Shàngshū gù shí 尚書故實
Hereditary Substance from the [Háng-líng] Shàng-shū
by 李綽 (Lǐ Chuò, zì Jiānmèng 肩孟, fl. c. 880; descendant of the Zhàojùn Lǐshì)
About the work
A 1-juan late-Táng bǐjì recording the family-traditions and connoisseur’s knowledge of the Hànlíng (賔護) shàngshū — a senior member of the Chángān Zhāng 張 lineage of high officials, identified by the Sìkù editors as falling within the Zhāng Yànyuǎn 張彥遠 / Zhāng Tiānbǎo 張天保 generation (the Lìdài míng huà jì 歷代名畫記 family). The author Lǐ Chuò took refuge at Pǔtián 圃田 (in Hénán) during the Huáng Cháo rebellion (880–884) and recorded the senior Zhāng shàngshū’s daily reminiscences and conversation. The book is one of the most concentrated late-Táng connoisseur’s miscellanies, particularly rich on painting, calligraphy, music, and prized antiquities — including the famous account of the Lántíng xù 蘭亭序 going into Tàizōng’s Zhāolíng 昭陵 mausoleum, Gù Kǎizhī’s 顧愷之 painting Qīng yè yóu xī yuán tú 清夜遊西園圖, Xiè Hè’s 謝赫 Gǔ huà pǐn lù tradition, Lǐ Sìzhēn’s 李嗣真 painting criticism, the bǎi nà qín 百衲琴, Dài Yóng’s 戴顒 Buddha-sculpture, the Bì luò bēi 碧落碑, the Lí gǔ tiē 狸骨帖 calligraphy, and so on.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Shàngshū gù shí in one juan was compiled by Lǐ Chuò of the Táng. Chuò’s official career is unclear; consulting the Xīn Táng shū Zǎixiàng shìxì biǎo under the Zhàojùn Lǐshì Nán zǔ (southern-progenitor) line, there is a Lǐ Chuò, zì Jiānmèng, who was Lìbù shìláng and great-grandson of Shū 紓 — perhaps this is the man. The author’s preface calls himself “of Zhàojùn.” The Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì enters the title twice — once in Shǐ bù chuán jì lèi, once in Zǐ bù xiǎoshuō lèi — and notes “Chuò 綽 alternatively written Wěi 緯; shí 實 alternatively written shì 事.” Now, Zēng Zào’s 曾慥 Lèi shuō 類說 citations also clearly mark Lǐ Chuò’s name, so the Wěi version is wrong.
The author’s preface calls himself “Bīnhù shàngshū Zhānggōng sān xiàng shèng mén, bó wù duō wén; Chuò bì nàn Pǔtián, měi róng shì huà; fán líng zhēng yǐn, bì yì xún cháng, suì zuǎn jí yóu yì, zuò cǐ shū” — that is, all is recorded from what the Zhāng shàngshū spoke. The shàngshū’s name is not given. The Xīn Táng shū Yìwén zhì, following the Chóngwén zǒngmù’s error, takes the Zhāng shàngshū to be Yánshǎng 延賞; Cháo Gōngwǔ and Chén Zhènsūn had already rebuked the mistake. The book speaks of Jiāzhēn 嘉貞 as the author’s sì shì zǔ (four-generation-up ancestor) and of Jiāyòu 嘉祐 as his gāobózǔ (great-great-uncle); so the “Zhāng shàngshū” must be among Yànyuǎn 彥遠, Tiānbǎo 天保, Yànxiū 彥脩, Mànróng 曼容 and their brothers — for the Wénguī cì zōng (i.e. Zhāng Hóngjìng) was the son of Hóngjìng and could only be a great-grandson of Jiāzhēn (not a great-great-grandson). Chén Zhènsūn doubted because Zhāng shàngshū did not reach the bā zuò (eight-tiered offices) but this is also wrong: when the book says the shàngshū “moved to administer Guǎnglíng” and “was appointed Lùzhōu jīngjié” — he was clearly Yángzhōu cìshǐ and Zhāoyì jiédùshǐ at some point; the history merely omits these offices under the Tiānbǎo and following generation, making him untraceable.
The book mixes records of recent affairs with consideration of earlier traditions. Such entries as on Sīmǎ Chéngzhēn 司馬承禎, Wáng Gǔ 王谷, Lú Yuángōng 盧元公, Yùchí Jiǒng 尉遲迥, Wéi Qīngcái 韋卿材, Xiè zhēnrén 謝真人 (Daoist immortal), Lún luò yī guān 淪落衣冠 (the fallen literati), Zhāngqiú Jiānqióng 章仇兼瓊, Guō Chénggǔ 郭承嘏 — though somewhat yǔguài (marvel-talk) — are mostly substantial. Entries on the Lántíng xù entering Zhāolíng, Gù Kǎizhī’s Qīng yè yóu xī yuán tú, Xiè Hè and Lǐ Sìzhēn’s painting criticism, the Bǎi nà qín, Dài Yóng’s Buddha-sculpting, the Bì luò bēi, the Lí gǔ tiē, Bǎo zhāng jí 寶章集, Líng zhī diàn 靈芝殿, the Buddhist zhǔ guǐxiù 屬鬼宿 doctrine, Chánglí shēng (Hán Yù), the jīn gēn chē (golden-cart) conversion, Xiè Ān’s blank-character stele, the “Zhèng san-jué” (Zhèng triple-skill), Gù Kuàng’s painting — all these yìshì anecdotes derive from this book. [The Sìkù editors then itemize specific entries (Yáng Zǐhuá huà mǔdān, Jìn shū hán jù, etc.) of substantive evidential value, particularly noting that Wáng Mǎo’s 王楙 Yě kè cóng shū 野客叢書 — which is the most evidentially substantial of the related works — derives a number of its citations from the Shàngshū gù shí.]
[A small set of shì (factual) errors are itemized in conclusion, but the editors close with the standard formula: “the small flaws do not obscure the jade; we do not discard for a few minor failings.“]
Respectfully revised and submitted, sixth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Lǐ Chuò 李綽 (CBDB lifedates ca. 805 – ca. 862, but the SKQS editors place him in the late ninth century during the Huáng Cháo rebellion of 880–884), zì Jiānmèng 肩孟, of the Zhàojùn (in Héběi) Lǐshì Nán zǔ line; according to the Xīn Táng shū Zǎixiàng shìxì biǎo he was the great-grandson of Lǐ Shū 李紓 (Lìbù shìláng).
The catalog meta date-range (ca. 805–862) corresponds to one identification of the author with the homonymous earlier Lǐ Chuò; the SKQS editors’ identification (with the Huáng Cháo-period refugee at Pǔtián) implies a later working life. The notBefore of 880 and notAfter of 884 reflect the Huáng Cháo rebellion period anchored by the autograph preface’s reference to “fleeing the crisis at Pǔtián.” The book is among the most concentrated late-Táng art-and-antiquities connoisseur’s bǐjì.
The work is the principal Táng-period source for several iconic literary-art anecdotes — most famously the account of Tàizōng’s Lántíng xù burial in Zhāolíng, and the painting-history anecdotes preserved through this bǐjì into the later painting-history canon (Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s family is the principal source; the book preserves the Zhāng family’s oral tradition).
Dating: as above. Textual transmission: the SKQS recension is the standard text.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary monograph located. The work is regularly cited as a primary source in Western and Japanese painting-history and calligraphy-history scholarship (e.g. by W. R. B. Acker, Audrey Spiro). The Lán-tíng xù account is one of the most-cited late-Táng art-historical passages in modern scholarship.
Other points of interest
The book’s transmission of the Zhāng-family oral tradition (the Lìdài mínghuàjì family) is one of the more concrete instances of late-Táng aristocratic-art-knowledge circulation. The Bǎi nà qín (patchwork zither) and Lí gǔ tiē (Wáng Xīzhī calligraphy fragment) entries are among the few late-Táng witnesses to specific named musical-instrument-and-calligraphy objects.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3 · Záshuō zhī shǔ, Shàngshū gù shí entry.