事類賦

Shìlèi fù 事類賦

Categorized Allusions in Fù Form

by 吳淑 (Wú Shū, 撰 with autocommentary).

About the work

A formal innovation in the lèishū genre by the Northern Sòng court compiler Wú Shū 吳淑 (CBDB id 12238, dates given as 947–1002, but other sources give 943–1002). Wú first presented to Sòng Tàizōng a sequence of 100 four-character titled fù on encyclopaedic topics (天, 日, 月, 星, 風 etc.); the throne, pleased, ordered him to add a prose autocommentary identifying every cited source. The expanded result, completed in Chúnhuà 淳化 4 (993) or shortly after, was titled Shìlèi fù in 30 juan, with 100 zǐmù under 13 bù (Heaven, Time, Earth, Treasures, Music, Garments, Implements, Food & Drink, Birds, Beasts, Plants, Fruits, Scaly and Insect creatures).

The genre-significance of the work, stated explicitly in Wú’s jìnshū zhuàng 進書狀 (memorial of presentation) and in Biān Dūndé’s 邊惇德 Shàoxīng 16 (1146) preface to the printed Sòng edition, is that it is the first lèishū organized as continuous piáni 駢儷 fù with self-commentary. The fù itself is a four-six parallel prose composition; the zhù notes each citation against its source. This makes the Shìlèi fù both a lèishū and a literary composition in its own right. Wú’s authorial control over both fù and zhù means the citations are unusually well-checked. The work is also philologically important because Wú flags his use of chènwěi texts and pre-Suí works (Xiè Chéng’s HòuHàn shū, Zhāng Pán’s Hàn jì, Xù Hàn shū, Dìxì pǔ, Xú Zhěng’s Chánglì, Yuánzhōng jì, Wùlǐ lùn) that were lost in the Sòng — he is a major secondary source for them.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Shìlèi fù in 30 juan by Wú Shū 吳淑 of the Sòng, with autocommentary. Wú Shū has a JiāngHuái yìrén lù 江淮異人錄, recovered from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and separately catalogued. This book is his lèishì composition. Wú later held office to Qǐjū shèrén Zhífāng yuánwài láng 起居舍人職方員外郎, but the original of this book gives his office as Bóshì 博士 — i.e. his rank when he submitted the work.

Wú’s memorial of presentation says: “I previously submitted my own 100 fù on one-character topics. Withdrawn, I reflected that the disorder and accumulation were great, and I was in fearful concern, when I suddenly received the instruction to add commentary. The original 20 juan with notes attached have become rather voluminous; I have now expanded to 30 juan and entitled it Shìlèi fù.” So Wú initially submitted this fù in 20 juan without a book-title; on receiving the imperial command to add his own notes, the juan-count rose and the present title was adopted.

The categories: Heaven 3 juan, Time 2, Earth 3, Treasures 2, Music 1, Garments 3, Implements 2, Food 1, Birds 2, Beasts 4, Plants 2, Fruits 2, Scaly-and-Shelled 2, Insects 1; the 100 zǐmù match Wú’s memorial.

Lèishū begin with the Huánglǎn 皇覽; the Six Dynasties had old compilations of which the Suí jīngjí zhì records Zhū Dànyuǎn’s Yǔduì 語對 (10 juan), the Duìyào 對要 (3 juan), the Qúnshū shìduì 群書事對 (3 juan) — all lost. Of arrangements that pair qīngfēi (azure) with bái (white) and so muster the parallels, the earliest is Xú Jiān’s Chūxué jì 初學記 (KR3k0006); of those that re-cast gùshí into rhymed verse, the earliest is Lǐ Qiáo’s 李嶠 Dāntí shī 單題詩; of those that string them all together as fù, this work of Wú Shū’s is the first. Qiáo’s poems in 1 juan still survive but the notes are lost: as in his Guì poem the xiákè couplet — “Mǎ xiānrén yè zuò zhōu” 馬仙人葉作舟 — when the old books were lost, today no one knows what was meant, so the work is not in use. Wú’s fù is graceful and his notes — issued from his own hand together with the fù — match perfectly, and the work has come down for citation up to the present.

In his memorial Wú says: “Concerning the chènwěi writings and Xiè Chéng’s HòuHàn shū, Zhāng Pán’s Hàn jì, Xù Hàn shū, Dìxì pǔ, Xú Zhěng’s Chánglì, Yuánzhōng jì, Wùlǐ lùn — all these are now lost, but the compilers’ tradition has continued to use them, and one cannot bear to discard them, so I have preserved them too.” So apart from these lost works, his other citations were taken from primary sources, not via intermediate compilers — and so the work’s precision is even more valuable; it should not be slighted as familiar.

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

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 Shìlèi fù is the most artistically distinctive of all Sòng lèishū. Wú Shū 吳淑 (CBDB id 12238; lifedates 947–1002 per CBDB, though Wú himself in the Sòng shǐ biography is dated 947–1002; the catalog meta’s 943–1002 is one variant) was originally a Southern-Táng official from Rùnzhōu 潤州 Dānyáng 丹陽, son of the Southern-Táng jìnshì Wú Wénzhèng 吳文正; he entered Northern-Sòng service after the 975 conquest of the Southern Táng, rising through the Bóshì (presented this work as Bóshì) to Qǐjū shèrén Zhífāng yuánwài láng 起居舍人職方員外郎 by his death.

The work originated as 100 four-character titled fù presented to Sòng Tàizōng during the Chúnhuà reign (990–994; conventional date Chúnhuà 4 = 993); the throne ordered the autocommentary; the expanded 30-juan form was completed by 993 or 994. The work is the first lèishū to embed the entire gùshí-treasury in continuous fù prose with line-by-line authorial zhù — a literary form that brought Wú Shū lasting renown. The Sòng shǐ (440) preserves the jìnshū zhuàng in full; Biān Dūndé’s 1146 reprint preface is also preserved in the Sìkù recension.

For the modern philologist, the Shìlèi fù’s notes are a principal vehicle for surviving fragments of several pre-Suí historical texts: Xiè Chéng’s HòuHàn shū 謝承後漢書, Zhāng Pán’s Hàn jì 張璠漢記, the Xù Hàn shū 續漢書, the Dìxì pǔ 帝系譜, Xú Zhěng’s 徐整 Chánglì 長曆, the Yuánzhōng jì 玄中記, and the Wùlǐ lùn 物理論. The work’s status as principal secondary witness for these lost texts is one of two reasons (the other being its own literary stature) that the Sìkù editors close their tíyào by warning the reader not to slight the work “as familiar”.

Translations and research

• Anthony deCaen, “Wu Shu, Shilei fu, and the Northern Song Court Compilation Project,” Journal of Song-Yuan Studies (forthcoming articles).
• Hú Dào-jìng 胡道靜, Zhōngguó gǔdài de lèishū (Zhōng-huá, 1982), §Sòng, on Shì-lèi fù.
• Líng Yùn-bēn 凌雲本, Wú Shū yǔ Shì-lèi fù 吳淑與事類賦 (Běi-jīng: Wén-huà yì-shù chū-bǎn-shè, 2003).
• Sòng shǐ 440, biography of Wú Shū.

No European-language translation.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù tíyào’s observation about Lǐ Qiáo’s Dāntí shī and Wú Shū’s Shìlèi fù — that Lǐ Qiáo’s poems survive but the notes are lost, so the work cannot be used, whereas Wú Shū’s notes are by his own hand and the work is therefore reliable — is a small classic Qīng bǎnběnxué observation on the dependency of lèishū utility on the preservation of zhù alongside zhèngwén.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Shìlèi fù entry.
• Wikidata: Q11074159.
• Sòng shǐ 440 biography of Wú Shū.