Liùyì zhī yī lù 六藝之一錄
A Record of One of the Six Arts (i.e. Calligraphy) by 倪濤 (Ní Tāo, 18th cent., 清, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A 406-juàn (with a xùbiān 續編 of 14 juàn) comprehensive compendium of calligraphy literature by Ní Tāo 倪濤 (eighteenth-century, of Qiántáng), to date one of the largest single works in the Sìkù Yìshù class. The title is taken from the Confucian “six arts” (liùyì) of the Zhōu lǐ — lǐ, yuè, shè, yù, shū, shù (rites, music, archery, charioteering, writing, mathematics) — claiming calligraphy as one of the six. The compendium gathers all available pre-Qīng material on writing into six general collections (jí): (1) Jīnqì kuǎnshí 金器欵識 (bronze-vessel inscriptions), (2) Kèshí wénzì 刻石文字 (stone-cut inscriptions), (3) Fǎtiè lùnshù 法帖論述 (discussions of model rubbings), (4) Gǔjīn shūtǐ 古今書體 (ancient and modern script-styles), (5) Lìcháo shūlùn 歷朝書論 (calligraphy theory of the successive dynasties), (6) Lìcháo shūpǔ 歷朝書譜 (calligrapher rosters of the successive dynasties). The Sìkù tíyào singles out the work’s exhaustive method — for any matter relating to the “six writing-distinctions,” the variations of the “eight strokes,” or the transmission of inscribed and ink-traced pieces, the work assembles everything available; only previous authorities’ settled views are recorded, without Ní Tāo’s own arguments; where the sources disagree, both readings are preserved for later decision. The tíyào pays special tribute to Ní’s poverty-stricken life of scholarship: at nearly 100 suì he was still composing, and being too poor to hire scribes, he transcribed the entire compendium in his own hand with help from the women of his household. The Sìkù judgment: from Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s Fǎshū yàolù (Táng) onward, no work has been more comprehensive on calligraphy.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Liùyì zhī yī lù in four hundred and six juàn and a xùbiān of fourteen juàn, by Ní Tāo of the present dynasty. Tāo has the Zhōuyì éshù 周易蛾術 already entered. His entire life was devoted to learning; at nearly 100 suì he still composed without stopping. Being poor and unable to obtain scribes, he transcribed everything by his own hand, with help from the women of his household. This compilation is also from his own draft. It is divided into six collections: first, bronze-vessel inscriptions; second, stone-cut inscriptions; third, model-rubbing discussions; fourth, ancient and modern script-styles; fifth, calligraphy theory across the dynasties; sixth, calligrapher rosters across the dynasties. Of the six writing-distinctions’ varieties and the eight strokes’ variations, of the carved-and-ink-traced transmission’s yuánliú and gains and losses — everything that the recorded books retain — all are gathered. Only past authorities’ settled views are entered; Ní does not editorialise; where there are conflicting accounts or unreconcilable hard cases, both readings are preserved to await later decision. From the past, for discussions of writing, the surviving texts and statements before the Táng — only Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s Fǎshū yàolù is detailed. As for post-Táng writings on calligraphy, none have ever been as comprehensive as this. Though the selection is large and not all the entries are yǎ (refined), and the category-headings are broad and not entirely homogeneous in example, still — to range up and down across more than two thousand years, with the finest and the largest details all there — this is indeed the zǒnghuì (grand compendium) of calligraphers. Piānnán qǐzǐ cuì yú Dènglín — “piánnán and qǐzǐ trees collected in Dènglín”: one does not blame the woodsman for not pruning the underbrush. Ní’s other writings include the Wén Déyì yōngchuī lù zhù and corrections to Lì Dàoyuán’s Shuǐjīng zhù — neither now seen, whether extant or lost cannot be determined. But this one transmission alone is enough; nothing else need be reckoned. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), twelfth month.
Abstract
The Liùyì zhī yī lù is one of the great single-author compendia of the Qing — a personal kǎozhèng enterprise on the scale of an imperial commission. Ní Tāo (eighteenth-century, of Qiántáng) is identified in CBDB only by activity dates and is otherwise poorly documented; the catalog meta gives him as “18th cent.” with no precise dates. The Sìkù tíyào’s note that he was nearly 100 suì at composition, and that he transcribed the entire 420-juàn corpus by hand with household help, suggests a Hángzhōu poverty-scholarship background analogous to that of Lì È 厲鶚 KR3h0069 in the same period. The work’s six-collection structure makes it effectively a single-volume library of pre-Qīng calligraphy literature, especially valuable for stone-inscription material (jí 2, Kèshí wénzì) and the early-Qīng synthesis of fǎtiè tradition (jí 3). The dating range is set by Ní’s eighteenth-century activity. Despite — or because of — its bulk, the work has been the principal lookup reference for pre-Qīng calligraphy literature down to the present.
Translations and research
- Ledderose, Lothar. Mi Fu and the Classical Tradition of Chinese Calligraphy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.
- Goepper, Roger. Shu-p’u. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1974.
- No standalone Western-language monograph on the Liù-yì zhī yī lù.
- No reliable modern critical edition of this work.
Other points of interest
At 420 juàn total (406 + 14), the Liùyì zhī yī lù is among the longest single-author kǎozhèng compendia in the Sìkù — extraordinary as a private rather than imperial undertaking. The Sìkù tíyào’s biographical note on Ní’s self-and-family transcription practice is one of the few sources for the social conditions of Qīng kǎozhèng scholarship at the household level.