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隸續

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Text ID
KR2n0018
Date
1168–1181
Dynasty
宋

Lìxù 隸續

Continuations to the [Lìshì] Hàn-Clerical-Script [Compendium]

by 洪适 (Hóng Kuò, 1117–1184)

About the work

Hóng Kuò’s continuation of the Lìshì KR2n0017, gathering HànWèi stelae acquired after 1166 and treated on the same plan. The cutting was assembled in stages over more than a decade: 10 juan first cut at Yuèzhōu in Qiándào wùzǐ (1168) with Hóng Mài’s postscript; 4 more juan added at Shǔ (Sìchuān) by Fàn Chéngdà 范成大 in Chúnxī dīngyǒu (1177); 5 more at Yuè by Lǐ Yànyǐng 李彥頴 of Déqīng in Chúnxī jǐhài (1179) with Yú Liángnéng’s postscript; 2 more at Jiāngdōng by Yóu Mào (cf. KR2n0003) in Chúnxī gēngzǐ (1180) — these last 2 juan’s blocks then transferred back to Yuè, where Hóng combined the whole into a 21-juan whole with his own postscript. In Chúnxī xīnchǒu (1181) Hóng then ordered a unified re-cutting that combined Lìshì and Lìxù — that combined edition is now lost. The transmitted form remains as the present 21-juan Lìxù. The Sìkù WYG copy is the Yángzhōu cutting. The text is structurally heterogeneous: juan 1–4 mostly stele texts; juan 5–6, 8 carry bēitú 碑圖 (stele drawings); juan 7 carries bēishì 碑式 (stele formats); juan 9–10 are missing; juan 11–20 are stele texts; juan 21 is fragmentary — the order departs significantly from the Sòng original.

Tiyao

Compiled by Hóng Kuò of the Sòng. After completing the Lìshì, Hóng continued to gather additional stelae and treat them on the same plan. In wùzǐ of Qiándào (1168) he first cut 10 juan at Yuè; his brother Hóng Mài wrote a postscript. In dīngyǒu of Chúnxī (1177) Fàn Chéngdà cut 4 more at Shǔ. Two years later, in jǐhài of Chúnxī 6 (1179), Lǐ Yànyǐng of Déqīng cut 5 more at Yuè, with Yú Liángnéng’s postscript. The next year, gēngzǐ (1180), Yóu Mào cut 2 more at Jiāngdōng cāngtái, then transferred the blocks to Yuè. The various cuttings together making 21 juan, with Hóng’s postscript. The next year xīnchǒu (1181), Hóng combined this with the Lìshì into a unified work and ordered the Yuè marshal to re-cut and circulate it, with Hóng’s further postscript — the so-called “before-and-after additions, with the lǜlǚ [musical-tube] sequence misordered, the clerical staff reorganising the old blocks, removing and inserting and shifting and replacing, until the head and tail are clean and complete.” This 1181 cutting is no longer transmitted. The Lìshì still survives in the Wànlì 1588 Wáng Lù cutting, while the Lìxù came near to total loss.

Zhū Yízūn’s Pùshūtíng jí 曝書亭集 has a postscript: “The Fàn Tiānyīgé, Cáo Gǔlín, Xú Chuánshìlóu, and Hánjīngtáng holdings are all only 7 juan. Recently, while a guest in Wú, I tracked down a Qínchuān Máo-family old transcription — though more than half is missing, beyond the 7 juan there are 117 additional folios; at the end is Hóng Mài’s Qiándào 3 (1167) postscript.” So Zhū combined the two-family fragmentary copies, collated them, and edited them. Later cut at Yángzhōu — that is the present text.

According to Yú Liángnéng’s postscript: “Continuations were collected and arranged in 10 juan as Lìxù; once cut into print, further searches obtained 9 more juan.” So at the time the print was indeed only 19 juan in total. Zhū Yízūn therefore wondered whether the remaining 2 juan are the Lìyùn and Lìtú. But Hóng Mài’s postscript says: “Already deciphered, then more were obtained, listed beyond the 27th juan.” So the Lìxù must, like the Lìshì, be focused on stele texts. The present recension’s juan 5–6 and 8 contain bēitú (drawings); juan 7 contains bēishì (formats); juan 9–10 are missing; juan 11–20 are again stele texts; juan 21 is fragmentary — and Hóng’s own postscript falls at the end of juan 20. So the order is broken and no longer the Sòng original.

Examining what Zhū described: the 7-juan witness is the Yuán Tàidìng yǐchǒu (1325) Níngguólù rúxué cutting — fewer errors than the present Yángzhōu cutting, but very fragmentary. We follow the Yángzhōu cutting and collate it against the Tàidìng witness; lacunae we cannot recover and so leave as found.

Abstract

The Lìxù is Hóng Kuò’s continuation of the Lìshì KR2n0017, adding c. 96 further HànWèi stelae acquired after 1166 and treated on the same plan, plus bēitú (stele drawings) and bēishì (format diagrams) for many of them. The catalog meta records “1117–1184” (Hóng’s lifespan); the work was compiled in stages between 1168 (the first 10 juan at Yuèzhōu) and 1181 (the unified 21-juan combined re-cutting), set as notBefore 1168 / notAfter 1181 here.

The work’s significance is double:

  1. Stele drawings (bēitú). The Lìxù’s most distinctive feature compared to the Lìshì is the inclusion of carefully prepared drawings of the physical layout of selected stelae — character placement, frame ornament, and the relative positioning of header and body. This is the earliest systematic such record in Chinese epigraphy and an important precedent for later jīnshí visual apparatus.
  2. Stele formats (bēishì). Juan 7 documents standard Hàn stele formats (shìyàng 式樣) — the conventional architecture of imperial, commemorative, and tomb stelae. This complements the textual record with a typological framework.

The transmissional history is uniquely complex (the Sìkù tíyào details the staged cutting), and the surviving 21-juan recension is a partial reconstruction by Zhū Yízūn from two fragmentary lines of descent (the Tiānyīgé / Yè-family / Xú-family / Hánjīngtáng line of 7 juan and the Máo-family line of 7 juan + 117 additional folios). The 1181 unified re-cutting that combined Lìshì and Lìxù — the most authoritative form — is lost. Modern critical editions: the Sìbù cóngkān facsimile and the Shíkè shǐliào xīnbiān reprint.

The Lìxù preserves stele texts not in the Lìshì, especially Wèi-period inscriptions and Hàn-period bēi 碑 acquired in Hóng’s late career. Together the two works constitute the most comprehensive Sòng-era Hànlì corpus.

Translations and research

No English translation. Studies as for Lìshì KR2n0017:

  • Sūn Wéiláng 孫偉良 and others on Hóng Kuò’s epigraphic project.
  • Qián Dàxīn 錢大昕, Qiánjyán-táng jīnshí wén bá-wěi — corrections to both Lìshì and Lìxù.
  • Robert E. Harrist Jr., The Landscape of Words (Washington UP, 2008), on Sòng jīnshí.
  • Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, 6th ed., §58.

Other points of interest

The five-part Hàn-clerical encyclopaedia Hóng planned — Lìshì + Lìzuǎn + Lìyùn + Lìtú + Lìxù — represents one of the most ambitious individual jīnshí projects of the Sòng. The Lìyùn was never completed; the Lìzuǎn and Lìtú are partly preserved within the surviving structures of the other two. Hóng’s brother Hóng Mài’s Yíjiān zhì 夷堅志 records personal information about the project.

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