Mò sǒu 墨藪
A Thicket of Inkings (a compendium of calligraphic literature) by 韋續 (Wéi Xù, late Táng, 唐, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A miscellaneous Táng compendium of calligraphic literature in 2 juàn, anonymously circulating and ascribed by the Sìkù edition to one Wéi Xù 韋續. Its 21 sections are: (1) the fifty-six varieties of script; (2) the nine grades of calligraphers; (3) the relative merits of calligraphers; (4) the Hòu shū pǐn; (5) the critical comments of Liáng Wǔdì; (6) discussions of calligraphy; (7) on seal-script; (8) brush methods with oral instructions; (9) the Bǐzhèn tú of Wèi Fūrén; (10) another Bǐzhèn tú; (11) Zhāng Chángshǐ’s Shí’èryìfǎ; (12) Wáng Yìshào’s Bǐshì zhuàn; (13) the marrow of brush-meaning; (14) Wáng Yìshào’s Bǐshì zhuàn (variant); (15) the meaning of the brush; (16) the Shūshì of Wèi Héng and others of Jìn; (17) exhortations to study; (18) the Zhēnguān lùn; (19) the Shūjué; (20) the Xú-family Shūjì; (21) Táng-dynasty calligraphic methods. Appended is Chén Yǔyì 陳與義’s Fǎtiè shìwén kānwù in one juàn, with a Chúnxī 淳熙 7 (1180) colophon by Zhōu Bìdà; this is the addition of the Míng editor Chéng Róng 程榮, who, as Zhōu’s colophon says, was reluctant to circulate so short a piece on its own.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Mò sǒu in two juàn, the old edition titled as by Wéi Xù of the Táng — though it is not known what kind of man Xù was. The Tángzhì does not record this book, only the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo lists a Mò sǒu in ten juàn, quoting Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì: “Edited by Xǔ Guīyǔ of Gāoyáng — it is not known which dynasty he belonged to; the Zhèng bibliography has it in only five juàn.” It further quotes Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí: “It is not known of which dynasty’s compilation. In all 18 piān; another edition has 21 piān.” The present edition is the recension collated and printed by Chéng Róng of the Míng. Its sections [as listed above, 21 in total]. This agrees with Chén Zhènsūn’s “another edition” — apparently the very text he had seen. Since the book records only as far as the Wén-zōng-era affair of Liǔ Gōngquán, it must come from a post-Kāichéng (836) hand. But the attribution to Wéi Xù — on what basis is unknown. The book ends with the Fǎtiè shìwén kānwù of the Sòng Cānzhīzhèngshì Chén Yǔyì — which is in fact Chéng Róng’s appendage. It has Zhōu Bìdà’s colophon of Chúnxī 7. The text is only seven sheets, but its correction of the errors in Liú Cìzhuāng’s Shìwén is quite careful. Bìdà’s colophon notes that Yǔyì wrote the piece while serving as shìcóng on imperial command. Because the piece-page total is too small to circulate alone, we have therefore retained Chéng Róng’s appendage. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), tenth month. Chief compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief collator: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Mò sǒu is one of several anonymously circulating Táng compendia of calligraphic literature, often confounded with each other in bibliographic catalogues. Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì and Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí both record it as anonymous, with attributions ranging from one Xǔ Guīyǔ of Gāoyáng to “unknown dynasty.” The Wéi Xù 韋續 attribution is found only on later editions and may be no more than a Míng editorial guess; the Sìkù editors flag it explicitly. The 21-section recension here is the one Chéng Róng 程榮 printed in the late Míng; the layered character of the table of contents (Wèi Fūrén’s Bǐzhèn tú appears twice; the Bǐshì zhuàn of Wáng Xīzhī appears twice in different recensions; the Bǐyì and Bǐsuǐ essays overlap) indicates that the book grew by accretion across several Táng and post-Táng redactions. The internal terminus is the Kāichéng affair of Liǔ Gōngquán 柳公權 (836), giving a post quem of 836; the work probably reached its present form in the late ninth or early tenth century. Its principal value is the preservation of short Táng didactic and theoretical texts on calligraphy not transmitted elsewhere.
Translations and research
- Ledderose, Lothar. Mi Fu and the Classical Tradition of Chinese Calligraphy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979 (cites the Mò sǒu texts).
- No comprehensive monographic study located. The collected calligraphic texts within the Mò sǒu are treated piecemeal in the standard Yú Jiànhuá 俞劍華, Zhōngguó gǔdài shūlùn lèibiān compilations.
Other points of interest
The repeated occurrence of duplicates and variant titles within the table of contents makes the Mò sǒu an important case-study in the textual ecology of medieval calligraphic literature, where short oral-instruction and brush-method texts circulated in highly unstable form.