Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, vol. 17. Paris: PUF. Annotated French translation and study.
- McMullen, David. 1988. State and Scholars in T’ang China. Cambridge UP. Treats the Hànlín Academy in its political and intellectual context.
- Mao Lei 毛蕾. 2000. Tángdài Hànlín xuéshì 唐代翰林學士. Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian.
- Fù Xuáncóng 傅璇琮. 2010. Tángdài Hànlín xuéshì zhuàn lùn 唐代翰林學士傳論. Liaoning renmin.
Other points of interest
The genre of “Hànlín treatise” inaugurated by Lǐ Zhào produced a series of imitations and extensions through the Tang and Song, several of which Hóng Zūn collected in KR2l0004. The relationship between the Hànlín zhì (administrative ethnography) and Lǐ Zhào’s better-known Guóshǐ bǔ 唐國史補 (anecdotal history) makes him an unusually visible Tang official-author, with two of his works surviving in identifiable form.