Zhǔ shǐ 麈史
The Deer-Tail-Whisk History
by 王得臣 (Wáng Déchén, zì Yànfǔ 彥輔, hào Fèngtíng zǐ 鳳亭子, 1036–after 1115; of Ānlù 安陸; Jiāyòu 4 [1059] jìnshì; Sīnóng shǎoqīng 司農少卿)
About the work
A Northern Sòng bǐjì in 3 juan, 284 entries in 44 categorical mén (gates), composed over Wáng Déchén’s long career and finished at age 80 in Zhènghé yǐwèi (1115). The autograph preface is dated mid-1115 and explains the title: a zhǔ (deer-tail) whisk is the implement of the senior gentleman conducting a qīng tán 清談 (pure conversation); the Zhǔ shǐ is a “history-told-with-the-whisk” — that is, transmitted oral lore of court precedent and contemporary affairs. The book is dated by the autograph self-statement “at 62 I was given the eye-illness and asked to retire” — yì (i.e. 62) being Shàoshèng 4 (1097); so the book was completed between 1097 and 1115. Wáng Déchén was a Luò xué 洛學 affiliate (a mén shēng of Chéng Hào 程顥) who however refused factional partisanship: in his book, Wáng Ānshí alone is referred to by his personal name (a sign of disapproval) but Sū Shì and Huáng Tíngjiān receive no critique whatsoever — and his name accordingly did not appear on the Yuányòu dǎng bēi 元祐黨碑 of 1102.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Zhǔ shǐ in three juan was compiled by Wáng Déchén of the Sòng. Déchén’s zì was Yànfǔ, self-styled Fèngtíng zǐ; an Ānlù man. Jiāyòu 4 (1059) jìnshì; rose to Sīnóng shǎoqīng. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiētí takes him as the bófù (uncle) of Wáng Zhì 王銍 — but the Shén shòu entry no. 7 mentions “Wáng Lèdào’s young son Wáng Zhì who was learned and good at maintaining arguments”; the Shī huà no. 19 entry refers to “Wáng Zhì Xìngzhī”; the Chán bàng no. 3 entry says “Wáng Xīn Lèdào, Fèngyì, a man of Yǐngzhōu” — so this is a different family from Wáng Zhì’s father; Chén Zhènsūn was wrong.
The book carries a preface dated Zhènghé yǐwèi (1115): “at this time of 80 years I append my preface.” The book says: “when I was at Dàzhèn I suddenly contracted an eye-illness and asked to retire from the temple-sinecure offices, and so was discharged and hung up my cap at 62”; from Zhènghé 5 (yǐwèi, 1115) reckoning back to age 62 gives Shàoshèng 4 (dīngchǒu, 1097) — the book must have been completed after this date. At that time the Shào shù (Restoration faction) discourse was at its height; the book records other people’s books by official title and zì and posthumous title — Wáng Ānshí alone is referred to by personal name only — also a mark of his upright independent stance.
His learning: first studied with Zhèng Xiè 鄭獬, then with Hú Yuán 胡瑗. The Míng yì 明義 entry has him in question-and-answer with Míngdào Chéngzǐ (Chéng Hào 程顥) — suggesting he was a Luò dǎng (Luò-school) figure. Yet his evaluations of poetry and prose make no mention of Sū Shì and Huáng Tíngjiān, neither praising nor attacking them. His Lùn shī xiǎo xù (preface to the Shī) discussions twice take up Sū Zhé and Chéngzǐ’s arguments but without naming them. His support for Sū Shì’s reading of Dù Fǔ’s Tónggǔ gē “huáng dú” (yellow lone) as huáng jīng 黃精 — which the Hòu Shān shī huà refuted — is also given without naming. So we know that he was without partisan attachment; this is why his name did not appear on the Yuányòu dǎng stele; indeed he can be called a man not stained by faction.
The book records in all 284 entries, divided into 44 mén (gates). Court precedents, senior elders’ surviving anecdotes, what he saw and heard — all entered into record. The cross-comparison of canonical texts and the rectification of variants is also useful for textual investigation — not the kind of shuōbù that only records trivia.
[A series of evidential errors is then itemized: misattribution of jiāojiāo huáng niǎo zhǐ yú jí (in Shī) as 7-character — not knowing it is Zhì Yú’s 摯虞 Wénzhāng liúbié lùn; the Lántíng jí attribution of tiān lǎng qì qīng — not knowing it is from Zhāng Héng’s Nándū fù; the sī zhú guǎn xián — not knowing it is from Hàn shū Zhāng Yǔ zhuàn; the Pān Yuè Xián jū fù reading of Zhōu wén ruòzhī zhī zǎo, Fánglíng Zhū Zhòng zhī lǐ — Lǐ Shàn note marked “undetermined” supplemented via Shí yí jì — not knowing Lǐ Shàn at this passage cites the Guǎng zhì for ruòzhī and Jīngzhōu jì for Zhū Zhòng clearly; Wáng Déchén had seen an incomplete Lǐ Shàn exemplar (Lǐ Kuāngyì’s Zī xiá jí says the Lǐ Shàn Wén xuǎn commentary was revised six or seven times and the current circulating versions are not uniform); Wáng’s correction itself confuses the qí fēng of the Shí yí jì — clearly the northern-pole qífēng, not Mount Qí; etc.]
Nevertheless, on contemporary institutions and ancient-site investigation, the work is particularly precise. Zhūzǐ’s Yǔlèi also says: “Wáng Yànfǔ’s Zhǔ shǐ records the fú tóu (cap-and-ribbon) in great detail.”
Respectfully revised and submitted, tenth 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
Wáng Déchén 王得臣 (1036–after 1115), zì Yànfǔ 彥輔, hào Fèngtíng zǐ 鳳亭子, of Ānlù 安陸 (Hú-bei). Studied under Zhèng Xiè 鄭獬 and Hú Yuán 胡瑗 (the great Northern Sòng educator). Jiāyòu 4 (1059) jìnshì; rose through provincial postings to Sīnóng shǎoqīng (Vice-Minister of the Agricultural Court); retired at 62 (1097) on grounds of eye-illness. Zhǔ shǐ completed at age 80 in Zhènghé 5 (1115). He was a Luò-school philosopher (a student of Chéng Hào) but methodologically refused factional partisanship — a stance the Sìkù editors emphatically endorse.
The 44-mén structure of the book (284 entries) is one of the more systematically categorized Northern Sòng bǐjì. The most-cited entries are: the fú tóu (cap-and-headdress) entry praised by Zhū Xī as authoritative on Sòng court costume; the jǔ jǔ huáng niǎo identification entry; the yáng lǎo entries on care of the aged; entries on Hú Yuán’s classroom practice (Wáng Déchén being one of Hú’s senior students); entries on Chéng Hào.
Dating: 1097 (Wáng’s retirement at 62) — 1115 (autograph preface). The notBefore/notAfter bracket adopted here brackets these anchors.
The standard text is the SKQS recension. Modern punctuated edition in Quán Sòng bǐjì 全宋筆記 ser. 1.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language complete translation. The work features prominently in modern Chinese-language scholarship on Northern Sòng court costume (the fú tóu entry), on the Hú Yuán educational tradition, and on the Luò school’s intellectual sociology.
Other points of interest
The fú tóu entry — the most authoritative Northern Sòng witness to the evolution of the fú tóu (court hat with hanging-tails) — is regularly cited in Chinese costume-history scholarship and was already endorsed by Zhū Xī. The book’s refusal of factional partisanship — refusing to attack Sū Shì and Huáng Tíngjiān even while remaining Luò-school in personal affiliation — is one of the more striking instances of late-Northern-Sòng intellectual independence.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3 · Záshuō zhī shǔ, Zhǔ shǐ entry.