Gǔjīn dāojiàn lù 古今刀劔錄
Record of Knives and Swords, Ancient and Modern by 陶弘景 (Táo Hóngjǐng, 456–536, 梁, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A 1-juàn register of historical knives and swords by Táo Hóngjǐng 陶弘景 (456–536), the great Liáng-period Daoist polymath of Màoshān 茅山 (zì Tōngmíng 通明, posth. Zhēnbái xiānsheng 貞白先生). The work records: (a) Royal-and-imperial knives and swords from Xià Qǐ (the son of Yǔ) down to Liáng Wǔdì — 40 items; (b) the zhūguó (lesser-kingdom) knives and swords from Liú Yuān 劉淵 of the QiánZhào to Hèlián Bóbó 赫連勃勃 of Xià — 18 items; (c) Wújiāng dāo 吳將刀 (Wú-state generals’ knives) from Zhōu Yú 周瑜 onwards — 10 items, although the heading is corrupted and the items include Shǔ generals (Guān Yǔ 關羽, Zhāng Fēi 張飛, Zhūgé Liàng 諸葛亮, Huáng Zhōng 黃忠) plus Hàn-end Dǒng Zhuō 董卓 and Yuán Shào 袁紹 which clearly belong elsewhere; (d) Wèijiāng dāo 魏將刀 from Zhōng Huì 鍾會 onwards — 6 items. Each entry typically gives the ruler/general’s name, regnal year, the casting year (suìcì) and place, dimensions, inscription (with script-style: dàzhuàn, xiǎozhuàn, lìshū, gǔwén zhuànshū), and any later fate of the piece. The work is the principal premodern Chinese source on the dating and inscription of pre-Tang blade-weapons.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Gǔjīn dāojiàn lù in one juàn, by Táo Hóngjǐng of the Liáng. Hóngjǐng, zì Tōngmíng, of Mòlíng 秣陵 in Dānyáng 丹陽. At the start of the Qí he was a Fèngcháoqǐng; in Yǒngmíng 10 (492) he presented a memorial and resigned, retiring to Jùqūshān 句曲山 (i.e. Màoshān). He died in Liáng Dàtóng 2 (536), was posthumously honoured Zhōngsǎn dàfū, and given the shì “Zhēnbái xiānsheng.” His shìjì is in the Liángshū “Chǔshì zhuàn.” The work records imperial knives and swords from Xià Qǐ to Liáng Wǔdì — 40 affairs; the zhūguó knives and swords from Liú Yuān to Hèlián Bóbó — 18; Wújiāng dāo from Zhōu Yú onward — 10; Wèijiāng dāo from Zhōng Huì onward — 6. However, Guān, Zhāng, Zhūgé Liàng, Huáng Zhōng are all Shǔ generals, not to be added among the Wú generals — suspecting a transmission error that has dropped a heading “Shǔjiāng dāo” of three characters. Further, Dǒng Zhuō and Yuán Shào should not be appended to the Wèi, nor placed between Dèng Aì and Guō Huái — both transpositions. Even more strangely: Hóngjǐng was born in the Sòng, and when Qí Gāodì was acting as xiàng he was already retained as Reading Companion to the various princes; yet the book says “the Shùndì Zhǔn was assassinated by Yáng Yù” — Hóngjǐng should not have made such a mistake about an event he lived through. Further, Hóngjǐng died in Wǔdì’s time, yet the imperial-knife entry refers to Wǔdì by his shì and directly uses his name — also out of keeping with reason. We suspect the book has been edited by later hands, not all of it remains Hóngjǐng’s original text. Yet Lǐ Chuò’s 李綽 Shàngshū gùshí 尚書故實 of the Táng cites the Gǔjīn dāojiàn lù as saying “from antiquity, fine knives and swords are mostly cast into the Yīshuǐ to drive off the human-knee-monster” — agreeing with this present text’s Hàn Zhāngdì-cast-sword entry (with minor variants). So the transmission has been long, and the book is not all later forgery — it is probably similar to Zhāng Huá’s Bówù zhì: half-genuine, half-false.
Abstract
The Gǔjīn dāojiàn lù is the standard premodern Chinese source on the historiography of blade-weapons. Its preservation in the Sìkù is notable given the Sìkù editors’ detailed evidence (laid out in the tíyào above) that the text has been interpolated and rearranged by later hands. The work nonetheless preserves a continuous historical schema linking knife-and-sword casting to imperial legitimacy from Xià through the Liáng — a key entry-point into the meaning of inscribed blade-weapons in pre-Táng Chinese ritual and political culture. The Táng citation by Lǐ Chuò in Shàngshū gùshí (mid-Táng) confirms the work’s pre-Táng origin and a continuous Daoist transmission. The work was widely cited in later Chinese, Korean and Japanese sword-literature. Táo Hóngjǐng (456–536, SòngQíLiáng polymath, Màoshān patriarch) was simultaneously the imperial pharmacology authority and a leading Daoist scripture-editor — the Gǔjīn dāojiàn lù sits in the same Daoist-influenced historical-pharmacology mode as his Gǔjīn yītǒng dàquán and the Zhēngào of the Shàngqīng tradition.
Translations and research
- Strickmann, Michel. Le taoïsme du Mao-chan: chronique d’une révélation. Paris: Collège de France, 1981. [The foundational Western study of Táo Hóngjǐng’s Mào-shān milieu.]
- Robinet, Isabelle. La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du Taoïsme. Paris: EFEO, 1984.
- Yáng Hóng 楊泓. Zhōng-guó gǔ bīng-qì lùn-cóng 中國古兵器論叢. Beijing: Wén-wù chū-bǎn-shè, 1980. [The standard modern reference on Chinese ancient weaponry, which uses the Gǔjīn dāojiàn lù extensively.]
- Yokota, Y. Translation in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Japan, second series, vol. 16 (1939). [Partial English translation.]
Other points of interest
The relevant Wilkinson Chinese History: A New Manual coverage (under “Weapons and Armies”) confirms that the Gǔjīn dāojiàn lù is the only systematic premodern Chinese treatise specifically on historical blade-weapons; later medieval Chinese sources on weapons typically excerpt or cite it. The work documents the use of Xià-and-Hàn-era inscribed-sword casting in gǔwén zhuànshū (the most archaic script class), making it a useful negative source for the Daoist-coloured pseudepigraphic tradition on ancient script.