Shíbīn lù 實賓錄
Register of Substantial Sobriquets
by 馬永易 (Mǎ Yǒngyì, Sòng, 撰).
About the work
A Northern-Sòng compendium of yìhào 異號 (alternative sobriquets and epithets applied to historical figures, places and objects), compiled by Mǎ Yǒngyì 馬永易 of Yángzhōu during the Huīzōng reign (1101–1125), when he held the post of Wèi (sheriff) of Shídài 石埭 in Chízhōu 池州. The work is also catalogued under the alternative title Yìhào lù 異號錄 in Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì; Chén Zhènsūn records it as Shíbīn lù — i.e. by the compound term míng zhě shí zhī bīn 名者實之賓 (“the name is the guest of the reality”) — the term shíbīn being shorthand for “the actual referent and its named guest-form”. The work was originally in 60 juan with two parts (a běnshū in 30 juan compiled by Mǎ Yǒngyì, and a hòují in 30 juan added by the Sòng jiàozhèng Jùlóng Cái 句龍材 of Shǔ and the supplementer Wén Biāo 文彪). The Sòng shǐ · Yìwén zhì erroneously splits the work into two titles, each in 30 juan. The text was effectively lost from the Yuán onwards; Táo Zōngyí 陶宗儀’s Shuōfú 說郛 preserved only a few entries; the Sìkù editors recovered some 600+ entries from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, re-arranged them by topic, and consolidated into 14 juan under Chén Zhènsūn’s title.
Tiyao (abridged)
The Shíbīn lù in 14 juan by Mǎ Yǒngyì of the Sòng. Mǎ Yǒngyì, zì Míngsǒu 明叟, native of Yángzhōu, held the office Wèi of Shídài in Chízhōu under Huīzōng. The traces of his life are not recoverable; only the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo and Sòng shǐ · Yìwén zhì attribute to him a Táng zhílín 唐職林, a Yuánhé péngdǎng lù 元和朋黨錄, and a Shòuchūn zázhì 夀春雜誌, suggesting he was a man of broad learning.
This book appears in Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì under the title Yìhào lù in 20 juan; but Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí titles it Shíbīn lù, says it was compiled by Mǎ Yǒngyì, collated by Jùlóng Cái of Shǔ, supplemented by Wén Biāo — běnshū 30 juan plus hòují 30 juan. The Sòng shǐ · Yìwén zhì further splits into a Shíbīn lù and a Yìhào lù of 30 juan each, both attributed to Yǒngyì — these traditions disagree. We take Chén Zhènsūn’s běnshū to be Yǒngyì’s original, originally titled Yìhào lù; Chén’s hòují to be the Wén Biāo continuation, whose addition prompted the title-change to Shíbīn lù and the merger of the two parts; the Sòng shǐ’s split-listing is in error; what Cháo Gōngwǔ saw was the original un-supplemented recension, hence the title Yìhào lù.
From the Yuán the work was long lost; Táo Zōngyí’s Shuōfú preserved only a few entries; the recent submission from the Zhèjiāng Fàn-clan Tiānyī gé library is itself only a copy from the Shuōfú, not a character different. We have now recovered 600+ further entries from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn — none of them found in the Shuōfú. The original tǐlì is unrecoverable, and Yǒngyì’s original is no longer separable from Wén Biāo’s supplements. We have edited, removed duplicates, corrected errors, and re-arranged by category into 14 juan, retaining the Shūlù jiětí title Shíbīn lù to preserve the Sòng-period name.
The book gathers alternative names and sobriquets of past figures to expand the reader’s familiarity with biéhào and unusual designations. But it indulges in some lànshōu (rash inclusion): the citation of Shěn Chuánshī 沈傳師 as “tuī wéi Yánzǐ” 推為顏子 is a mere panegyric phrase; Liú Chángqīng 劉長卿 as “Wǔyán chángchéng” 五言長城 is a generic literary comment; neither is a proper yìhào and should not be included. Likewise the entry “Jí Mào yán shìzhōng zhíhǔzǐ” 吉茂言侍中執虎子 is jocular wordplay, Bái Jūyì’s Xīnfēng zhébì wēng 新豐折臂翁 is a documentary occasional poem — neither bears on the concept of yìhào — these too should not have been entered. Greedy inclusion of curiosities is the perennial sin of compilers, not unique to Mǎ Yǒngyì; it does not impeach the work as a whole.
Respectfully revised and submitted, ninth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].
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 Shíbīn lù is the principal Northern-Sòng compendium of historical sobriquets (yìhào). Its compiler Mǎ Yǒngyì 馬永易 was a Huī-zōng-period minor official from Yángzhōu, otherwise known only as the author of a Táng zhílín 唐職林 and a Yuánhé péngdǎng lù 元和朋黨錄 (both lost). Composition dates to his Chízhōu posting in the Huīzōng era (1101–1125). The original recension circulated in two parts, the běnshū (Mǎ’s own) and a hòují (continued by Wén Biāo, collated by Jùlóng Cái of Shǔ); the Sìkù editors disentangled the conflicting catalogue evidence (Cháo Gōngwǔ, Chén Zhènsūn, Sòng shǐ · Yìwén zhì) to establish that the original was titled Yìhào lù and the merged form Shíbīn lù.
The 14-juan Sìkù recension was reconstructed from over 600 Yǒnglè dàdiǎn entries — a reconstruction substantial enough to be useful for prosopographical reference but acknowledged by the editors themselves to be a re-arrangement, with the original sequence and the Mǎ / Wén Biāo strata no longer separable. The work’s chief value to modern scholarship is as a Sòng-period record of yìhào applied to pre-Sòng figures and objects, often citing now-lost Six Dynasties and Táng bǐjì sources.
Translations and research
- Cén Zhòng-miǎn 岑仲勉, Yuán-hé xìng-zuǎn fù sì-jiào jì (Zhōng-huá, 1994) — cross-references the Shí-bīn lù for Táng prosopography.
- Hú Dào-jìng 胡道靜, Zhōngguó gǔdài de lèishū (Zhōng-huá, 1982), §Sòng, treats the work briefly.
No European-language translation.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ disentanglement of the Cháo / Chén / Sòng shǐ catalogue discrepancies — concluding that what looked like four works (under two titles, each in two recensions) is in fact one work in two strata — is a small classic of Qīng cataloguing reconstruction, and useful as a methodological example.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Shíbīn lù entry.
- Wikidata: Q11075034.