Líntái gùshì 麟臺故事
Old Affairs of the Unicorn Pavilion (Imperial Library) by 程俱 (Chéng Jù, 撰)
About the work
The Líntái gùshì — “Líntái” 麟臺 (the “Unicorn Pavilion”) being a poetic Sòng designation for the Mìshū shěng 秘書省, the Imperial Library — is the foundational Sòng administrative monograph on that institution. Chéng Jù 程俱 (1078–1144), then Junior Director of the Imperial Library (祕書少監), composed it in 1131 (Shàoxīng 1) shortly after the re-founding of the Imperial Library following the Court’s flight south to Línzhōu 臨安 in the wake of the Jìn invasion. According to the memorial preserved at the head of the SBCK text, Chéng Jù argued that “the storehouse of canonical writings (典籍之府) is the source of constitutional precedents (憲章所由)” and that an institutional history “to preserve the standards of one office” (以存一司之守) was needed; the Court approved on the twentieth day of the ninth month, Shàoxīng 1 (1131). The transmitted text is in 5 juǎn (the catalog meta) and covers institutional history, building, staffing, archives, copying, and editorial duties of the Sòng Imperial Library.
Tiyao
Abstract
The Líntái gùshì is the Sòng counterpart to Lǐ Zhào’s Hànlín zhì (KR2l0002) and Chén Kuí’s later Nán Sòng guǎngé lù (KR2l0005) — institutional self-reflection by an officer of the very bureau being described. Composed at the moment of dynastic crisis when the Imperial Library was being reconstituted in the south after the loss of Kāifēng, it documents the staffing, building, holdings, copying duties, and ceremonial functions of the Mìshū shěng before the dislocation, and provides the framework against which Chén Kuí’s Nán Sòng guǎngé lù and the Yùhǎi 玉海 are subsequently calibrated. The Sìkù Tíyào (which our local source-file lacks here) records the work in five juǎn; modern editions reflect the recension transmitted via the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典 and the SBCK photolithographic reprint of the SòngYuán manuscript line. Chéng Jù was a noted prose stylist and a respected senior figure of the early Shàoxīng court; his Běishān xiǎojí 北山小集 (collected works) survives separately (KR4d0274 Běishān jí 北山集 in WYG).
Translations and research
- Zhāng Fùxiáng 張富祥, ed. 2000. Línglái gùshì jiàozhèng 麟臺故事校證. Zhonghua. Critical edition with collation and notes.
- Sō-shi shokukan shi sakuin 宋史職官志索引 (related index work).
- Winston W. Lo. 1987. An Introduction to the Civil Service of Sung China. University of Hawaii Press. (Treats the Sòng Imperial Library among other bureaus.)
Other points of interest
The book’s title appropriates an antique poetic name for the Imperial Library: “Líntái” 麟臺 derives from a Tang-era usage in which Wǔ Hòu 武后 briefly renamed the Mìshū shěng the Líntái in the Línde 麟德 reign (664–665). Chéng Jù’s deliberate use of the archaic name in 1131 underscores the literary self-consciousness of the Southern Sòng restoration: even as the institution was being patched together amid loss of records, its officers continued to project it onto a reassuringly classicist frame.