Luánchéng yí yán 欒城遺言
The Bequeathed Sayings of [Sū] Luán-chéng
by 蘇籀 (Sū Zhòu, 1091–1164; zì Zhòngzī 仲滋), grandson of 蘇轍 (Sū Zhé, hào Luánchéng 欒城).
About the work
A 1-juàn Sòng yǔlù-style record of 蘇轍 (Sū Zhé, 1039–1112), the younger brother of Sū Shì 蘇軾 and senior of the Sān Sū 三蘇. The book is compiled by Sū Zhé’s grandson 蘇籀 (Sū Zhòu), who from age 10 onward attended on his grandfather Sū Zhé in retirement at Yǐngchāng 潁昌 for nine years (c. 1101–1112), and recorded after Sū Zhé’s death “what he could remember.” The book is structured as a private yí yán (bequeathed sayings) intended for the Sū descendants; it is the principal source for Sū Zhé’s mature literary theory and his judgements on Northern Sòng contemporaries. Sū Zhòu writes from a perspective subtly biased toward his grandfather and against Sū Shì.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Luánchéng yí yán in one juan was compiled by Sū Zhòu of the Sòng. Zhòu’s zì was Zhòngzī; a Méizhōu man; grandson of Sū Zhé and son of Sū Chí. After the Southern migration he settled at Wùzhōu; rose to Jiānchéng. From age 10 or so he attended on Sū Zhé at Yǐngchāng, with no break of nine years, never away from his side. He accordingly recorded what he could still remember of his grandfather’s sayings — several hundred entries — to instruct his descendants; hence the title “yí yán” (bequeathed sayings).
The book’s debates on literary genre and lineage, on the rights-and-wrongs of ancient and modern men, and on their successes-and-failures, are particularly thorough — it well shows Sū Zhé’s compositional principles. The book’s pointed and recondite remarks are also frequently illuminating for later students.
Only that Zhòu was privately partial to his grandfather, often subtly indicating a tendency to suppress Sū Shì and exalt Sū Zhé — which does not seem to have been Sū Zhé’s own intention. The entry that the falling-out between Lǚ Huìqīng and Wáng Ānshí arose from the Zì shuō and the Sān jīng yì — when cross-checked with the histories — is also not historical fact.
As to his record that Sū Zhé’s mother dreamed of a jiāolóng (kraken) stretching its arm and so gave birth to him — adducing for comparison the two-dragon hovering over Zhèngzài’s chamber at Confucius’s birth — and other miscellaneous records, such as Sū Zhé in Chóngníng bǐngxū dreaming of Wáng Jièfǔ [Ānshí] — these are especially absurdly preposterous (dàn wàng). Yet Sū Zhòu was personally raised under his grandfather’s instruction; the influence is steady and the book contains much that is trustworthy — by no means a mere echo-and-shadow report.
Respectfully revised and submitted, ninth month of the forty-fifth year of Qiánlóng (1780).
Abstract
The Luánchéng yí yán is the principal yǔlù-style witness to 蘇轍 (Sū Zhé), and one of the most important Sòng sources for the literary thought and political judgements of the Sū brothers in their mature retirement. The book records — through the medium of Sū Zhé’s grandson 蘇籀 (Sū Zhòu) — the conversations Sū Zhé had with family and visitors at Yǐngchāng 潁昌 over the last decade of his life (c. 1101–1112), with topics including:
- Literary theory: Sū Zhé’s compositional principles, his theory of wén (literature), his classification of literary types and the relations between wén and dào.
- Judgements on contemporaries: Sū Zhé’s evaluations of Wáng Ānshí 王安石, Lǚ Huìqīng 呂惠卿, Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光, and other major Northern Sòng figures.
- The Sū family: anecdotes of the family circle — Sū Shì 蘇軾 and his sons, Sū Mài 蘇邁 and Sū Guò 蘇過; Sū Zhé’s wife and children.
- Birth-and-omens material: the jiāolóng and dream-of-Wáng-Ān-shí anecdotes, flagged by the Sìkù editors as preposterous fùhuì but characteristic of the family-hagiographic genre.
The book has been received with reserve. The principal reservation, well-flagged by the Sìkù editors, is Sū Zhòu’s subtle bias against Sū Shì in favour of Sū Zhé — Sū Shì being the more illustrious figure and not infrequently overshadowing his quieter younger brother. The Sìkù editors observe that this bias does not appear to reflect Sū Zhé’s own assessment.
Dating. Sū Zhé died in 1112. Sū Zhòu was 21 at the time and had spent his entire formative period (age 10–21, i.e. c. 1101–1112) at his grandfather’s side at Yǐngchāng. The compilation was made after Sū Zhé’s death — earliest plausible compilation in the early 1110s, but the book references the Southern-Sòng settlement (Sū Zhòu writes from Wùzhōu after the Jīngkāng refuge), placing actual compilation in the 1130s–1160s. NotBefore 1126 / notAfter 1164 (Sū Zhòu’s death). The standard text is the SKQS 1-juàn recension.
Translations and research
No substantial complete Western-language translation. The book is widely cited in modern Chinese-language Sòng literary-history scholarship — on the Sū brothers’ literary theory, on Northern–Southern Sòng transitional literary thought, and on Sū-family biography (especially Lín Yǔ-táng 林語堂, Wáng Shuǐ-zhào 王水照). Modern punctuated edition by Kǒng Fán-lǐ 孔凡禮 in the Sòng Yuán bǐjì cóngshū (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 2003).
Other points of interest
The book is the principal Sòng witness to Sū Zhé’s literary-theoretical position — which is sharper and more conservative than Sū Shì’s — and is one of the principal sources for the Sū wén school’s transmission to the Southern Sòng generation through the Sū family.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3, Luánchéng yí yán entry.