Shùshū fù 述書賦
Rhapsody Narrating Calligraphy by 竇臮 (Dòu Jì, fl. mid-8th cent., 唐, zhuàn 撰); annotated by his elder brother 竇蒙 (Dòu Méng, zhù 注)
Note: the Kanripo catalog renders the author’s given name as 竇[自/豕] because the character 臮 is composed of 自 over 豕 (with 灬); the standard transmitted form is 竇臮. The catalog title “逑書賦” is a graphic slip for 述書賦.
About the work
A fù 賦 (rhapsody) in two juàn on the history of calligraphy from highest antiquity to the mid-Táng, with extensive parallel-prose praise of individual calligraphers across thirteen dynasties (上篇 from antiquity through the Northern and Southern Dynasties; 下篇 covering the Táng from Gāozǔ, Tàizōng, Wǔ Hòu, Ruìzōng, Xuánzōng and on down to the author’s own brother Dòu Méng and to the sister of one Liú Qín). The fù line is followed throughout by Dòu Méng’s interlinear commentary, which supplies dates, offices, calligraphic specialities and critical evaluations for each of the 198 calligraphers named. To the second juàn are appended four further lists: seals and signatures of authenticators (徐僧權 et al., 8 persons), imperial and aristocratic seal-impressions (太平公主 et al., 11 houses), Táng connoisseur-collectors who sought out and treasured calligraphy (韋述 et al., 26 persons), and dealers who profited from the trade (穆韋 et al., 8 persons). The seal-impressions are illustrated by line-cut models reproduced under the entries — a feature later imitated by Zhū Cúnlǐ’s KR3h0044 Shānhú mùnán and Zhāng Chǒu’s KR3h0055 Qīnghé shūhuà fǎng / KR3h0056 Zhēnjī rìlù.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Shùshū fù, in two juàn, was composed by Dòu Jì of the Táng and annotated by Dòu Méng. Jì, zì Línglǐng, was a man of Fúfēng, rising in office to Jiǎnxiào hùbù yuánwàiláng and to cānmóu of the SòngBiàn Military Commission. Méng, zì Zǐquán, was Jì’s elder brother and rose to Shì Guózǐsīyè concurrently xiànlìng of Tàiyuán. Both are attested in Xú Hào’s Gǔjì jì. According to Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s Fǎshū yàolù [see KR3h0008], “Jì composed the Shùshū fù, exhaustively penetrating its essentials and finely discriminating its hidden meaning.” Now: the upper piān of the fù narrates from highest antiquity to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the lower piān narrates the Táng from Gāozǔ, Tàizōng, Wǔ Hòu, Ruìzōng, and Mínghuáng on down, ending with his elder brother Méng and with the sister of Liú Qín — its text must therefore have been completed in the Tiānbǎo era. From beginning to end it covers thirteen dynasties and one hundred ninety-eight persons. Appended at the end of the piān are eight authenticators beginning with Xú Sēngquán, eleven seal-houses beginning with Princess Tàipíng, twenty-six collectors who sought and treasured beginning with Wéi Shù, and eight profiteers of the trade beginning with Mù Wéi. Since these continue the text of the upper piān and the resulting roll was rather bulky, it was divided into two — but the matter is continuous. Its rankings and narratives are all extremely careful; its seal-impression chapter additionally reproduces the seal-models under each line — and so it became the ancestor of Zhū Cúnlǐ’s Tiěwǎng shānhú KR3h0044, and of Zhāng Chǒu’s Qīnghé shūhuà fǎng KR3h0055 and Zhēnjī rìlù KR3h0056. The annotations are particularly canonical and substantive. The work has long been ascribed to Méng. But under the entry for Méng in the fù, the annotation reads “my elder brother Méng, zì Zǐquán, sīyìláng, Ānnán dūhù” — which suggests that Jì himself authored the annotation; moreover, the offices listed there differ from the colophon at the head of the juàn. Both are points of genuine doubt. However, since Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s Fǎshū yàolù already attributes the work as does the present text, on so weak a single witness we dare not lightly alter the received reading and have therefore copied it from the original. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), tenth month. Chief compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief collator: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Shùshū fù is the earliest extended formal fù devoted to the history of calligraphy. Dòu Jì 竇臮 (zì Línglǐng 靈長, of Fúfēng 扶風) and his elder brother Dòu Méng 竇蒙 (zì Zǐquán 子全) were active in the Tiānbǎo 天寶 (742–756) and post-rebellion years; the work’s terminus is bounded by its inclusion of Sù-zōng-era figures and by Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s quotation in the Fǎshū yàolù (compiled 847), giving a composition window roughly 754–758. The fù itself is by the younger brother Jì; the commentary, traditionally ascribed to Méng, contains a self-reference under Méng’s own entry that the Sìkù editors flagged as a possible indication that the annotation too is Jì’s; the Sìkù retained the conventional attribution on the strength of Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s testimony. The 198 calligraphers covered range from the Cāng Jié–era myth-figures of script invention through the Hàn, the WèiJìn masters, the Six Dynasties, and the Táng; the lower juàn concentrates on the Táng court and on the brothers’ own contemporaries, making the fù a near-first-hand witness for High Táng calligraphic life. The four appended lists (authenticators, seal-collectors, connoisseur-collectors, dealers) constitute one of the earliest systematic records of the social infrastructure of calligraphy collecting in China and are heavily used by later SòngYuánMíng shūhuà connoisseurs.
Translations and research
- Sturman, Peter Charles. “Mi Fu and the Practice of Connoisseurship.” PhD diss., Yale University, 1989 (uses the Shùshū fù’s seal-records as a source).
- Tseng, Yuho. A History of Chinese Calligraphy. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1993, ch. 5.
- McNair, Amy. The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998 (cites the fù for Táng valuations).
Other points of interest
The illustrated seal-impressions in the second juàn are among the earliest reproductions of collector- and imperial seals in Chinese bibliographic literature and seed the entire later tradition of shūhuà seal-recording.