Hǎitáng pǔ 海棠譜
Treatise on the Crab-Apple by 陳思 (Chén Sī, 撰)
About the work
A three-juàn late-Southern-Sòng monograph on the hǎitáng 海棠 (Chinese crab-apple, Malus spectabilis and related species — the flowering crab-apple of Tang-Sòng-Yuán-Míng aesthetic tradition). By Chén Sī 陳思, the Línān (Hángzhōu) book-merchant and jīnshí connoisseur, fl. late Lǐzōng era. Dated by self-preface to Kāiqìng 1 chángzhì (winter solstice 1259) — making it one of the very last pǔlù of the Southern Sòng before the Mongol conquest (Hángzhōu fell 1276).
The work’s three juàn: juàn 1 collects historical anecdotes and the few practical cultivation notes; juàn 2 and juàn 3 collect Tang-and-Sòng hǎitáng poetry. The work is therefore more a literary anthology than a horticultural treatise — reflecting Chén Sī’s book-merchant background and his interest in lìshì (classical-anecdote sourcing) for the cultivated literatus.
Tiyao
We submit that the Hǎitáng pǔ is in three juàn by Chén Sī of the Sòng. Sī has the Bǎokè cóngbiān already catalogued. This book is not in the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì; only Jiāo Hóng’s Guóshǐ jīngjí zhì records it as three juàn, matching this recension. At the head is Sī’s Kāiqìng 1 (1259) self-preface — the writing is rather qiǎnlòu (shallow-and-cramped) — apparently Sī was originally a book-merchant, and ultimately differs from the literati. The upper juàn records hǎitáng classical-anecdotes; the middle and lower juàn record Tang-Sòng poets’ compositions on it. Methods of cultivation, distinctions of varieties, etc., appear only as four-or-five scattered entries in the upper juàn — apparently for a book-of-anecdotes the primary aim is classical-citation. However, his searching-and-gathering is not particularly comprehensive. Comparing this with the hǎitáng materials in Jǐnxiù wànhuā gǔ and Quánfāng beìzǔ: the classical-anecdotes seem slightly more detailed here, but the poetic-titles are mostly missing. For example, Tang poets Liú Yǔxī, Jiǎ Dǎo; Sòng poets Wáng Guī, Yáng Huì, Zhū Xī, Zhāng Xiàoxiáng, Wáng Shípéng — all received by Chén Jǐngyí — are not recorded in this book. Yet on the other hand, persons like Zhāng Bó, Chéng Lín, Sòng Qí, Lǐ Dìng are present in this book and missing from Chén Jǐngyí. Apparently the book-shop recensions at that time each compiled the materials they could see, hence the mutual detail-and-omission. As a Sòng-period old text we now preserve it for purposes of mutual verification. Submitted Qiánlóng 46 month 3 (1781).
Abstract
The work is the principal late-Southern-Sòng monograph on the hǎitáng (Chinese crab-apple), the major early-spring flowering tree of Chinese cultural tradition. Its literary-anthology character — most of the work is a poetry compilation rather than a horticultural treatise — reflects the genre’s late-Sòng evolution toward classical-citation and aesthetic-philological treatment of the pǔlù subject.
The work’s principal value to modern scholarship:
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Poetic anthology. The juàn 2–3 collection of Tang-Sòng hǎitáng poetry is the principal pre-Yuán anthology of this poetic subject. While the Sìkù editors note that the coverage is incomplete (compared to Chén Jǐngyí’s Quánfāng beìzǔ), the two together provide near-comprehensive coverage of the pre-Yuán poetic tradition.
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The Dù Fǔ silence problem. The work documents the famous puzzle that Dù Fǔ 杜甫 — who spent some six years in Sìchuān, the principal Tang centre of hǎitáng cultivation — never mentions hǎitáng in his surviving poetry. The standard Sòng explanation, reflecting Zhèng Gǔ’s 鄭谷 Tang couplet “by the Huànhuā stream, in vain I lament: Zǐměi (Dù Fǔ) was unfeeling enough to give it no celebration”, was that Dù Fǔ’s mother bore the name hǎitáng and Dù Fǔ tabooed her name. The modern explanation tends to attribute the silence to genre-conventions rather than name-taboo.
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Author’s biography. The work, together with Chén Sī’s other extant works (the Bǎokè cóngbiān 寶刻叢編 of 1231; the Shūyuàn jīnghuá; the Shū xiǎoshǐ; the Xiǎozì lù), gives us one of the better-documented careers of a Sòng commercial book-trade figure. Chén Sī was a chéngzhōngláng of the imperial sōufǎng (book-acquisition) office and a leading Línān bookseller, simultaneously commercial trader and connoisseur-scholar.
The dating is precise: Kāiqìng 1 winter solstice (1259), three years before the Xiánchún reign-change (1265) and seventeen years before the Mongol conquest of Hángzhōu (1276). The work is therefore among the very latest pǔlù of the Southern Sòng.
Translations and research
- Egan, Ronald. 2006. The Problem of Beauty: Aesthetic Thought and Pursuits in Northern Song Dynasty China. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP. Discusses the genre.
- Wáng Lìpíng 王利平. 2010. Sòng-dài huā-pǔ wén-xiàn yán-jiū 宋代花譜文獻研究. Shàng-hǎi gǔjí chū-bǎn-shè.
- Wú Bīngyī 吳冰一. 2003. Zhōng-guó hǎi-táng wén-huà shǐ 中國海棠文化史. Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi rénmín chū-bǎn-shè.
Other points of interest
The hǎitáng is the principal early-spring flowering tree of Chinese aesthetic tradition, celebrated as the guóyàn 國艷 (national-beauty) by Sòng emperor Huīzōng and as the principal motif of SòngYuán court painting (Mǎ Yuǎn 馬遠, Zhào Chāng 趙昌). The famous Sū Shì line “Once asleep, all things sigh in the spring breeze; the candle-lit crab-apple blossoms turn back to laughter” is the canonical Chinese poetic invocation of the flower. Chén Sī’s anthology preserves these and many lesser-known compositions.