Gǔ lì fǔ 古儷府
Repository of Ancient Parallel Prose
by 王志慶 (Wáng Zhìqìng, Míng, 編).
About the work
A late-Míng lèishū in 12 juǎn devoted specifically to piántǐ 駢體 (parallel prose) of the Six Dynasties through the Sòng. Compiled by Wáng Zhìqìng 王志慶 of Kūnshān 崑山, the work selects choice parallel-prose passages and arranges them under 18 mén with 182 zǐmù (天文, 地理, 嵗時, 帝王, 宫掖, 儲宫, 帝戚, 政術, 人, 職官, 禮, 樂, 道術, 文學, 武功, 居處, 恩賚, 物類). The model is Ōuyáng Xún’s Yìwén lèijù; the distinguishing feature versus most Míng lèishū is that excerpts are taken either whole or in coherent jiéběn (section-form) and drawn directly from individual collected works rather than from prior lèishū — thus preserving the integrity of the parallel-prose pieces.
Tiyao
We submit the following: the Gǔ lì fǔ in twelve juǎn is compiled by Wáng Zhìqìng of the Míng. Zhìqìng was a man of Kūnshān. The book takes parallel-prose pieces of the Six Dynasties, Táng, and Sòng that may serve as raw material for literary composition, selects their finest passages and arranges them by category. The Hàn and Wèi fù and sòng, though not in the four-and-six form, are included where their diǎnshí bólì (allusive substance and lavish decoration) already prefigures parallel diction. The work is divided into 18 mén with 182 zǐmù, broadly modelled on Ōuyáng Xún’s Yìwén lèijù — sometimes preserving the whole piece, sometimes a section, distinct from the practice of other lèishū that hack the text into floating phrases. Excerpts run only as late as the Sòng and are drawn from collected works (zǒngjí, biéjí), not, as in the case of Míng lèishū, transmitted second-hand through serial lèishū — thus avoiding the wearying redundancy and corruption of secondary compilations.
Zhìqìng was the younger brother of the qiānshì Zhìjiān and of the jǔrén Zhìcháng — the brothers all renowned for their literary attainments. Zhìqìng’s kǎodìng (textual establishment) is, though not the equal of his elder brothers’, traceable to a correct source-tradition and to good judgement; thus this casual selection still does not lose the form-and-measure of the predecessors. Only that the work occasionally takes in the lìjù (parallel couplets) gathered by Wáng Yīnglín’s Yùhǎi, which is somewhat wěi zá (vulgar and miscellaneous). If we make this the model, Wú Shū’s Shìlèi fù in full would have to be admitted; the volumes would swell endlessly. Fortunately it occurs only once or twice, so it does not encumber the work as a whole; but the fault of tānduō shìbó (gluttony for breadth) still cannot be hidden.
Respectfully revised and submitted, first month of the forty-fourth year of Qiánlóng [1779].
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 Gǔ lì fǔ is a late-Míng genre-specialist lèishū: rather than the encyclopaedic ambition of a Shāntáng sìkǎo (KR3k0052) or a Túshū biān (KR3k0050), it confines itself to piánwén 駢文 — the four-and-six parallel-prose tradition running from the Six Dynasties through the Sòng. Wáng Zhìqìng was the youngest of three literary brothers of Kūnshān 崑山 (the same Sūzhōu prefecture that produced Guī Yǒuguāng); his eldest brother Wáng Zhìjiān 王志堅 held the post of qiānshì (Surveillance Vice Commissioner) and was a noted gǔwén compiler in his own right (his Sì shǐ lùn yú 四史論餘 survives in the Sìkù). The Gǔ lì fǔ was completed in the late Wànlì / Tiānqǐ / Chóngzhēn period — the catalog meta does not give a tight date; the conservative bracket is the late-Míng decades 1620–1644.
The work’s methodological distinction, recognized by the Sìkù editors, is its source-discipline: rather than transcribing parallel-prose excerpts at second hand from earlier lèishū (the standard Míng practice, condemned in tíyào after tíyào), Wáng went back to individual zǒngjí and biéjí. This makes the Gǔ lì fǔ a more reliable witness than its predecessors to the actual transmission of piántǐ texts in the late Míng. The editors note one slip — occasional reliance on parallel couplets harvested by Wáng Yīnglín’s Yùhǎi (KR3k0032) — but consider the fault local rather than systemic.
For modern scholarship the work is principally useful as a witness to late-Míng parallel-prose taste and as a check against the better-known Sòng-period parallel-prose compilations.
Translations and research
- David R. Knechtges and Taiping Chang, eds., Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide (Brill, 2010–2014), index — provides scholarly bibliography for the parallel-prose corpus the Gǔ lì fǔ anthologizes.
- Hú Dào-jìng, Zhōngguó gǔdài de lèishū (Zhōng-huá, 1982).
No European-language complete translation. No substantial monographic study located in Western languages.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Gǔ lì fǔ entry.