Yìyú túzàn jiān 異魚圖贊箋
Annotated Edition of the Illustrated Encomia of Strange Fish by 楊愼 (Yáng Shèn, 原本) — original; and 胡世安 (Hú Shì’ān, 箋) — annotator
About the work
A four-juàn late-Míng / early-Qīng scholarly commentary on Yáng Shèn’s Yìyú túzàn (KR3i0048). By Hú Shì’ān 胡世安 of Bā (Sìchuān), late-Míng jìnshì and Hànlín scholar. Composed in Chóngzhēn gēngwǔ (1630), as recorded in Hú’s self-preface; the work supplements Yáng Shèn’s brief 86 + 30 encomia (covering 122 fish-and-marine species) with extensive commentary citing classical, běncǎo, and other authorities — together with corrections of Yáng’s identifications and supplementations.
Although the Sìkù attributes the work to “our State-dynasty” (i.e., Qīng), Hú’s preface dates the work firmly to the late Míng (1630, 14 years before the Manchu conquest). The work was completed in Hú’s Míng career; he survived the conquest and continued his Qing career, but the work itself is Míng.
Tiyao
We submit that the Yìyú túzàn jiān is in four juàn by our State-period Hú Shì’ān. Originally Yáng Shèn made the Yìyú túzàn, occasionally adding his own annotation — merely listing the source-titles, without leisure to fully cite the discussion. Shì’ān supplemented [Yáng’s annotation] and, in Chóngzhēn gēngwǔ (1630), gathered records widely to make this commentary. The citation-and-evidence is extremely abundant. Where the names-and-realities are mismatched, he provides correction in the table-of-contents — each with explicit textual evidence. However, in his greedy-for-many love-of-broad [knowledge], he often produces leak-and-omission. Sometimes a quotation in Yáng’s encomium is missing its annotation — e.g., under the Chì lǐ (Red Carp) entry the wùguāng fènshì (mist-light, angered-with-the-world) saying. Sometimes Yáng himself notes “from such-and-such a book” and Hú fails to annotate it — e.g., under the Fánglǐ (Bream-Carp) entry, the HéLuò jì “citation-of-proverb” — these are missed. And previous-age classical-anecdotes with no relation to the names-and-meanings — he then sprawls-and-meanders, page-after-page without stopping. This is a verification-text rather than a glossing-text. Yet his collecting-of-classical-texts is in fact broadly-abundant. Hence strange-forms-and-bizarre-shapes — all one-and-all have evidence for verification-of-their-origin-and-stream. Although the criticism of mixing-and-confusion cannot be avoided, this is also not without contribution to broader-knowledge. Submitted Qiánlóng 45 month 2 (1780).
Abstract
The work is the most exhaustive Chinese pre-modern critical-and-commentarial treatment of fish-and-marine creatures. Hú Shì’ān’s commentary, drawing on Lǐ Shízhēn’s Běncǎo gāngmù (1593), Chén Cángqì’s Běncǎo shíyí, the Ěryǎ, Guǎngyǎ, Píngyǎ, Shuōwén, and dozens of other authorities, systematically expands Yáng Shèn’s brief encomia into a substantial critical-and-bibliographic apparatus. For each of Yáng’s species he supplies: synonyms (often several dozen per species); regional names; descriptive form; comparison-and-distinction from look-alike species; medical and culinary uses; classical-citation history.
The work also corrects many of Yáng Shèn’s identification-errors (which are numerous, given Yáng’s reliance on second-hand textual sources during his Yúnnán exile). Hú Shì’ān’s corrections include: showing that Yáng’s Jīng (whale) discussion conflates two species; that Yáng’s Bǐmù (sole / flatfish) entry incorrectly identifies it with the legendary Wángyú; that the Língyú (pangolin) is properly classified not as a fish but as a mammal (Hú follows Lǐ Shízhēn’s Běncǎo gāngmù on this); that the Yú jiù (uncle-fish) is the same as the Dānghù; etc.
The compositional date is firmly 1630 (Chóngzhēn gēngwǔ) from the self-preface; the work was published as a Míng-period imprint and absorbed into the Qing-period collections via the Sìkù during the Qiánlóng era. The Sìkù assignment to “our State-period” is anachronistic but reflects Hú Shì’ān’s Qing-period career.
Translations and research
- Métailié, Georges. 2015. Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. VI part 4. Cambridge UP. Treats the Yì-yú tú-zàn triad (KR3i0048–KR3i0050) as principal sources.
- Schorr, Adam. 1993. “Connoisseurship and the Defense Against Vulgarity: Yang Shen (1488–1559) and his Work”. Monumenta Serica 41.
- Hé Líng 何凌. 2014. Hú Shì’ān yǔ Míng-mò Qīng-chū wén-rén 胡世安與明末清初文人. Chéngdū doctoral thesis.
Other points of interest
The work, together with Hú Shì’ān’s supplementary Yìyú túzàn bǔ (KR3i0050), forms the most comprehensive Chinese pre-modern fish-and-marine-creature compendium. The three works (KR3i0048 Yáng Shèn’s original, KR3i0049 Hú’s commentary, KR3i0050 Hú’s supplement) total nearly 200 species with detailed scholarly apparatus.
The work is also notable as a document of late-Míng natural-history scholarship: it demonstrates the influence of Lǐ Shízhēn’s Běncǎo gāngmù (1593) on contemporary biological identification, and the broader late-Míng tendency toward synthetic, multi-source, critical natural-history.