Jìnshì huìyuán 近事會元
A Compendium of the Origins of Recent Affairs
by 李上交 (Lǐ Shàngjiāo, fl. mid-11th c.; preface dated Jiāyòu 1 [winter solstice] = 1056)
About the work
A Northern-Sòng záokǎo 雜考 bǐjì in five juan, gathering 500 entries on the institutional history of the Táng (Wǔdé reign, 618– ) through the Five Dynasties (down to HòuZhōu Xiǎndé, –960), arranged by topic. Juan 1 to 3 cover palace architecture, carriages and ceremonial dress, the official-rank and military systems, and the administrative precedents of the Six Boards (六曹); juan 4 covers musical pieces and the historical evolution of prefecture- and commandery-names; juan 5 collects a wider range of institutional and ritual kǎo — items on women’s yán 檐子 / dōulóng 兜籠 sedan-chairs and silk shoes, marriage processions, the imperial guójì xíngxiāng 國忌行香 mourning ritual, the Shàngyuán lantern festival, posthumous titles for princesses and recluses, the lǜgé 律格 / jiǎnshū 赦書 / tóu guǐ 投匭 procedures, the Xíngtǒng 刑統 codes, and the histories of various penal-administrative institutions (the first banishment to Shāméndǎo 沙門島, the first installation of yáqián ānzhì 衙前安置, the first demotion to Yázhōu 厓州). Modeled, the Sìkù editors observe, somewhere between Cuī Bào’s 崔豹 Gǔjīn zhù 古今注 and Gāo Chéng’s 高承 Shìwù jìyuán 事物紀原, but generally more rigorous than its catalogers (notably Chén Zhènsūn) had appreciated. Catalogued under Záxué zhī shǔ 雜學之屬 of the Zájiā 雜家 division (subdivision záokǎo 雜考).
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Jìnshì huìyuán in five juan is the work of Lǐ Shàngjiāo of the Sòng. Shàngjiāo, a man of Zànhuáng 賛皇, his career details unknown. The book was completed in the first year of Jiāyòu [1056]. The author’s preface stands at the front of the work. Chén Zhènsūn’s Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí says: “Jìnshì huìyuán in five juan, by Lǐ Shàngjiāo. From Táng Wǔdé down to Zhōu Xiǎndé, miscellaneous matters and trivia of administration are all recorded.” Qián Zēng’s 錢曾 Dúshū mǐnqiú jì 讀書敏求記 says: “Shàngjiāo, in retirement at Zhōnglíng 鍾陵, searched the recent histories and xiǎoshuō and miscellaneous records — five hundred items in all, divided into five juan, titled Jìnshì huìyuán. Many things the Táng shǐ failed to record are gathered here.” This recension carries, at the end, the inscription “Yuánsùzhāi 元素齋 transcribed copy of the rénwǔ year of Wànlì [1582]” — clearly a Míng-period old transcript. The number of juan accords with what the two cataloguers report; the start- and end-dates of its contents accord with what Zhènsūn says; the number of entries and the wording of the preface accord with what Zēng says — clearly the original recension.
Yet Zhènsūn supposes the contents to be all zá shì xì wù 雜事細務 (trivia and minor matters); but examining the book, juan 1 to 3 begin with palace architecture, then carriages and dress, then the official-rank and military systems, then the precedents of the Six Boards 六曹; juan 4 is musical pieces and the historical evolution of prefectures and commanderies; only juan 5 carries the more miscellaneous notices — though even there the entries on the women’s yán and dōulóng sedan-chairs, silk shoes and silk slippers, the lifting of music at marriage processions, the zhàngchē 障車 ritual, princesses’ service to parents-in-law, posthumous titles for princesses, the canonization of mountains and rivers, the guójì xíngxiāng mourning, the Shàngyuán lanterns, the sàncóngqīnshìguān 散從親事官, posthumous xiānshēng 先生 titles for hermits, the lǜgé 律格 and shèshū 赦書 and tóu guǐ 投匭, the Xíngtǒng 刑統 and the lǜlìng 律令, the double review of capital sentences, the jìnyuè zhúxún 禁樂逐旬, the procedures for interrogation and memorials and edicts, and the first banishments to Shāméndǎo 沙門島, the first yáqián ānzhì placements, and the first demotions to Yázhōu 厓州 — all bear on institutional precedent. The general scheme falls between Cuī Bào’s Gǔjīn zhù and Gāo Chéng’s Shìwù jìyuán. Items like the kǎozhèng of the Níshang yǔyī qǔ 霓裳羽衣曲 are extremely sober and authoritative; not to be dismissed merely as zá shì xì wù. Zhènsūn perhaps did not examine the book closely; seeing only the heading-and-list format on the model of Yúnxiān zájì 雲仙雜記 and Qīngyì lù 清異錄, he carelessly took it for xiǎoshuō. Respectfully revised and submitted, eleventh month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀 (note: 均 in the original is a typographical slip for 昀), Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Author’s preface
The Confucian school relies upon broad learning. Among the affairs of the world, all have their origin and root; if the matter is heard only by hearsay, then the audience is left puzzled. To compass the trivia is to spare oneself the disgrace of unfounded statement. I have always held that the springs of the classics are easy enough to investigate, but the things one’s eyes and ears actually meet are sometimes hard to know in their entirety. I, Shàngjiāo, in retirement at Zhōnglíng, have quietly searched the recent histories and the various xiǎoshuō and miscellaneous records, beginning with Táng Wǔdé and going down to before Zhōu Xiǎndé, gathering the small details of their causes, that they may serve as a reference for casual conversation. As the saying goes: “What is small but unworthy of explanation will, when ignored, lead one into shame.” Let this little compilation, then, attract no blame for trivia. Five hundred items in all, divided into five juan, titled Jìnshì huìyuán. The time being the bǐngshēn day [winter solstice] of the first year of Jiāyòu [1056].
Abstract
Lǐ Shàngjiāo 李上交 (fl. mid-11th c.; CBDB floruit 1050) was a Northern Sòng scholar from Zànhuáng 賛皇 (modern Héběi); nothing else of his career is recorded. CBDB id 1797. He compiled the Jìnshì huìyuán in retirement at Zhōnglíng 鍾陵 (an old name for Hóngzhōu 洪州, modern Nánchāng 南昌, Jiāngxī), completing it on the winter solstice of Jiāyòu 1 (1056) according to his own preface. The dating bracket is set to 1056 for both notBefore and notAfter: the work was completed by the dated preface and not significantly revised thereafter.
The work assembles five hundred kǎozhèng entries on the institutional history of Táng (618– ) through Five-Dynasties HòuZhōu (–960), explicitly aimed at supplying the yìwén of administrative practice that the dynastic histories do not record. The arrangement is hierarchical and institutionally serious — palace architecture, ceremonial carriages and robes, official ranks, military system, the Six Boards’ precedents (juan 1–3), then musical and geographic-administrative history (juan 4), with the more miscellaneous items reserved for juan 5. Chén Zhènsūn’s Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí dismisses the whole as zá shì xì wù (trivia), and the Sìkù editors are at pains to rebut him: the Níshang yǔyī qǔ 霓裳羽衣曲 entry alone, they note, is a model of careful musical-historical reconstruction.
The book’s institutional model is openly comparative — in the spirit of Cuī Bào’s Gǔjīn zhù and Gāo Chéng’s Shìwù jìyuán — and constitutes one of the principal Northern-Sòng zhǎnggù 掌故 reference-works for Táng / Five-Dynasties institutional minutiae. The recension transmitted is from a Míng (Wànlì rénwǔ = 1582) Yuánsùzhāi 元素齋 transcript; subsequent SòngYuán recensions in larger or smaller compass are not extant.
The work appears in 《宋史·藝文志》, Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí, Dúshū mǐnqiú jì, and the Sìkù.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. The book is one of the principal Northern-Sòng sources for Táng institutional history and is routinely cited in modern Chinese scholarship on Táng zhǎnggù; no monograph or Western-language translation exists. A modern punctuated edition is available in the Quán Sòng bǐjì 全宋筆記 (Dàxiàng Chūbǎnshè).
Other points of interest
The opening Níshang yǔyī qǔ entry — Lǐ’s reconstruction of the famous Tánghuáng court dance-and-music piece — is the work’s most-cited single passage and was already prized by Sòng yuèjiā 樂家 for its source-criticism. The work as a whole is a useful corrective to the impression (received from the Sòng catalogers) that bǐjì in heading-and-list form must be xiǎoshuō: the Sìkù editors recover Lǐ Shàngjiāo as a serious institutional historian.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi, Jìnshì huìyuán entry.
- CBDB id 1797 (Lǐ Shàngjiāo).