寶刻叢編

Bǎokè cóngbiān 寶刻叢編

Compendium of Precious Inscriptions

by 陳思 (Chén Sī, fl. 1230s–1259)

About the work

A 20-juan systematic jīnshí compendium organised by geographic region according to the Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì 元豐九域志 (the Yuánfēng-era imperial atlas, 1080) — listing for each prefecture, sub-prefecture, and county the stelae and inscriptions recoverable for that location. Stelae of indeterminate provenance are appended at the end of each juan. Critical apparatus from earlier compilers (Ōuyáng Xiū, Zhào Míngchéng, Hóng Kuò et al.) is appended under each entry. The work was completed in Shàodìng 4 (1231, xīnmǎo) under Lǐzōng. Notable for incorporating quotations from a wide range of jīnshí compilations now lost — Zēng Gǒng 曾鞏’s Jígǔ lù (a separate work from Ōuyáng’s), Shī Sù 施宿’s Dàguāntiè zǒngshì xù 大觀帖總釋序, Jígǔ hòulù 集古後錄, Zhūdào shíkè lù 諸道石刻錄, Fùzhāi bēilù 復齋碑錄, Jīngzhào jīnshí lù 京兆金石錄, Fǎngbēi lù 訪碑錄, Yuánfēng bēimù 元豐碑目, Zīgǔ shàozhì lù 資古紹志錄, Rǔ tiè 汝帖 (12 juan), Cí’ēn yǎntǎ Tángrén tímíng 慈恩鴈塔唐人題名 (10 juan), the Yuèzhōu Shí-shi tièmù 越州石氏帖目 — all of which survive only through Chén’s quotations.

The Sìkù WYG transmission has substantial lacunae: juan 4 (Jīngdōngběilù), juan 9 (Jīngzhàofǔxià), juan 11 (Qínfèng / Hédōng), juan 12 (Huáinándōng/xī), juan 16 (Jīnghúnán/běi), juan 17 (Chéngdūlù) are entirely lost; juan 15 (Jiāngnándōng / Jiāngnánxī) is half lost; juan 18 (Zǐzhōu / Lìchuān) preserves only QúBāWén three prefectures and is otherwise filled with misplaced material. The Sìkù editors corrected misplacements where possible but could not recover the lost juan.

Tiyao

[Translated and condensed from the Sìkù tíyào]

Compiled by Chén Sī of the Sòng. Sī was a man of Línān. His Xiǎo zì lù gives the jiéxián (rank-string) “chéngzhōng láng of the Jíxīdiàn Guóshǐ Shílùyuàn Mìshūshěng Sōufǎng”; his Hǎitáng pǔ self-preface is dated Kāiqìng 1 (1259) — therefore a Lǐzōng-era figure.

The book is a register of ancient inscriptions, organised geographically by the Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì’s prefecture-and-county scheme as the framework. Stelae whose locations are securely recoverable are placed under their lù (circuit); those of unknown location are appended at the end of each juan. The work also includes critical and adjudicative apparatus from earlier connoisseurs, set out below the entries.

Cross-checking with the Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì and the Sòngshǐ Dìlǐzhì, we find that the geographical names — including renamings and consolidations — are sometimes inconsistent. Sometimes the heading and the body disagree: the heading reads “Zhènjiāng” but the body has “Rùnzhōu”; “Jiànkāng” but “Shēngzhōu”; etc. — the variation cannot be reduced to a single rule. This is because the various source-catalogues used the original bēié (stele-heading) place names, and Chén in compiling preserved the source quotations exactly. Hence the discrepancy.

The work cites previous discussions but often without naming the source — only the connoisseur’s zì: “Cài Jūnmó”, “Wáng Hòuzhī”, and the like. Sometimes only the biéhào: “Bìxiù Yěrén”, “Yǎnghào Shūshì”. This is the late-Sòng print-trade habit and we cannot identify all of the figures. But during the period of north-south separation the author had limited access to physical rubbings, unlike Ōuyáng and Zhào, and so worked by extracting and re-systematising prior knowledge — taking pains to research, broadly consulting gazetteers, and intending to repair the tújīng (illustrated atlas) tradition while making this jīnshí register. His effort was substantial.

Among Sòng-era jīnshí-with-geographical compilations the most detailed was Wáng Xiàngzhī’s Yúdì bēijì mù KR2n0025, but Wáng’s coverage of north of the HéHuái 河淮 line is essentially absent. Only Chén Sī’s book, with its circuit-and-prefecture scheme, fully systematic by area, gives a comprehensive picture. As against Wáng’s coverage, this is much fuller.

Zhū Yízūn once wished to use the Lìxù quotations preserved here to supplement that book’s juan 21 lacunae [cf. KR2n0018]. We now find quotations from a long list of works that no longer survive — see above — preserved only here as outline. Likewise for the Rǔ tiè in 12 juan, the Cí’ēn yǎntǎ Tángrén tímíng in 10 juan, and the Yuèzhōu Shí-shi tièmù — recorded nowhere else but giving us at least the outline. Useful for evidential study.

The transmission has been by manuscript copy, and errors and lacunae are many. We have carefully collated and corrected. The lost juan we have been forced to leave unsupplied; the lacunae remain. Among the Wèi sāntǐ shíjīng [the Wèi tri-script Stone Classics] residual-character entries, the meaning suddenly stops mid-sentence and continues with “the stone was held in Gāo Shēn 高紳’s family; Shēn died, and his son took the stone for cash …” — that material in fact belongs to the colophon on Wáng Xīzhī’s Yuèyì lùn and was misplaced by transcribers. Zhū Yízūn’s Jīngyì kǎo KR2n0011 in the Kānshí (stone classics) section under the Wèi shíjīng entry quotes Ōuyáng Fěi 歐陽棐 and Zhào Míngchéng’s “the stone was held in Gāo Shēn’s family” line — having not deeply collated, Zhū followed the error. We have now corrected each line.

Abstract

The Bǎokè cóngbiān is the most systematic Southern Sòng jīnshí topographical bibliography and a major repository of quotations from earlier jīnshí works now lost. The catalog meta dates “fl. 1259” reflects Chén’s known floruit; the work itself is dated Shàodìng 4 (1231, xīnmǎo), set as both notBefore and notAfter here.

The work’s significance is manyfold:

1. Geographical organisation. The first major Chinese jīnshí register fully organised by region, using the Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì atlas as scaffolding. This format was adopted by all later geographic-key jīnshí compilations.
2. Witness to lost compilations. Chén’s quotations preserve outlines and excerpts of at least nine major jīnshí compilations of the 11th–12th centuries no longer extant — making this book the principal source for the early Sòng jīnshí corpus.
3. Companion to Lìxù. Zhū Yízūn’s recognition that Bǎokè cóngbiān preserves Lìxù material lost in other transmissions makes this work essential reference for Lìxù scholarship.
4. Geographic detail beyond Wáng Xiàngzhī. While Wáng’s Yúdì bēijì mù KR2n0025 is the alternative Sòng jīnshí-cum-geography work, Wáng covers only the south of the HéHuái line; Chén covers both north and south.

The transmissional damage is severe: 6 juan are entirely lost and 1 partially lost; the surviving 13 (or so) juan are themselves marked by misplaced material. Modern recovery of Bǎokè cóngbiān’s lost portions has not been substantially advanced since the Sìkù editing.

CBDB 107942 records Chén Sī but supplies no dates.

Translations and research

No English translation. Studies:

• Lǐ Yùnfǎn 李雲帆 and others on the Bǎokè cóngbiān and Sòng geographical jīnshí.
• Robert E. Harrist Jr., The Landscape of Words (Washington UP, 2008), on Sòng inscription studies.
• Patricia Ebrey, Accumulating Culture (Washington UP, 2008).
• Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, 6th ed., §58, on Sòng jīnshí.

Other points of interest

The work’s organisation by Yuánfēng jiǔyù zhì prefecture is by 1231 already an antiquarian gesture — the political map had changed substantially since 1080, especially after the 1126–1127 disasters and the Southern Sòng territorial reduction. Chén’s choice of the older atlas reflects a conservatising scholarly pose — anchoring the jīnshí register to the Northern Sòng cultural map even when no longer politically accessible.

Links

• Wikipedia (中文): https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/寶刻叢編
• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15914120