墨莊漫錄

Mò zhuāng màn lù 墨莊漫錄

Random Records of the Ink Manor

by 張邦基 (Zhāng Bāngjī, fl. 1123–1148; zì Zǐxián 子賢).

About the work

A 10-juàn Northern–Southern Sòng bǐjì by 張邦基 (Zhāng Bāngjī), the Mò zhuāng (“Ink Manor”) book-collecting amateur of Gāoyóu. The book is a substantial wide-ranging bǐjì — anecdote, dream-and-strange tales, kǎozhèng on Hán Yù, Sū Shì, Dù Fǔ, Hé Xùn, Wáng Guī, and Huáng Tíngjiān, and unusual quantities of Sòng demographic and zhuǎnyùn (transport-finance) numerical data. It is also one of the principal Sòng textual-critical witnesses for the Bì yún xiá and Lóng chéng lù / Yún xiān sǎn lù forgery cases. The book has no Wénxiàn tōngkǎo registration; the Sìkù editors suggest that it had not yet achieved wide circulation in the late Southern Sòng. The source directory has no 000.txt — the tíyào in this entry has been transcribed from the Kyoto University Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào.

Tiyao

[Transcribed from the Kyoto University Zinbun digital Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, no front matter in the source files.]

We respectfully submit that Mò zhuāng màn lù in ten juan was compiled by Zhāng Bāngjī of the Sòng. Bāngjī’s zì was Zǐxián; a native of Gāoyóu; his career is not fully recorded. He himself reports having seen, in Xuānhé guǐmǎo (1123) at Wú, the Tàihú Yuánshān stones gathered by Zhū Miǎn; and having seen Zhào Bùqì appointed shìláng in Shàoxīng 18 (1148) — so he is a Northern–Southern Sòng transition figure. The book carries his own preface, stating that being fond of book-collection, he had wherever he stayed put up a placard reading Mò zhuāng (“Ink Manor”) — whence the title. The book mostly records miscellaneous affairs and occasionally engages in kǎozhèng. Such entries as the dream-affairs of Wèizhōu Pānyuánxiàn’s shìguài Zhōu Xīnfù, the lamb-becoming-Hú-shī-wén affair, Wú Bàngū at Míngzhōu meeting Péi Xiū, Yè Shìníng, Yán Qīng, and Guān Zhù — though xiǎoshuō-style, are entertaining. Some are slipshod: the Sòng shī jì shì corrects his confusion of Wáng Ānshí’s sister with Wáng Ānshí’s daughter, etc.

Yet, on the variant readings fēngléng / lùyè in Hán Yù; on the textual error shí / zhě in Sū Shì’s Dāněr poems; on Dù Fǔ’s “Wángmǔ zhòu xià yún qí fān,” and Hé Xùn’s Hé Xùn zài Yángzhōu, the Jiānghú duō bái niǎo, the Xīng luò Huánggūzhǔ, the Gōngcáo fēi fù Hàn Xiāo Hé; on the readings of Wáng Guī “wǔ jí jǐnyāo yíng shíbā, jiǔhān yùzhǎn zhào dōngxī”; on Huáng Tíngjiān “zhēng míng zhāo shì yú qiān lǐ,” “Yǐngluò Huátíng qiān chǐ yuè, mèng tōng Qíxià liù zhōu wáng” — these are all most thoroughly verified.

His detection that the Bì yún xiá is by Wèi Tài, and the Lóng chéng lù / Yún xiān sǎn lù are by Wáng Zhì — both contribute substantively to textual scholarship. On Zhèng Xuán’s annotation of Hàn-palace incense formulae, the Méiguī oil, the leaf-pasted whirlwind-leaf book, on Mùhù as mùhú, and jùlǐ as píngyīng — all instructively learned.

The Sòng hùkǒu (household-registration) and zhuǎnyùn (transport-finance) numerical data the book preserves are especially useful for cross-checking against the standard histories. Among the shuōbù of the Sòng dynasty, this is one of the more substantial; the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo does not register it — presumably it had not yet circulated widely in its day.

Abstract

The Mò zhuāng màn lù is one of the more wide-ranging and kǎozhèng-rich of the Northern–Southern Sòng transition bǐjì. The book’s exceptional features, all flagged by the Sìkù editors, are:

1. Sòng textual scholarship: the book contains landmark detections of the Bì yún xiá (by Wèi Tài) and the Lóng chéng lù / Yún xiān sǎn lù (by Wáng Zhì) forgery cases — both still cited in modern Sòng textual scholarship.
2. Sòng demographic and financial statistics: Zhāng preserves substantial hùkǒu (household-registration) and zhuǎnyùn (transport-finance commission) numerical data, useful for cross-checking against the Sòng shǐ Shí huò zhì and the Yùhǎi. The book is one of the major bǐjì sources for early-Sòng economic data.
3. Textual criticism on Sòng poets: detailed kǎozhèng on Hán Yù, Sū Shì, Dù Fǔ, Hé Xùn, Wáng Guī, and Huáng Tíngjiān, much of it cited in subsequent critical editions of these poets.
4. Zhū Miǎn / Tàihú Yuánshānshí: the book’s Xuānhé guǐmǎo (1123) eyewitness entry on Zhū Miǎn’s gathered Tàihú stones is one of the principal witnesses for the Huāshí gāng operation that contributed to the Fāng Là uprising and the Jīngkāng catastrophe.

Dating. NotBefore 1123 (the Xuānhé guǐmǎo entry on Tàihú stones); notAfter 1148 (the Shàoxīng 18 entry on Zhào Bùqì); the bǐjì clearly accumulated across this 25-year span and represents the author’s whole adult life. CBDB has no precise lifedates.

The standard text is the SKQS recension, from the Jǐ Yún family-collection exemplar (Bīngbù shìláng Jǐyún jiācáng běn). A modern punctuated edition by Sūn Jūnxí 孫菊溪 / Kǒng Fánlǐ 孔凡禮 is in the Tángsòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān series (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 2002).

Translations and research

No complete Western-language translation. The book is heavily cited in modern Chinese-language Sòng economic history (Liáng Tài-jì 梁泰濟 and Hé Zhōng-lǐ 何忠禮 on demographic data), in Sòng textual scholarship (especially on the Bì yún xiá and Lóng chéng lù attribution cases), and in critical editions of major Northern Sòng poets.

Other points of interest

The book’s detection of Wèi Tài’s authorship of the Bì yún xiá (against the standard attribution to Méi Yáochén) is one of the most cited Sòng textual-critical contributions to Northern Sòng poetics — and was a contested matter even in the Sòng period itself.

Links

• Kyoto University Zinbun digital Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 5, Mò zhuāng màn lù entry (http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/db-machine/ShikoTeiyo/0253502.html).