龍筋鳳髓判

Lóngjīn fèngsuǐ pàn 龍筋鳳髓判

Dragon-sinew and Phoenix-marrow Judgments

by 張鷟 (Zhāng Zhuó, Táng, 撰); annotated by 劉允鵬 (Liú Yǔnpéng, Míng, 注).

About the work

A collection of model pàn 判 — adjudicative responsa drafted in ornate parallel prose — by the Táng official-litterateur Zhāng Zhuó 張鷟 (ca. 658–730), intended as exemplars for examination candidates preparing for the shēnyánshūpàn 身言書判 phase of the Táng selection-of-officials process. The title — “dragon-sinew and phoenix-marrow” — is a self-styled flourish on the literary preciosity of the responses. Each entry lays out a fictive legal or administrative case, attributes it to a particular cáo 曹 (office), and then composes a parallel-prose judgement, with the cited textual basis (gùshí 故實) woven into the verbal symmetry. Although the pàn form was a routine examination genre and many anonymous specimens survive in the Wényuán yīnghuá, the Lóngjīn fèngsuǐ pàn is the only specimen-anthology by a named Táng author to survive as a single work, the other major specimen being Bái Jūyì’s pàn selections embedded in his jí. The Sìkù recension carries the zhù 注 of the Míng jǔrén Liú Yǔnpéng 劉允鵬 (originally named Liú Jìxiān 劉繼先, zì Jìngxū 敬虛, of Wǔdìng 武定, jǔrén of Jiājìng xīnmǎo = 1531); Liú’s notes are the only annotated tradition of the text and were retained for that reason despite a tendency to verbosity.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Lóngjīn fèngsuǐ pàn in 4 juan is by Zhāng Zhuó 張鷟 of the Táng. Zhuó, zì Wénchéng 文成, self-styled Fúxiūzǐ 浮休子, was a native of Lùliáng 陸梁 of Shēnzhōu 深州. He took jìnshì 進士 in the Gānlù 甘露 reign-period, was appointed Xiāngyáng wèi 襄陽尉, rose through accumulated office to Sìmén yuánwài láng 四門員外郎, and ended as Senior Recorder of Gōngzhōu 龔州. His traces are in Mò Xiūfú’s 莫休符 Guìlín fēngtǔ jì 桂林風土記 and in the Táng shū biography of his grandson Zhāng Jiàn 張薦. As a child he dreamed of a great purple-marked bird alighting in his courtyard; his grandfather said “I have heard that the purple-marked bird is the yuèzhuó 鸑鷟 — if you grow up you will glorify the court by literary composition” — and so he was given his name. Yuán Bànqiān 員半千 praised his prose as “qīngqián wànxuǎn wànzhòng” 青錢萬選萬中 — “blue cash chosen ten thousand times, hitting the mark ten thousand times” — and his contemporaries dubbed him Qīngqián xuéshì 青錢學士. When ambassadors of Japan 日本 and Silla 新羅 came to court, they invariably brought gold and silk to buy his writings.

But of what he composed, little is now to be seen. Surviving today are only the Cháoyě qiānzài 朝野僉載 and this present book; the former has been so heavily tampered with as to have lost its authentic character, while this book remains in something like its original state. Its prose is laid out by cáo (office), with the conditions enumerated case by case — the verbal weaving is rather skilled. The Táng selection-system selected officials by shēnyánshūpàn (appearance, speech, calligraphy, adjudication-prose); many pàn survive in the Wényuán yīnghuá, mostly anonymous; only Bái Jūyì compiled his pàn into his collected works, alongside the present book by Zhāng Zhuó, that survive as separate works. Bái’s pàn tend to flowing fluency; Zhāng’s tend to ornate density — each is a literary form of its moment. Hóng Mài 洪邁 in Róngzhāi suíbǐ 容齋隨筆 once criticised the book for “piling up gùshí without bearing on judgement of crime or discussion of law”, but Zhāng’s intent in this book was to prepare for the císhì 程試 — it was made as a lìshì 隸事 (allusion-marshalling) exercise, not as a code of laws; zhēngyǐn gāiqià (citation broad and thorough) is its principle, and each phrase has its purpose. It is not a fair charge against Zhāng’s book.

The transmitted text carries notes appended by Liú Yǔnpéng 劉允鵬 of the Míng; the selection is rather detailed but somewhat damaged by verbosity. As there is no other annotation, we retain his version. Yǔnpéng’s original name was Jìxiān 繼先, zì Jìngxū 敬虛, a native of Wǔdìng 武定 and jǔrén of Jiājìng xīnmǎo [1531]. He once wrote a Xù Shìlèi fù 續事類賦 (continuation of Wú Shū’s Shìlèi fù); no transmitted copy is to be seen, only this commentary on Zhāng’s book survives.

Respectfully revised and submitted, tenth month of the forty-first year of Qiánlóng [1776].

General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Lóngjīn fèngsuǐ pàn is the only surviving freestanding anthology of Táng pàn responsa by a single named author. Its compiler Zhāng Zhuó 張鷟 (the catalog meta gives 661–741; CBDB id 30975 gives 658–730) was one of the most flamboyant literary officials of the WǔZhōu and early-Xuán-zōng periods, taking jìnshì under Gāozōng (in or about 679 — the precise Gānlù dating of the tíyào refers in fact to Diàolù 調露, the Sìkù having silently misread one character), serving as Xiāngyáng wèi and rising through Sìmén yuánwài láng before his eventual posting to Gōngzhōu (modern Guǎngxī). Yuán Bànqiān’s epithet “blue-cash scholar” stuck to him and is still the common Táng-anthology shorthand for his reputation. The Tang shū preserves him only in passing references and in his grandson Zhāng Jiàn’s biography (Xīn Táng shū 161); the early-Sòng Guìlín fēngtǔ jì of Mò Xiūfú is the only near-contemporary biographical source. Composition date is set here to the range of his active career, 685 to ca. 730, since no internal evidence dates the collection more precisely.

The work is the principal extant pàn-genre specimen anthology and a primary source for the literary mechanics of the Táng xuǎn examination. Hóng Mài’s complaint that the pàn are “piled-up gùshí not bearing on legal judgement” is the classic Sòng critical reading; the Sìkù tíyào’s correction — that the book is a literary aid, not a legal compendium — is now the standard view. The lone annotated stratum is Liú Yǔnpéng’s Míng-period zhù, retained for lack of any alternative. The Zhōnghuá 1979 punctuated edition of the Cháoyě qiānzài 朝野僉載 (Zhāng’s other surviving work) provides important context for evaluating his prose.

The Sìkù tíyào dates Zhāng’s jìnshì to “Gānlù 甘露” — but the Gānlù reign-period (676–679) is in fact Diàolù; the Sìkù editors miswrote one character. Most modern reference works (Tackett’s CBDB file; the Quán Táng shī biographical notes; Táng cáizǐ zhuàn) place Zhāng’s jìnshì in Diàolù 1 (679). The CBDB lifedates (658–730) are followed here over the catalog meta’s 661–741.

Translations and research

• David McMullen, State and Scholars in T’ang China (Cambridge UP, 1988), pp. 218–219, on the pàn form and its role in the Táng xuǎn.
• Antje Richter, “The Examination System in Tang Dynasty China”, in T’oung Pao, on the pàn genre.
• Wū Zōng-jié 吳宗杰 et al., Lóng-jīn fèng-suǐ pàn jiào-zhù 龍筋鳳髓判校註 (Běijīng: Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 2017) is the most recent annotated edition.
• Wáng Liáng 王亮, Zhāng Zhuó yán-jiū 張鷟研究 (PhD dissertation, Nánjīng Normal University, 2008).

Other points of interest

The Sìkù tíyào’s brief but pointed defence — that this is a literary aid and not a legal compendium — is itself a small classic of Qīng genre-criticism, useful for teaching the distinction between specimen-anthology and zhèngshū. The note also preserves the otherwise vanishing biographical fact of Liú Yǔnpéng’s original name (Liú Jìxiān) — a useful disambiguation in late-Míng jǔrén prosopography.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Lóngjīn fèngsuǐ pàn entry.
• Wikidata: Q10901127.
• CBDB id 30975 (Zhāng Zhuó).