Què sǎo biān 却掃編
The “Sweep-Away” Compilation
by 徐度 (Xú Dù, fl. 1135–1138; zì Dūnlì 敦立).
About the work
A 3-juàn Southern Sòng bǐjì by 徐度 (Xú Dù, zì Dūnlì), son of the Jīngkāng-era prime minister 徐處仁 (Xú Chǔrén). The book records institutional matters of the Northern Sòng — guān zhì, court ceremony, Shūmìyuàn practice, the Hànlín drafting tradition, and yīfǎ (ceremonial regulations) — supplemented by character-anecdotes of leading worthies. It is one of the three major Southern Sòng bǐjì witnesses to Northern Sòng institutional practice, regularly cited together with 葉夢得’s Shílín yàn yǔ (KR3j0105) and Sòng Mǐnqiú’s Chūnmíng tuìcháo lù. The title (què sǎo, “swept away”) is the standard withdrawal-from-court formula — gesturing at the leisure of the retired official’s reading-room.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Què sǎo biān in three juan was compiled by Xú Dù of the Sòng. Dù’s zì was Dūnlì; a native of Gǔshú; his father was Xú Chǔrén, Jīngkāng-era prime minister; the book’s references to “xiān gōng” all refer to Chǔrén. After the Southern migration Dù rose to Lìbù shìláng. The compilation records all national institutional norms and the deeds of the worthies of old, with detail and accuracy — among shuōbù works that contribute to historical scholarship.
Lù Yóu’s Wèinán jí has a colophon to this book that says: “The book was composed when Dūnlì was still young, so it has substantively no post-Shàoxīng material — the work was completed in Gāozōng’s early reign.” Wāng Míngqīng’s Huī zhǔ hòu lù records: Míngqīng visited Dù in Zhāchuān 霅川; Dù collated with him the institutional position of the newly-established Yòufǔ (the Right Office) and the Guǐlù division-of-authority arrangement, both of which Dù wrote up in this book. The same passage records Dù’s discussion of the Zhézōng shílù and of Qín Guì’s deletion of the Jiànyán hánghǎi day-records and other post-1129 institutional registers — so Dù’s care for historical scholarship can readily be glimpsed.
As for the entry that the Xīn Táng shū’s additions over the Jiù Táng shū all derived from xiǎoshuō sources, and that historians should accordingly draw widely on yì wén: this is somewhat slack. Among the entries: the upper-juàn records a Yè Mèngdé lǐyǔ (vulgar saying); the middle-juàn records a Wáng Dǐng joke; the lower-juàn records a Zhái Sūn farce — instances of the bǐjì’s usual indiscipline, mixing the trivial with the substantive. Still, the bulk of the book conscientiously transmits the old institutional record, with substantial use as historical material; it stands beside Wáng Míngqīng’s Huī zhǔ records and the Shílín yàn yǔ as a tripod — and the Què sǎo biān is concise where Wáng is sprawling, and exact where Yè is occasional; it has its advantages.
Respectfully revised and submitted, third month of the forty-third year of Qiánlóng (1778).
Abstract
The Què sǎo biān is the more compact of the trio of major Southern Sòng institutional bǐjì (the others being KR3j0105 Shílín yàn yǔ and Sòng Mǐnqiú’s Chūnmíng tuìcháo lù). Its subject-matter — Shūmìyuàn and Zhèngshìtáng practice, Hànlín drafting, guānzhì, court ceremony, the historical operation of the Tái jiàn (Censorate), the Yùshǐtái, and the yánguān (remonstrance officers) — is similar to Yè’s, but Xú’s family connection to the Jīng-kāng-era ministerial circle gives him distinctive access to institutional reconstructive testimony, especially on the late Huīzōng / Qīnzōng court. His critical engagement with Qín Guì’s editorial suppression of the Jiànyán hánghǎi day-records (preserved in Wáng Míngqīng’s Huī zhǔ hòu lù) shows his historical conscience.
Dating. Lù Yóu’s colophon to the book in his Wèinán jí — Lù Yóu being a generation younger and an admirer of Xú Dù — explicitly states that the book was composed in Xú’s youth and substantively contains no post-Shàoxīng material, with completion in early Gāozōng. This places the work in the early-to-mid 1130s. NotBefore 1132 (institutional references make pre-Shàoxīng impossible); notAfter 1137 (the latest internal references). CBDB gives Xú Dù’s fl. as 1135–1138.
The standard text is the SKQS 3-juàn recension; the work is preserved in a number of SòngYuán cóngshū recensions and is regularly cited as authoritative on early Sòng institutional history.
Translations and research
No complete Western-language translation. The book is fundamental in modern institutional-historical scholarship on the Northern Sòng — heavily cited in Dèng Xiǎo-nán 鄧小南, Zǔ-zōng zhī fǎ 祖宗之法 (Sānlián, 2006) and in Hè Zhì-jūn 何幟軍, Sòng dài yǔ-shǐ tái yán-jiū. Modern punctuated edition in Tángsòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān (Zhōnghuá shū-jú, 1997).
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3, Què sǎo biān entry.
- Lù Yóu, Wèinán jí (colophon to the Què sǎo biān).