Táng Huìyào 唐會要
Essential Documents and Regulations of the Táng by 王溥 (撰)
About the work
The Táng Huìyào is the earliest surviving huìyào (digest of institutional regulations) and the model on which the genre was subsequently built. It is the work of three successive editorial phases: a first 40-juǎn recension covering the nine reigns from Gāozǔ 高祖 through Dézōng 德宗 by Sū Miǎn 蘇冕 of the Mid-Táng; a continuation in 40 juǎn covering Dézōng to Xuānzōng 宣宗 commissioned in 853 by Cuī Xuàn 崔鉉 (compiled by Yáng Shàofù 楊紹復 et al.); and finally Wáng Pǔ’s 王溥 third recension in 100 juǎn (961, presented to Emperor Tàizǔ 太祖 of the Sòng) which added material from Xuānzōng down to the end of the Táng. Wáng’s recension is the only one extant. It treats the institutional history of the Táng under 514 sub-headings, supplementing the standard treatises of the Jiù Tángshū and Xīn Tángshū with a vast quantity of decrees, memorials, and protocols, very often the only surviving witness for the document quoted.
Tiyao
By Wáng Pǔ of the Sòng. Pǔ, zì Qíwù 齊物, of Qí 祁 in Bīngzhōu, took first place in the jìnshì examination during the Qiányòu era of the Hàn (Latter Hàn). At the start of the Guǎngshùn era of the Zhōu he was made Duānmíng diàn xuéshì. When Emperor Gōng 恭 acceded he was Yòupúyè. On entering the Sòng he kept that office, was promoted to Sīkōng tóng píngzhāngshì, and oversaw the compilation of the National History; he was given the further title Tàizǐ tàishī and enfeoffed Duke of Qí. He died with the posthumous name Kāngdìng 康定; his life is recorded in the Sòngshǐ. Earlier, Sū Miǎn 蘇冕 of the Táng had arranged the affairs of the nine reigns from Gāozǔ to Dézōng into a Huìyào of 40 juǎn; in the seventh year of Dàzhōng under Xuānzōng (853), Yáng Shàofù 楊紹復 and others were commissioned by edict to arrange affairs from Dézōng onward as a Xù Huìyào in 40 juǎn, with Cuī Xuàn 崔鉉 as supervisor. The “Huìyào” cited in Duàn Gōnglù’s Běihù lù refers to Sū Miǎn’s work. Records from Xuānzōng onward, however, were still missing. Pǔ accordingly gathered materials from Xuānzōng to the end of the Táng and continued the work, producing the Xīnbiān Táng Huìyào in 100 juǎn, which he presented to the throne in the first month of Jiànlóng 2 (961); by edict it was deposited in the Historiographical Office.
The work is divided into 514 sub-headings. It treats Táng-period institutional gains and losses with the greatest precision; the official-titles section, with its sub-categories such as “knowledge and capacity,” “loyal remonstrance,” “promotion of worthies,” “appointment with trust,” and “esteemed honors,” also records actual incidents. Trivial details that cannot be subsumed under any fixed heading are gathered under a “miscellaneous record” appended to each section. Sū Miǎn’s critical comments are also incorporated. The arrangement is comprehensive and exemplary; it is of great value for textual research.
Only manuscript copies now survive, and these contain many lacunae and errors. Juǎn 8 is titled “Jiāoyí 郊儀” but contains material on the Southern Táng; juǎn 9 is titled “Miscellaneous Jiāoyí” but contains memorials of the early Táng. Neither matches its rubric. Juǎn 7 and juǎn 10 have similarly suffered later intrusions—doubtless because the original was damaged and later hands inserted whatever was at hand to fill out the volumes. A separate manuscript copy is missing the same four juǎn but contains a “supplement to the lost portions” in four juǎn, which gathers Táng-related material from various sources and arranges it according to the original headings. While certainly not Wáng’s original text, the broad structure and detail are roughly preserved, giving a general sense of the lost portions; it has been included here, with the character “bǔ 補” added beneath each rubric to mark the difference.
Abstract
The work was presented in the first month of Jiànlóng 2 (961), at the start of the Sòng dynasty, only weeks after Wáng Pǔ had crossed over from the late Hòu Zhōu administration. Wáng was thus continuing in Sòng a project he had begun—or at minimum had control of—while in office under the Zhōu; the imperial library deposit and the Sòngshǐ yìwénzhì both attribute the work to him under his Sòng titles. The compilation history (Sū Miǎn → Cuī Xuàn / Yáng Shàofù → Wáng Pǔ) is unambiguous: the Sìkù tíyào derives it from internal evidence and from the citation of “Huìyào” in Duàn Gōnglù’s 段公路 Běihù lù 北戶錄, which can refer only to the Sū Miǎn version. Of the three layers, only Wáng Pǔ’s 100-juǎn recension survives.
The transmission has been imperfect: juǎn 7–10 in the received text are partly mosaicked from later sources, as the Sìkù editors note. The standard punctuated edition collated by Niu Jiyu and others (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1955; reprint 1990) replaces the problematic juǎn with reconstructions drawn from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, the Cèfǔ yuánguī 冊府元龜, and other SòngYuán sources. Wilkinson (Chinese History: A New Manual, §51.1, Box 263) treats the Táng Huìyào as the preeminent supplement to the Táng standard histories, especially valuable because Sū Miǎn and Wáng Pǔ both quoted Táng documents in extenso rather than digesting them.
The single date 961 is set as both notBefore and notAfter, marking presentation to the throne and the conventional benchmark for the work as transmitted.
Translations and research
The standard punctuated edition is Táng Huìyào 唐會要, 3 vols., Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1955 (with subsequent reprints; in Scripta Sinica); see also Táng Huìyào rénmíng suǒyǐn 唐會要人名索引, ed. Zhāng Chénshí 張忱石 (Zhōnghuá, 1991). Liú Ānzhì 劉安志 et al., “Táng Huìyào zhěnglǐ yǔ yánjiū chéngguǒ shùpíng 唐會要整理與研究成果述評,” ZYD 4 (2017): 21–27, surveys the modern editing tradition and identifies sixteen surviving manuscripts (Chinese and Japanese collections). Specialist studies include Lǐ Jīhé 李季和, Táng Huìyào yánjiū 唐會要研究 (Zhōnghuá, 2017), and a substantial body of articles on the Sū Miǎn / Cuī Xuàn / Wáng Pǔ stratification that flowed from Léi Jiànjí’s 雷家驥 reconstructive work.
Other points of interest
The transmission lacuna in juǎn 7–10 is itself a small textual case-study: Sòng-period printers filled lost juǎn with extraneous Táng material (some Southern Táng) drawn from collateral sources, which the Sìkù editors document in detail and which modern editors continue to refine.