聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

欽定天祿琳琅書目

8 min read

Text ID
KR2n0009
Date
1775–1775
Dynasty
清

Qīndìng Tiānlù línláng shūmù 欽定天祿琳琅書目

Imperially Endorsed Catalogue of the Tiānlù Línláng [Heavenly-Stipend Pearl-Forest] Collection

by 于敏中 (Yú Mǐnzhōng, 1714–1779), 王際華 (Wáng Jìhuá, 1717–1776), and 梁國治 (Liáng Guózhì, 1723–1786), by imperial command

About the work

The catalogue of the Qiánlóng emperor’s personal rare-book collection — the SòngJīnYuánMíng shànběn held in the Zhāoréndiàn 昭仁殿 in the Forbidden City and known by the imperial name Tiānlù línláng 天祿琳琅 (the tiānlù “heavenly stipend” being a Hàn-period palace-library reference, línláng “pearl-forest” added by the emperor for sumptuousness). Compilation was ordered in Qiánlóng 40 (1775); the catalogue was completed and printed shortly afterward. It is the first imperial Chinese rare-book bibliography organised on edition-and-provenance principles rather than on the conventional sìbù subject divisions alone — although the four divisions are retained as the outermost framework, within each subject category the entries are sub-arranged by edition date (Sòng → Jīn → Yuán → Míng → Sòng-facsimile manuscripts), with each entry annotated for blockprint date, blockprint workshop, prior collectors’ colophons (tíshí 題識), and seals (yìnjì 印記). For each colophon and each seal, the author/owner’s life dates and ranks are researched and supplied. The model is clearly the gǔshū connoisseurship tradition of Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s 張彥遠 Lìdài mínghuà jì 歷代名畫記 (chapters on connoisseurship, colophon-signing, and seals) — but applied to books, not paintings. As the Sìkù tíyào notes, this is unprecedented: previous Chinese book-catalogues, even the most refined like Qián Zēng’s 錢曾 Dúshū mǐnqiú jì 讀書敏求記, never gave systematic attention to edition-and-provenance criticism. The catalogue is also a record of the Qiánlóng emperor’s own colophonic poems: many of the rare books he had had inscribed with imperial yùtí 御題 verses, which appear here in front of the older colophons. Cumulative evidence: 16 jīngbù, ?? shǐbù, ?? zǐbù, ?? jíbù entries, each with full edition, ownership, and seal apparatus.

Tiyao

In the fortieth year of Qiánlóng [1775] this work was compiled by imperial command.

In the ninth year of Qiánlóng [1744], His Majesty had ordered his court attendants to inspect the secret holdings, select the shànběn 善本, and present them for imperial reading; in the Zhāoréndiàn shelving was set up, and the bestowal-name Tiānlù línláng was conferred. Now, after thirty more years, the rare boxes and precious cases are richer still; the imperial summons to recover lost books for the Sìkù holdings has further produced many Wǎnwěi and Lánghuán pieces in supply. So the choicest of these have been gathered, re-collated, and now ordered into a catalogue, as a model for future generations.

The book is headed by the imperial Dīngmǎo [1747] poem on the Zhāoréndiàn and the Yǐwèi [1775] Chónghuágōng tea-banquet Tiānlù línláng linked-verse poem.

The arrangement is by jīng / shǐ / zǐ / jí; within each category, the Sòng, Jīn, Yuán, and Míng blockprints, plus the Sòng-facsimile transcriptions, are sequenced by date. Where one work has two cuttings of equal craftsmanship, both are kept side by side — on the model of Yóu Mào’s Suìchūtáng shūmù KR2n0003. Where one cutting has two superb impressions, again both are kept — on the model of the Hàn library’s fù běn (duplicate-copy) precedent (cf. Hànshū xùzhuàn 漢書敍傳).

Each entry has a jiětí giving the year and place of cutting, the prior collectors’ colophons and seals, and (for each of these) careful research on the period, rank, and locality of the colophon-writers and seal-owners — tracing the line of transmission. Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s Lìdài mínghuà jì contains sixteen essays: the eleventh on connoisseurship and viewing, the twelfth on colophon-signing from antiquity onward, the thirteenth on public and private seals from antiquity onward. After him the connoisseurs have followed in succession, until the Tiěwǎng shānhú 鐵網珊瑚 finally treats this matter in detail for paintings and calligraphy. But for book-catalogues, no work has hitherto carried such authentication. Even Qián Zēng, with his Dúshū mǐnqiú jì 讀書敏求記 standing apart from his Yěshìyuán shūmù 也是園書目 and recording his old blockprints and old transcriptions, gives only a rough outline — nothing as systematic as this.

Further, at the head of each work there are often imperial poems and inscriptions, reverently transcribed before the older colophons — the splendour of the imperial brush adding lustre to the volumes. We may also note: among emperors of all antiquity, only Tang Tàizōng has a Fù Shàngshū and a Yǒng Sīmǎ Biāo XùHànzhì; Sòng Huīzōng has a Tí NánTáng jiùběn Jīn lóu zǐ. None has read so widely, written so much, or judged so accurately as this. Your servants in transcribing the catalogue praise still further the brilliance of the imperial discrimination — a sage’s learning surpassing the high antiquity.

Abstract

The Qīndìng Tiānlù línláng shūmù is a landmark in Chinese bibliography: the first imperial catalogue to apply systematic edition-and-provenance criticism to a rare-book collection. The catalog meta dates the work to “Qiánlóng 40” (1775), set as both notBefore and notAfter here. Yú Mǐnzhōng (then jūnjī dàchén and xúnjǐng dàchén), Wáng Jìhuá (hùbù shàngshū), and Liáng Guózhì (Hànlín and later gōngbù shàngshū) led a team of senior officials. The collection it describes — the Tiānlù línláng — was assembled by Qiánlóng from 1744 onward; the shànběn selection effort intensified during the Sìkù compilation campaign (1772–1782), since requisitioned regional submissions yielded many additional rare items.

The catalogue’s bibliographic-method innovations are its principal contribution:

  1. Sub-arrangement by edition. Within each sìbù subject category, entries are sub-grouped Sòng → Jīn → Yuán → Míng → facsimile-Sòng manuscript. This is the first imperial book-catalogue to do so systematically.
  2. Edition apparatus. For each entry, the year, place, and (where known) workshop of cutting are recorded.
  3. Provenance apparatus. All prior owners’ colophons (tíshí 題識) are reproduced; their authors are identified, dated, and ranked. All ownership seals (yìnjì 印記) are read, identified, and the owner’s biography summarised.
  4. Imperial poems. Where the Qiánlóng emperor has personally inscribed a yùtí 御題 poem, it precedes the older apparatus.
  5. Duplicate-copy convention. Two cuttings of one work, or two impressions of one cutting, are both retained where each is of independent witness value — the model invoked is Yóu Mào’s Suìchūtáng shūmù KR2n0003 for parallel-edition recording, and the Hànshū xùzhuàn for the fù běn tradition.

Subsequent imperial bibliography — and especially the Qing dynastic bǎnběn (block-edition) discipline of the late Qīng — descends directly from this catalogue.

The Tiānlù línláng collection itself was largely destroyed in the 1797 (Jiāqìng 2) Qiánqīnggōng 乾清宮 fire; an emergency reconstruction was made on Jiāqìng 2’s order — the Tiānlù línláng shūmù hòubiān 天祿琳琅書目後編 (1798) by Péng Yuánruì 彭元瑞 and Wáng Jié 王杰 — but only the present Qiánlóng 1775 catalogue survives in the WYG. The Hòubiān is a separate work (not catalogued in WYG). Modern Tiānlù línláng scholarship therefore distinguishes the Qiánbiān (the present text, the original 1775 catalogue) and the Hòubiān (the 1798 reconstruction).

The catalog meta dates for Yú Mǐnzhōng (1714–1779) and the others are confirmed by CBDB. CBDB 57033 = Yú Mǐnzhōng, 57212 = Wáng Jìhuá (1717–1776), 55817 = Liáng Guózhì (1723–1786).

Translations and research

No English translation of the catalogue itself; the collection is the subject of Western scholarship:

  • Liú Sháng 劉薔, Tiānlù línláng yánjiū 天祿琳琅研究 (Běijīng dàxué, 2012) — comprehensive monograph on the collection’s history, the Qián-biān and Hòu-biān, and surviving holdings.
  • Liú Yǔlán 劉雨嵐 and others, articles on individual Tiānlù línláng items recovered after the 1797 fire.
  • Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, on imperial Qing bibliography, on the Sìkù programme.
  • Jonathan Hay and others on Qing imperial connoisseurship culture, where the Tiānlù línláng model is contextualised against the parallel painting/calligraphy programmes (e.g. Shíqú bǎojí 石渠寶笈).

Other points of interest

The Tiānlù línláng model for book-cataloguing was followed (with variation) by major Qing private collectors in the late Qiánlóng and Jiāqìng eras — Huáng Pīliè 黃丕烈, Mò Yǒuzhī 莫友芝, and others — whose own bǎnběn jì 版本記 catalogues regularised edition-criticism as a discipline. The catalogue is also the indispensable reference for tracking the post-1797 fate of the surviving Tiānlù línláng items: many were dispersed, especially after the late-Qing palace’s reduction, and now reside in collections in Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Princeton, and elsewhere.

Graph View

Backlinks