Mòchí biān 墨池編
Compendium of the Ink-Pond (a Sòng anthology on calligraphic learning) by 朱長文 (Zhū Chángwén, 1039–1098, 宋, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A Northern Sòng calligraphic anthology, modelled on Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s KR3h0008 Fǎshū yàolù but considerably enlarged. Compiled by the Sūzhōu scholar Zhū Chángwén (also author of KR2k0090 Wújùn tújīng xùjì and other works), the Mòchí biān in eight thematic sections — Zìxué 字學 (script-studies), Bǐfǎ 筆法 (brush-method), Záyì 雜議 (miscellaneous discussions), Pǐnzǎo 品藻 (rankings, in 5 parts), Zànshù 贊述 (encomia, in 3 parts), Bǎocáng 寶藏 (treasures-collected, in 3 parts), Kèbēi 刻碑 (inscribed steles, in 2 parts), Qìyòng 器用 (implements, in 2 parts) — gathers virtually the entire surviving classical literature on Chinese calligraphy from antiquity through the early Northern Sòng. Zhū’s own organising notes and remarks are appended throughout the text. The work was originally in twelve juàn (the zànshù note records “I have compiled this book in ten juàn,” with two further juàn of Sū Yìjiǎn’s Wénfáng sìpǔ appended); the present six-juàn edition is a later collation.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Mòchí biān in six juàn, by Zhū Chángwén of the Sòng. Chángwén is the author of KR2k0090 Wújùn tújīng xùjì and other works, separately recorded. This compilation specially addresses the sources and currents of calligraphic learning, in eight sections, each further divided. Zìxué 1; Bǐfǎ 2; Záyì 2; Pǐnzǎo 5; Zànshù 3; Bǎocáng 3; Kèbēi 2; Qìyòng 2. All cite the writings of the ancients and arrange them by category; the gathering is extensive. Lost writings of earlier ages are often preserved here. His own occasional remarks are also extremely elegant. Although later works such as the Shūyuàn jīnghuá KR3h0033 expand a little, none can pass beyond the Mòchí biān’s framework. In the zànshù section, under Dòu Jì’s KR3h0007 Shùshū fù, he himself says: “I have compiled this book in ten juàn”; and at the end of qìyòng he says: “Having read Sū Dàcān’s [Yìjiǎn’s] Wénfáng sìpǔ, I have taken what is useful to calligraphy and made two juàn and appended them at the end of the Mòchí biān.” So Chángwén’s original was in twelve juàn; the present six are a later consolidation. The end of the kèbēi section originally listed ninety-two Sòng steles, forty-four Yuán steles, and one hundred nineteen Míng steles — all gratuitous additions of the Míng Wànlì recutting. We have provisionally retained them but corrected the matter here. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 43 (1778), third month. Chief compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì.
Abstract
Zhū Chángwén 朱長文 (zì Bóyuán 伯原, 1039–1098), the Sūzhōu polymath who built the famous Lèpǔ 樂圃 garden, compiled the Mòchí biān between the Zhìpíng 治平 and Yuányòu 元祐 eras (perhaps c. 1066–1080) at his home in Sūzhōu. He took as his model the Fǎshū yàolù of Zhāng Yànyuǎn KR3h0008 and produced something considerably larger: it doubles in extent the Yàolù’s coverage and adds two new thematic blocks (bǎocáng, qìyòng) systematically devoted to collecting and to the materials and tools of calligraphy. The Sìkù editors regarded Zhū’s compilation as the canonical Sòng work on calligraphic learning, observing that all later compendia (such as the SòngYuán Shūyuàn jīnghuá KR3h0033) ultimately work within Zhū’s organisational scheme. The present text has been damaged: late-Míng Wànlì re-cutters added 92 Sòng, 44 Yuán, and 119 Míng steles to the kèbēi section, which the Sìkù editors flagged but retained. The work transmits the bulk of Táng calligraphic theory (including parts of Lǐ Sìzhēn, Sūn Guòtíng, Zhāng Huáiguàn) — for some Tang figures it is, alongside the Fǎshū yàolù, the only source.
Translations and research
- Ledderose, Lothar. Mi Fu and the Classical Tradition of Chinese Calligraphy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979 (uses Mòchí biān throughout).
- McNair, Amy. The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998.
- No comprehensive modern monograph. Treated in the standard Yú Jiànhuá 俞劍華, Zhōngguó gǔdài shū-lùn lèibiān.
Other points of interest
The Mòchí biān’s Bǎocáng and Kèbēi sections are the principal Northern Sòng theoretical statements on the connoisseurship and collection of calligraphic models and stele rubbings, and laid the conceptual ground for the high-Sòng jīnshí xué 金石學 (epigraphic studies) of Ōuyáng Xiū, Zhào Míngchéng and Lǐ Qīngzhào.