Gǔkè cóngchāo 古刻叢鈔
Compendium of Transcriptions of Ancient Inscriptions
by 陶宗儀 (Táo Zōngyí, ca. 1329–ca. 1409)
About the work
A 1-juan chrestomathy of 71 stele-inscription transcriptions in kǎi-script, compiled by Táo Zōngyí without preface or postface — purely a working compilation of inscriptions Táo had managed to transcribe. The composition: 1 from Hàn, 2 from HòuHàn, 1 from Jìn, 3 from Sòng (LiúSòng), 3 from Liáng, 2 from Suí, 49 from Tang, 1 from NánTáng, 2 from Northern Sòng, 1 from Southern Sòng, 6 of indeterminate date. Texts are reproduced in full with the original inscription-heading as title; no critical apparatus. The work was assembled gradually, not as a planned book, and is not formally edited. The Sìkù editors recognise it as one of the most useful single-juan jīnshí texts despite its informal organisation: many of the inscriptions Táo records are otherwise lost, and the transcriptions preserve the only known textual witness for them.
Tiyao
[Translated and condensed from the Sìkù tíyào]
Compiled by Táo Zōngyí of the Míng. Zōngyí is the author of Guófēng zūnjīng (already catalogued). The book has no preface or postface. The transcribed inscriptions number 71 in all: 1 Hàn, 2 HòuHàn, 1 Jìn, 3 Sòng, 3 Liáng, 2 Suí, 49 Tang, 1 NánTáng, 2 Northern Sòng, 1 Southern Sòng, 6 of indeterminate date. All in full text, headed by the original bēié (stele-heading); without research apparatus or chronological ordering. Apparently he transcribed as he encountered them — not a planned book.
But the inscriptions recorded include very rare texts. Only the Hàn Jiànpíng Píxiàn shíkè 漢建平郫縣刻石 appears in Lìxù and the Hànlì zìyuán; only the Tang Xuēwángfǔ diǎnjūn Lǐ Wúlǜ mùzhì 薛王府典軍李無慮墓誌 appears in Jīnshí lù. Others — the Sòng (LiúSòng) Línlǐhóu Liú Xí mùzhì 臨灃侯劉襲墓誌, the Liáng Yǒngyáng Jìngtàifēi Wáng-shi mùzhì 永陽敬太妃王氏墓誌, the Tang Rǔnángōngzhǔ mùzhì 汝南公主墓誌 and Wèizhōu cìshǐ Mǎ Yū mùzhì 尉州刺史馬紆墓誌 — supply important supplements to the dynastic-history record.
The book also preserves seven Tang poems otherwise unrecorded in Tang-poetry collections: Cáo Fén 曹汾 et al.’s farewell to Dōnglínsì; Xú Hào 徐浩’s inscription at Bǎolínsì; the Yú-temple visit; Shì Yuánfú 釋元孚 and Wáng Mù 王暮’s Tiāntái shānyóu poems — material that catalogues of Tang verse have hitherto missed.
In the long run jīnshí deteriorates physically; what remains is preserved by recording the text, not by listing titles only. Hóng Kuò’s Lìshì / Lìxù are more useful than Ōuyáng / Zhào / Jígǔ not despite but because of their full transcription. This book in the same way preserves rare yìwén in head-and-tail-complete form — a useful supplement to the jīnshí tradition and also to Tang-Sòng historical, literary, and connoisseurial studies.
Abstract
The Gǔkè cóngchāo is one of the few late-Yuán/early-Míng substantive jīnshí compendia and a primary witness for several otherwise-lost inscriptions and Tang poems. The catalog meta gives “fl. 1360–1368” (YuánMíng transition); the work was likely produced in this window. NotBefore 1360 / notAfter 1370 here.
The work’s contributions:
- Full text of rare inscriptions. Several Sòng (LiúSòng), Liáng, and Tang grave inscriptions are preserved here in kǎi-script transcription with no rival witnesses elsewhere — essential for biographical and prosopographical scholarship of those periods.
- Otherwise-lost Tang poems. Seven Tang poems from temple inscriptions (Bǎolínsì, Dōnglínsì, Yú-temple, Tiāntái) are preserved here uniquely; major Tang-poetry compendia from Quán Tángshī 全唐詩 onward draw on Táo’s witness.
- Methodological argument. The Sìkù editors quote Táo (or speak in his voice) on the principle that transcription preserves where physical stelae fail — a methodological point endorsed in Hóng Kuò’s Lìshì tradition.
The Sìkù WYG copy is the principal textual witness; modern editions in Shíkè shǐliào xīnbiān 石刻史料新編 series.
CBDB 29854 confirms Táo Zōngyí ca. 1329–1409.
Translations and research
No English translation. Studies:
- Lú Xiànqíng 盧顯慶 and others on the Gǔkè cóngchāo.
- Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, 6th ed., §58.
- For Táo Zōngyí more broadly: Frederick W. Mote, Imperial China 900–1800 (Harvard UP, 1999), with notice on his role in late-Yuán scholarship.
Other points of interest
Several of the rare grave-inscriptions Táo preserves — e.g. the Liáng Yǒngyáng Jìngtàifēi Wáng-shi mùzhì and the Tang Rǔnángōngzhǔ mùzhì — are now standard primary sources for Liáng-court female prosopography and Tang princess studies. The work’s informal compilation makes it a good index of the working materials available to a late-Yuán jīnshí connoisseur.
Links
- Wikipedia (中文): https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/陶宗儀
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15914157 (古刻叢鈔)