Jiàngtiè píng 絳帖平
Adjudication of the Jiàng Anthology
by 姜夔 (Jiāng Kuí, ca. 1155–1221)
About the work
A 6-juan critical evaluation of the Jiàngtiè 絳帖 — the Northern Sòng imperial calligraphy anthology cut by the Shàngshū láng Pān Shīdàn 潘師旦 from his private copy of the imperial Chúnhuà gétiè and known as Pān fùmǎ tiè 潘駙馬帖. According to Cáo Shìmiǎn’s Fǎtiè pǔxì KR2n0021, the original Pān stones were divided after his death; the Jiàngzhōu 絳州 (Shānxī) prefectural treasury later acquired one half and recut the other to complete the set, producing the Dōngkù běn 東庫本 (Eastern Treasury edition), the standard form of the Jiàngtiè. Each juan is keyed to a Qiānzìwén-derived character: rìyuè guāng tiāndé, shānhé zhuàng dìjū, tàipíng hé yǐ bào, yuàn shàng dēngfēng shū (twenty characters across twenty juan, of which only juan 1–6, rì–shān, are preserved in this Jiàngtiè píng). Jiāng Kuí’s title takes Hàn judicial language — “tíngwèi píng” 廷尉平 (“balancing-judgment of the Court of Imperial Justice”) — to suggest evidential adjudication between Mǐ Fú 米芾 and Huáng Bósī’s connoisseurial calls. Original was 20 juan; only 6 (covering juan 1 through shān-character) survive.
Tiyao
Compiled by Jiāng Kuí of the Sòng. Kuí, zì Yáozhāng, of Póyáng. Cáo Shìmiǎn’s Fǎtiè pǔxì says: “The Jiàngběn old anthology was made by Pān Shīdàn, shàngshū láng, who privately copied his palace copy in stone. Popularly called the Pān fùmǎ tiè or the Pān-shi xījū fǎtiè; the stones were divided in two; later the Jiàngzhōu prefecture got the one and supplementary cut the rest, naming it Dōngkù běn. Each juan is identified by a Qiānzìwén character: rìyuè guāng tiāndé, shānhé zhuàng dìjū, tàipíng hé yǐ bào, yuàn shàng dēngfēng shū.” The juan-character markings Jiāng’s book uses agree with Cáo’s testimony — so what Jiāng evaluated was the Dōngkù recension.
Sòng critics of the fǎtiè — Mǐ Fú, Huáng Bósī, and after them — alternated in attentiveness. Jiāng wished to balance their judgements; hence he took the Hàn court-judicial term tíngwèi píng and named his book accordingly. There is a self-preface dated guǐhài of Jiātài (1203) saying: “Although calligraphy is a small craft, it ranges across a thousand years above and below, and many of its references touch on the historical record.” Reading the present text, the evidential and learned content does indeed warrant his self-claim.
The fifth juan’s discussion of Zhì Guǒ’s 智果 calligraphy and Liáng Wǔdì’s 梁武帝 evaluations of calligraphy claims that “Wǔdì held Zhōng [Yáo] and the two Wáng’s calligraphies; he commissioned Yú Hé 虞龢 and Táo [Hóngjǐng] Yǐnjū 隱居 to verify them.” But Yú Hé was a LiúSòng man — his memorial on the Fǎshū dates from Sòng Xiàowǔdì’s reign, well before Liáng Wǔdì. Jiāng’s evidential research is here uncharacteristically incomplete.
According to the Mòzhuāng mànlù 墨莊漫錄, the original was 20 juan; only manuscripts circulated and it was never blockprinted; what survives covers only the shān character; from hé (juan 7) onward 14 juan are lost. Even the surviving “broken jade and chipped guī” is precious.
Abstract
The Jiàngtiè píng is the most important Southern Sòng critical study of the Jiàngtiè anthology and a primary witness to the Chúnhuà gétiè-derived fǎtiè tradition. Jiāng Kuí compiled it in 1203 (Jiātài 3, guǐhài) — set as both notBefore and notAfter here. The work is structured as a Tíngwèi píng 廷尉平 — using the Hàn courtroom-balancing metaphor for its method of adjudication between the standard connoisseurial schools (Mǐ Fú vs. Huáng Bósī).
The work is highly regarded by SòngYuán fǎtiè scholarship: Cáo Shìmiǎn cites it (Fǎtiè pǔxì KR2n0021); Zēng Hóngfù prefers Jiāng’s Xùtiè piānbàng kǎo 禊帖偏傍考 to Sāng Shìchāng’s Lántíng kǎo KR2n0022 for Lántíng studies; Táo Zōngyí 陶宗儀 (cf. KR2n0027) cites Jiāng’s calligraphic theories. The Mòzhuāng mànlù’s testimony that the original was 20 juan and that only manuscripts ever circulated explains the heavy textual loss: the surviving 6 juan covering juan 1–6 (rì-shān characters) are roughly one-third of the original. The lost portion (hé-shū characters, juan 7–20) covered the bulk of the Jiàngtiè — the WèiJìn calligraphy and the Tang masters — and represents an irrecoverable loss for Sòng connoisseurship history.
The Sìkù WYG copy is the standard 6-juan recension, with Jiāng’s preface and the surviving body. CBDB 29608 confirms Jiāng Kuí 1155–1221.
Translations and research
No English translation. Studies:
- Yè Xiānglíng 葉湘玲 and others on the Jiàngtiè and its scholarly tradition.
- Robert E. Harrist Jr., The Landscape of Words (Washington UP, 2008), on Sòng fǎtiè.
- Lin Pao-yao 林保堯 and others on the connoisseurial-historical material on Jiāng Kuí’s calligraphy criticism.
Other points of interest
Jiāng Kuí’s Xùshū pǔ 續書譜 — a freestanding treatise on calligraphy — is the companion piece to the Jiàngtiè píng in his calligraphy-critical project, and is also cited in WYG (separate entry). The Xùtiè piānbàng kǎo 禊帖偏傍考 (study of Lántíng radicals) is preserved as part of his collected works.
Links
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiang_Kui
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1346891 (姜夔)