老學庵筆記

Lǎo xué ān bǐ jì 老學庵筆記

Notebook from the Old Scholar’s Hut

by 陸游 (Lù Yóu, 1125–1210; zì Wùguān 務觀, hào Fàngwēng 放翁); the SKQS recension adds a 2-juàn Xù bǐ jì 續筆記 sequel.

About the work

A 10-juàn (+ 2-juàn sequel) Southern-Sòng bǐjì by 陸游 (Lù Yóu, 1125–1210), one of the four great Southern Sòng poets. The book takes its title from Lù’s hut at Shānyīn, named the Lǎoxué ān (“Old Scholar’s Hut”) from the Shèngshū wèi cún — the lifelong scholarly self-conception that ran through his retirement years. Composed in Lù’s late years (after his return from his last office around 1190), the book ranges across institutional anecdote, literary criticism, family-and-friends memorabilia, and kǎozhèng. The work’s principal historiographic value is its yìwén jiùdiǎn — old hearings and outdated institutions — including the unique surviving record of the Liáo dynasty’s bì huì (avoidance-of-taboo) procedure changing the Chóngxī reign-name to Chónghé on Tiānzuò’s accession (not preserved in the Liáo shǐ but corroborated by archaeological finds). Lù’s lifelong association with the Sū Shì literary tradition through his great-grandfather Lù Diàn 陸佃 (Wáng-school Zhōu lǐ commentator) complicates his anti-Wáng-Ān-shí stance — the book is notably tolerant of Wáng. The Xù bǐ jì in 2 juàn is not registered in Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiě tí — apparently a later supplement.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Lǎoxuéān bǐ jì in ten juan, Xù bǐ jì in two juan, was compiled by Lù Yóu of the Sòng. By the Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì in the Záshǐ class: Lù Yóu’s Lǎoxuéān bǐ jì 1 juan; Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiě tí gives 10 juan — matching this recension. The Sòng zhì is a transmission error. The Xù bǐ jì in 2 juan, Chén does not register; presumably not yet seen by him in his day.

Chén [Zhènsūn] says: “Lù Yóu was born late enough to know the predecessors; lived to mào qī (very old age); what he recorded of his hearings is unusually worth seeing.” The Wénxiàn tōngkǎo places it in the xiǎoshuō class. Now examining the entries: such as Yáng Jiǎn being a frog-spirit, Qián Xùnshū being saved by a water-spirit on falling into the water — only one or two entries approach the wondrous; Xiānyú Guǎng’s inscribing the Yì jū jí, Zēng Chúnfǔ’s response to Xiāo Zhèbā — only seven or eight entries are merely humorous. The rest is yì wén jiù diǎn (old anecdote and outmoded institution) — frequently useful for kǎozhèng. As, for instance, the entry that the Liáo, avoiding Tiānzuò’s name taboo, retro-changed the Chóngxī reign-period to Chónghé; the Liáo shǐ does not record this matter; now cross-checking against the Xīngzhōng old-city’s surviving Tiānqìng 2 stele inscribed by Shì Huìcái — Shèlìtǎ jì — the old stele evidences that the matter is real; so the book’s reckoning is not deceptive and substantively aids the historical record.

Only because his grandfather Lù Diàn was a client of Wáng Ānshí — the Pí yǎ he composed cited the Zì shuō heavily — so on the Zì shuō the book has no censorious word; on Wáng Ānshí no critical remark. Yet on the Wáng Ānshí lóng jīng matter (the dragon-eye affair) he chains in the Pí yǎ’s false talk — cannot avoid this qū bǐ (slanted-brush bias). And the Dù Fǔ shī “wèi lán tiān” — originally said of the sky’s colour, hence Hán Jū’s continuation “shuǐ sè tiān guāng gòng wèi lán”; Lù calls wèi lán a yǐn yǔ tiān míng (cryptic sky-name) — now examining: wèi lán as a sky-name has no other attestation; Dù Tián’s annotation says it appears in the Dù rén jīng. Yet the Dù rén jīng’s 32 heavens include the “Dōngfāng Tàihuánghuángcéng tiān, its emperor named YùLányùmíng” — so the Yùlán is an emperor’s name, not a sky-name; wèi lán doctrine, Lù’s interpretation is reversed in error.

He also says: early-Sòng people honoured the Wén xuǎn; whatever was cǎo must be called Wángsūn; mèi must be called Yìshǐ; yuè must be called Wàngshū; mountains-and-streams must be called Qīnghuī. Now examining: the Yìshǐ jì méi (drove-the-fragrant-messenger to deliver the plum) is from Lù Kǎi’s poem; the Zhāomíng [Wénxuǎn] in fact does not include this composition. Also a memory-slip. Yet the bulk of what is reliable is large; should not, by minor blemishes, be obscured.

The Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì further records Lù Yóu’s Shānyīn shī huà 1 juan — now lost. The book’s poetic-discussion entries are enough to show Lù’s poetics’ main thrust — they can supplement the lacuna of the Shī huà.

Respectfully revised and submitted, sixth month of the forty-third year of Qiánlóng (1778).

Abstract

The Lǎoxuéān bǐ jì is the principal bǐjì of 陸游 (Lù Yóu), composed in the Lǎoxué ān hut at Shānyīn in his last two decades. The book is the most stylistically supple and humanly readable of the major late-Southern-Sòng bǐjì — Lù’s poet’s-prose, his moral judgement, his recollections of his great Yuányòu / Shàoshèng / Jīngkāng family elders, his anecdotes of Sū Shì, Huáng Tíngjiān, and Yáng Wànlǐ, and his deep store of yì wén jiù diǎn.

Distinctive contributions:

1. Liáo bì huì: The book’s record of the Liáo’s Tiānzuò taboo-driven retro-renaming of the Chóngxī reign to Chónghé — not preserved in the Liáo shǐ — is corroborated by the Xīngzhōng old-city Tiānqìng 2 stele, the Shì Huìcái Shèlìtǎ jì. The Sìkù editors flag this as proof of the book’s substantive historical reliability.
2. Northern Sòng anecdote: The book’s recollections of Yuányòu poets and the Jīngkāng catastrophe, drawn through Lù’s family memory (Lù Diàn / Lù Zǎi), is one of the principal channels of late-Northern-Sòng literati memory to the Southern Sòng.
3. Shī huà supplement: With Lù’s separately-cataloged Shānyīn shī huà lost, this book’s poetics entries are the principal surviving statement of Lù’s literary theory.

Limitations flagged by the Sìkù editors: (a) Lù’s family connection to Wáng Ānshí — his grandfather Lù Diàn was Wáng’s client — prevents the book from criticising Wáng or the Zì shuō, and on the Wáng Ānshí lóng jīng episode Lù uncritically repeats the Pí yǎ’s legendary embellishment; (b) the Wèi lán (kingfisher-blue) sky-name attribution to the Dù rén jīng is wrong — wèi lán in the Dù rén jīng is an emperor’s name, not a sky-name; (c) the Yìshǐ jì méi (Lù Kǎi’s plum-poem) attribution to the Wén xuǎn is a memory slip — the Wén xuǎn does not in fact include it.

Dating. Lù retired to Shānyīn in 1190. The book accumulated through the 1190s and 1200s, with the 2-juàn Xù bǐ jì presumably a late or posthumous supplement (not registered in Chén Zhènsūn’s contemporary bibliography). NotBefore 1190 / notAfter 1210.

Translations and research

No complete Western-language translation; substantial selective translations exist (especially of the Sū Shì / Huáng Tíng-jiān / Yáng Wàn-lǐ literary anecdotes). The book is heavily cited in modern Chinese-language Sòng literary-historical scholarship. Modern punctuated edition by Lǐ Jiàn-xióng 李劍雄 and Liú Dé-quán 劉德權 in Tángsòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān (Zhōnghuá shū-jú, 1979).

Other points of interest

The book’s record of the Liáo Chóngxī / Chónghé reign-name change is one of the principal demonstrations of bǐjì’s substantive historical-archaeological value: the textual claim — independently corroborated by epigraphy two-and-a-half centuries later — is the kind of yì wén jiù diǎn that justifies the genre’s status.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3, Lǎoxuéān bǐ jì entry.
• Wikipedia: 老學庵筆記.