Yìyú túzàn bǔ 異魚圖贊補
Supplement to the Illustrated Encomia of Strange Fish by 胡世安 (Hú Shì’ān, 撰), with annotation by his son Hú Pú 胡璞 and his disciples (Léi Guǎn 雷琯 et al.)
About the work
A three-juàn + one rùnjí (Intercalary Collection) supplement to Yáng Shèn’s Yìyú túzàn (KR3i0048) — composed by Hú Shì’ān 胡世安 before his jìnshì of Tiānqǐ 5 (1625), i.e., during the early-1620s. The work adds substantial new material: 154 fish-varieties (with 57 new zàn encomia) plus 38 marine-miscellany varieties (with 28 new zàn) in the principal three juàn, plus a rùnjí (Intercalary Collection) of approximately 30 additional fish-varieties from foreign / legendary sources (including the Mójié — the Indian makara sea-monster). With commentary by Hú Shì’ān’s son Hú Pú 胡璞 and his disciples including Léi Guǎn 雷琯.
The Sìkù editors note that the rùnjí shows signs of incompletion — entries do not match the table-of-contents, zàn texts are sometimes missing — and conclude that the rùnjí was a “work in progress” that Hú did not finish revising.
Tiyao
We submit that the Yìyú túzàn bǔ in three juàn and Rùnjí in one juàn is by our State-period Hú Shì’ān. Shì’ān has the Dà yì zé tōng already separately catalogued. This book was composed when he had not yet attained his examination success — feeling that Yáng Shèn’s Yìyú túzàn still had many omissions, he gathered the missing material to make this compilation. In all, the fish-varieties supplemented are 154, with 57 zàn; the marine-miscellany supplemented is 38, with 28 zàn; further the Rùnjí in one juàn contains over 30 fish-varieties, headed by the Mójié — sea-creatures unusual in many respects — each also receiving its zàn. His son Pú and his disciple Léi Guǎn and others jointly added commentary.
The Rùnjí’s contents do not match its table-of-contents; before-and-after disordered; the zàn-text often missing. We suspect this was a work whose revision was not yet completed.
[Yáng] Shèn’s making of zàn — though belonging to literati-play-of-the-brush — has its source in Guō Pú; finally of ancient-eminence and worth-looking-at. Shì’ān’s continuation in imitation likewise has classically-evidenced abundance and does not fall short of cultivated-elegance. With Yáng’s book, this serves-and-runs-together; in the species-and-categories of the water-tribe, it is also broadly complete. Submitted Qiánlóng 46 month 10 (1781).
Abstract
The work is the largest single Chinese pre-modern monograph on fish-and-marine creatures, in terms of species-count. Where Yáng Shèn’s original (KR3i0048) covered 122 species, Hú Shì’ān’s supplement adds nearly 200 more: 154 fish + 38 marine-miscellany + c. 30 from the Rùnjí. The total scope of the YángHú trio (KR3i0048, KR3i0049, KR3i0050) is approximately 300 named species, the largest pre-modern Chinese ichthyological compilation.
The work documents many species not in earlier Chinese natural-history literature, drawing on regional sources from the south and southwest of China and on quasi-foreign / legendary sources for the Rùnjí. Specific new content of note:
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Yúnnán and Sìchuān freshwater fish: Hú Shì’ān was a Bā (Sìchuān) native, and his work reflects deeper knowledge of inland southwestern Chinese fish-fauna than Yáng Shèn’s original — which had drawn primarily on southern-coastal sources.
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The Rùnjí / Mójié (Indian makara): a notable opening section discussing the legendary Indian makara sea-monster (the Mójiéyú 摩竭魚 of Buddhist literature), drawn from Buddhist sources via the great Tang-Sòng translated literature. This represents the integration of Indian biological-mythological material into Chinese natural-historical literature.
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Multi-generation collaborative annotation: the work’s authorship is collaborative across generations — Hú Shì’ān composed the main text; his son Hú Pú and his disciples (including Léi Guǎn) added annotations. This reflects the late-Míng-and-early-Qing pattern of teacher-disciple natural-history workshops.
The composition date is set by Hú’s “pre-jìnshì” status to before his Tiānqǐ 5 (1625) examination success. The work was therefore composed in his late twenties or early thirties (1620–1625), a remarkable juvenile production.
Translations and research
- Métailié, Georges. 2015. Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. VI part 4. Cambridge UP.
- Schorr, Adam. 1993. “Connoisseurship and the Defense Against Vulgarity: Yang Shen (1488–1559) and his Work”. Monumenta Serica 41.
Other points of interest
The work’s rùnjí “Intercalary Collection” is the most curious portion: a supplement-to-the-supplement of legendary and foreign creatures, presenting a final synthesis of the Buddhist-mythological and Chinese-natural-historical traditions. The integration of the Buddhist makara (the great sea-monster of Indian cosmology, often translated into Chinese as jīng whale or jiāo dragon) into the Chinese natural-historical vocabulary is a significant moment in Sino-Indian cultural exchange.
The rùnjí’s incomplete state — entries not matching the table-of-contents, missing zàn — is a textual-historical curiosity: it represents Hú Shì’ān’s working drafts as they existed at his death (1663), preserved without further editorial polish.