Yànjiān 硯箋
Notes on Ink-Stones by 高似孫 (Gāo Sìsūn, 撰)
About the work
A four-juàn late-Southern-Sòng monograph on ink-stones by the bibliographer Gāo Sìsūn 高似孫 (Chúnxī jìnshì 1184; fl. late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries). The work synthesizes the earlier-Sòng tradition of ink-stone treatises (KR3i0002 Sū Yìjiǎn; KR3i0003 Mǐ Fú; KR3i0004 Táng Jī; KR3i0005–KR3i0007 anonymous Southern-Sòng treatises) and adds substantial classical-citation material. The work is arranged into: juàn 1 on Duān-stone, with nineteen sub-categories including an ink-stone-illustration section (yàntú 硯圖) of forty-two forms (now without the illustrations); juàn 2 on Shè-stone, twenty sub-categories; juàn 3 on the other varieties of ink-stone (sixty-five types in all); juàn 4 on the literary-poetical materials on ink-stones gathered from previous writers. The tíyào gives the date of compilation as 1184 (the year of Gāo’s jìnshì), which probably represents the date of inception; the work shows familiarity with material as late as the 1220s and was therefore probably revised in Gāo’s late career.
Tiyao
We submit that the Yànjiān is in four juàn by Gāo Sìsūn of the Sòng. Sìsūn has a Shànlù and other works already separately catalogued. The first juàn is on Duān ink-stone, divided into nineteen sub-headings, including a section “Ink-Stone Illustration” listing forty-two forms, with the note: “the Shè-stone is also like this”; however the illustrations are no longer present — apparently lost in transmission. The second juàn is on Shè ink-stone, divided into twenty sub-headings. The third juàn is on the various-quality ink-stones, in all sixty-five varieties. The fourth juàn gives the poetry-and-prose of previous writers; the poetry-and-prose explicitly titled “Duān ink-stone” or “Shè ink-stone” have been appended in the first two juàn; the present juàn contains those unmarked-by-name, which is why they are appended at the end of the various-quality section.
Of the ink-stone treatises recorded in the Sòng [yìwén] zhì, four or five families still survive — mostly detailed concerning the production-localities and the qualities of substance, but rarely touching the classical-anecdotal record (diǎngù 典故). Sìsūn’s book alone, being late-emerging, was able to use the discussions of all the various authors; moreover, his learning was originally broad-and-extensive, and he could draw on the various texts for corroboration. Hence his narration has a system, and is especially worth-looking-at. There are slight leakages along the way: e.g., the item about Lǐ Hòuzhǔ’s 李後主 qīngshí ink-stone being smashed by Táo Gǔ 陶榖 — this comes from the anonymous Yànpǔ (KR3i0007), as cited in Zēng Zào’s 曾慥 Lèishuō; today the original work is included in Zuǒ Guī’s Bǎichuān xuéhǎi and can still be verified; yet he treats it as coming from the Lèishuō — failing on the question of source. However, his overall character is xúnyǎ (cultivated-and-elegant) and ultimately distinct from the mere pángzá (motley-and-confused). Items like the green-stone of Duānzhōu (Duānzhōu lǜshí 端州緑石), which is not recorded in the various-quality ink-stones, he supplies on the basis of Wáng Ānshí’s 王安石 poetry — such things are particularly well-informed. The work is sufficient to assist textual investigation and to be a resource for connoisseurship. Submitted Qiánlóng 46 month 10 (1781). Chief compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief collator: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Yànjiān is the most comprehensive single Sòng work on ink-stones — Gāo Sìsūn’s bibliographer’s instincts give it greater systematic coverage and citation-accuracy than the earlier Sòng works (KR3i0002–KR3i0007) combined. It is the principal route by which the Sòng ink-stone tradition reached the YuánMíngQīng connoisseurship literature, and the chief medium through which lost early Sòng ink-stone references survive in citation.
Gāo’s working method is encyclopedic-bibliographic — he draws systematically on previous works and on extra-Sòng material (Tang poetry, especially Lǐ Hè 李賀 and Lǐ Shāngyǐn 李商隱, who wrote much on the Duān-stone, but also Lǐ Bái, Bái Jūyì, Wáng Wéi, etc.). The work’s chief deficiency, noted by the Sìkù editors, is occasional citation-by-anthology rather than by the original; but overall the work is recognized as the standard pre-Qīng synthesis.
The illustrations of the forty-two forms in the yàntú 硯圖 section of juàn 1 are now lost (with the WYG recension); only the textual descriptions of the forms survive. Modern editions reconstruct the illustrations from the Bǎichuān xuéhǎi 百川學海 recension (the most complete).
Translations and research
- Léng Jiànlì 冷建立. 2010. Sòng-dài pǔ-lù wén-xiàn yán-jiū 宋代譜錄文獻研究. Běijīng: Rénmín wénxué chū-bǎn-shè.
- Wáng Yùxiá 王玉霞. 2008. Zhōng-guó míng yàn jiàn-shǎng 中國名硯鑒賞. Tài-yuán: Shānxī rénmín chū-bǎn-shè.
- Hé Jīntáng 何金堂. 1986. Yàn-shǐ kǎo-lüè 硯史考略. Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi gǔjí chū-bǎn-shè.
Other points of interest
Gāo Sìsūn is the same scholar who also produced the Xièlüè 蟹略 (KR3i0047) on crabs — a far less famous monograph but in the same encyclopedic style. The pair Yànjiān + Xièlüè together represent the high point of the Sòng pǔlù genre as practiced by an erudite bibliographer.