Lúpǔ bǐjì 蘆浦筆記
Notes from the Reed-Bank
by 劉昌詩 (Liú Chāngshī, zì Xìngbó 興伯; native of Qīngjiāng 清江, Jiāngxī; jìnshì of Kāixǐ 1 = 1205)
About the work
A philological-historical kǎojù 考據 bǐjì in ten juan, composed by Liú Chāngshī during his tenure as Inspector (Jiān 監) of the Huátíng Lúlìcháng 華亭蘆瀝場 — the imperial salt-monopoly station at Huátíng (modern Sōngjiāng, on the coastal flats southwest of Shànghǎi). The studio name Lúpǔ 蘆浦 (“reed-bank”) refers to that station’s residence; the author’s preface (dated 嘉定癸酉 Jiādìng guǐyǒu = 1213, second day of the second month) describes the conditions of composition with quiet candour: “I served at the sea’s edge; beyond the salt-tax I had no duties; living alone in office, no colleagues for company; in a remote village, no eager students to debate with; my home mountains far away, too poor to bring my dependents; sitting cross-legged by the lamp, I turned to books for amusement. Of the older Confucians’ commentaries, of historical anecdotes, of textual corruptions, of geographical changes — wherever I could trace the source and follow the stream, I followed; wherever an answer eluded me, I worried at it and would not let it go.” The book was completed in essentially its present form by 1213, its preface dated then; the author’s own postface (跋), dated 嘉定乙亥 Jiādìng yǐhài = 1215, records that he funded its printing at the Liùfēng 六峰 county-seat (location otherwise unidentified) where he was then magistrate. The catalog-meta title 蘆浦日記 (“daily notes”) is a slip; the source frontmatter and all transmitted recensions title it 蘆浦筆記 (“notes”). The English title here translates the latter.
The work is a moderately wide-ranging kǎojù compendium concentrated on critical examination: many entries explicitly correct errors in Wú Zēng’s 吳曾 Nénggǎizhāi mànlù 能改齋漫錄 (KR3j0034). Catalogued under Záxué zhī shǔ 雜學之屬 of the Zájiā 雜家 division, záyǎng zhī shǔ 雜考之屬.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Lúpǔ bǐjì in ten juan, by Liú Chāngshī of the Sòng. Chāngshī’s zì is Xìngbó, native of Qīngjiāng in Jiāngxī. Juan 7’s “Xiān bǔ” 仙卜 entry says “in Kāixǐ yǐchǒu I stole the Tàicháng place” — that is, he took the jìnshì in the first year of Níngzōng [1205]. The work’s postface is dated Jiādìng yǐhài and reads “I gave up my stipend to have it cut at the Liùfēng county-seat” — so he had served as Magistrate, but Liùfēng cannot be identified to any known place. The author’s preface is dated Jiādìng guǐyǒu and reads “I serve at the sea’s edge; beyond the salt-tax I have no other duties; only by turning to books may I amuse myself: the commentaries of the older Confucians, the historical anecdotes of past dynasties, the corruptions of texts, the changes of geography — for all I can trace the source and follow the stream.” This is because he was made Inspector of the Lúlìcháng salt-station at Huátíng at the time of writing, whence the name Lúpǔ.
The “Cǎoxiédàwáng” 草鞋大王 (“King of Straw Sandals”) entry says “in Shàoxīng guǐchǒu I was a guest in the Huáinán” et cetera. Guǐchǒu of Shàoxīng is the third year of Shàoxīng [1133]; from then to Jiādìng yǐhài is a span of eighty-three years — calculating his age, he must have been over a hundred, and certainly could not still be serving as Magistrate. Even from Kāixǐ yǐchǒu it is seventy-three years, calculating he would already be over ninety, and certainly could not still be passing the jìnshì examinations. Now we observe that Shàoxī 紹熙 fifth year is also guǐchǒu [1193]; perhaps in transmission “xī” 熙 has been corrupted to “xīng” 興 [yielding the wrong “Shàoxīng”].
The book contains many corrections of errors in Wú Zēng’s 吳曾 Nénggǎizhāi mànlù. His discussions of the níshì 泥軾 (“clay carriage-rest”), the píngxīng 屏星 (“screen-star”), the jīngēnchē 金根車 (“gold-root carriage”), of missing lines in Zhūgé Liàng’s 諸葛亮 memorials, of corruptions in Sūn Shūáo’s 孫叔敖 stele, of Ōuyáng Xiū’s 歐陽修 mistitling of the Duōxīn jīng 多心經 (“Heart Sūtra”), and of misordered slips in Dù Fǔ’s 杜甫 poetry — all show particular insight. Further, his correction that Zhāng Shì’s 張栻 Quèzhāi míng 慤齋銘 is not in [Zhāng’s] collected works, and that the poem on lotus-roots ascribed to Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅 is in fact the work of Hú Cángzhī 胡藏之, are also adequate to support the kǎojù method. Wáng Shìzhēn’s 王士禎 Chíběi ǒután 池北偶談 particularly esteems his record of Wáng Fù’s 王復 martyrdom as a supplement to the Sòng shǐ. Wáng [Shìzhēn] also notes that the work’s transmission is exceedingly thin; the present copy was held by the Hè 賀 family of Dānyáng and transcribed by Xiè Zhàoshēn 謝兆申 of Suīān — a treasure of a manuscript indeed.
Only the entry on Túshān 塗山 and Qǐmǔ 啟母 (the legendary mother of Qǐ, founder of the Xià dynasty, and her transformation into stone at Mt. Tú) fails to recognize that the Huáinánzǐ version is a wild fiction, and instead cites still later fanciful narratives to confirm it — failing into mere literary embellishment. This is the literary man’s love-of-the-marvellous showing through.
Respectfully revised and submitted, eighth month of the fifty-first year of Qiánlóng [1786].
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.
Abstract
The Lúpǔ bǐjì — to use its actual textual title rather than the catalog-meta variant 蘆浦日記 — is a fine specimen of late-Sòng kǎojù bǐjì in the lineage of Hóng Mài’s 洪邁 Róngzhāi suíbǐ 容齋隨筆 (KR3j0038) and Chéng Dàchāng’s 程大昌 Yǎnfán lù 演繁露 (KR3j0040). The author, Liú Chāngshī (jìnshì 1205), composed the work during his tenure as inspector of the salt-station at the Huátíng coast in the second decade of the thirteenth century, in conditions of professional isolation that he describes with unusual personal detail in his own preface (dated 1213). The work was completed by 1213 and printed by the author at his own expense in 1215, when he was magistrate at the (otherwise unidentified) Liùfēng county-seat. The dating bracket adopted here (notBefore 1213, notAfter 1215) reflects the preface and printing dates respectively.
Methodologically the Lúpǔ bǐjì is squarely in the kǎojù tradition: many of its entries explicitly correct errors in Wú Zēng’s 吳曾 Nénggǎizhāi mànlù 能改齋漫錄 (KR3j0034) — the major mid-Sòng bǐjì by which Liú clearly measured himself — and the work treats topics ranging from carriage-furniture and ritual implements through the missing lines of Zhūgé Liàng’s Chūshī biǎo 出師表, to the misordering of slips in Dù Fǔ’s poetry, to attribution-corrections of Sòng-period poetry. Wáng Shìzhēn 王士禎 in the late seventeenth century specifically singled out the work’s account of Wáng Fù’s 王復 martyrdom as filling a gap in the Sòng shǐ.
The Sìkù editors flag a chronological inconsistency in the text — an entry dating events to “Shàoxīng guǐchǒu” (which would be 1133) sits awkwardly with the author’s own Kāixǐ yǐchǒu (1205) jìnshì and 1215 postface — and propose, persuasively, that “Shàoxīng” is a transcriptional corruption of “Shàoxī” 紹熙 (yielding 1193). They also note that the work was already rare in transmission by the late Míng / early Qīng, surviving in essentially a single Dānyáng manuscript transcribed by Xiè Zhàoshēn 謝兆申 of Suīān; this is the basis of the Sìkù recension.
The work is recorded in the Sòngshǐ · Yìwén zhì (under the title 蘆浦筆記), and the Wényuān gé recension catalogued here is in ten juan.
Translations and research
No substantial European-language secondary literature located.
- Quán Sòng bǐjì 全宋筆記, ser. 6 (Lǐ Wěiguó 李偉國 et al., eds., Zhèngzhōu: Dàxiàng chūbǎnshè), punctuated Lúpǔ bǐjì.
- Zhōnghuá shūjú punctuated edition: Lúpǔ bǐjì, Zhāng Mào-péng 張茂鵬 punctuator (Zhōnghuá, 1986; Tángsòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān 唐宋史料筆記叢刊).
- Liú Yèqiū 劉葉秋, Lìdài bǐjì gàishù 歷代筆記概述 (Zhōnghuá, 1980; rev. 2003), notice in the section on Sòng kǎojù bǐjì.
- Qián Zhōngshū 錢鍾書, Guǎnzhuī biān 管錐編 (Zhōnghuá, 1979–80) — multiple discussions, especially of Liú’s poetry-source identifications.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ identification of the “Shàoxīng guǐchǒu” / “Shàoxī guǐchǒu” textual corruption is a small classic of Qīng jiǎokān 校勘 reasoning by chronological inference, frequently cited in modern philology textbooks as a model of internal date-cross-checking.
The catalog meta-data title 蘆浦日記 (“daily notes”) is preserved here as the registered Kanripo title for the entry but is in fact a slip: every transmitted recension and the Sìkù tíyào itself title the work 蘆浦筆記.