御定佩文韻府

Yù dìng Pèiwén yùnfǔ 御定佩文韻府

Imperially Established Treasury of Rhymes from the Pei-wen Studio

by 張玉書 (Zhāng Yùshū, Qīng, 奉敕撰; huìyuè), 陳廷敬 (Chén Tíngjìng, Qīng, 奉敕撰; huìyuè), the 聖祖玄燁 Kāngxī emperor (定); with 李光地 (Lǐ Guāngdì) as additional huìyuè; principal zuǎnxiū including 蔣廷錫 Jiǎng Tíngxī, 張廷玉 Zhāng Tíngyù, 查慎行 Chá Shènxíng, 陳邦彥 Chén Bāngyàn, and 76 compilers in all.

About the work

The largest pre-modern Chinese phraseological compendium and the principal early-Qīng imperial lèishū for poets and parallel-prose composers. The work was commissioned by the Kāngxī emperor in summer Kāngxī 43 (1704), the imperial preface was composed in tenth month Kāngxī 50 (1711), and printing was complete by tenth month 1711 — a project spanning seven and a half years. Total content: 444 juǎn in the Sìkù re-pagination (the original Kāngxī printing was 106 juǎn with internal sub-divisions, structured by the 106 Píngshuǐ rhymes). The 1720 supplement Pèiwén yùnfǔ shíyí (KR3k0060) was added under separate cover.

The work indexes some 700,000 phrases (mostly two- to four-character compounds) by the rhyme of the final character (in contrast to the Pián zì lèibiān KR3k0056 which indexes by the head character’s semantic category). Under each yùn (rhyme), individual head-characters are listed; under each head-character, compound-phrases ending in that character are arranged in two strata: yùnzǎo 韻藻 — phrases that were already in the antecedent Yùnfǔ qúnyù (Yīnshì) and Wǔchē yùnruì (Língshì) anthologies — and zēng 增 (additions) — phrases newly collected in the present work. Each phrase is keyed by JīngShǐZǐJí order to its source. Appended to each entry are shìduì 事對 (event-pairs) and zhāijù 摘句 (excerpted lines).

The Kāngxī emperor’s preface (1711) gives the genealogy explicitly: the imperial project was begun specifically to remedy the deficiencies of the YuánMíng Yùnfǔ qúnyù / Wǔchē yùnruì tradition — jiǎn ér bù xiáng, lüè ér bù bèi, qiě yǐnjù duō wù (sparse and lacking detail, abbreviated and not comprehensive, with many citation errors).

Tiyao

We submit the following: the Yù dìng Pèiwén yùnfǔ in 444 juǎn was imperially determined by the Shèngzǔ Rénhuángdì (Kāngxī) in Kāngxī 50 (1711). We note: the Táng shū Yìwén zhì records Yán Zhēnqīng’s Yùnhǎi jìngyuán 韻海鏡原 in 200 juǎn. The monk Jiǎorán’s poem (Péi Yán shǐjūn xiū Yùnhǎi bì Dōngxī fànzhōu jiàn zhū wénshì) contains the line Wàishǐ kān xīn yùn, Zhōngláng dìng gǔwén / Jīnghuá jiān bǎishì, yǎyùn bèi sān fén (the outer-historian carves the new rhymes, the Zhōngláng sets the ancient texts; choice phrases and abundant variants are gathered from the hundred schools and the Sān fén); a self-note of his states that Lǔ Gōng (Yán Zhēnqīng) composed the work in Qièyùn sequence starting with the dōng 東 rhyme. So fēnyùn lìshì (organizing materials by rhyme) starts from Yán Zhēnqīng. That book is now lost. Between Sòng and Yuán there are quite a number of such works, called shīyùn (see the entry for the Yùnfǔ qúnyù for details). Of those transmitted today, the Yùnfǔ qúnyù is the oldest; in the Míng there is also the Wǔchē yùnruì. But both are shūlòu bùwán (sparse, lacunose, incomplete) — errors compound errors. Yáng Shèn’s Yùn zǎo, Zhū Yízūn’s Yùn cuì, and Zhū Yízūn’s son [Zhū] Kūntián’s Sān tǐ zhí yí all attempt to bǔ (supplement) the Yīn and Líng works, but still fall short of comprehensive coverage.

Therefore our Shèngzǔ Rénhuángdì gave a special edict to the rúchén (scholar-officials) to gather and arrange the typical sources and compile this work. Each head-character is first given its sound-and-meaning; the materials attached to it are organized as follows: those already in the Yīn and Líng works are marked yùn zǎo and listed first; those not in those two works are marked zēng (additions) and listed after. Each is arranged as two-three-four character compounds together; within each compound-group, materials are ordered as JīngShǐZǐJí. Where one phrase is found in multiple sources, the earliest is cited first and the rest in sub-note. Separately, shìduì and zhāijù are appended at the end. The original printing was not divided by juǎn but by Píngshuǐ rhyme, in 106 sections, with internal sub-volumes of 24. The present (Sìkù) re-pagination, in view of the bulk, divides into 444 juǎn. Since the appearance of the Yùnfǔ form, no work has been more comprehensive than this — looking down at Yīn’s and Líng’s works, they appear like a ladle in the sea.

We further note: in Kāngxī 59 (1720) Dàxuéshì Wáng Yǎn’s 王掞 and others’ preface to the Yùnfǔ shíyí states: “When the Pèiwén yùnfǔ was completed, the volumes numbered 106; we have heard that when the chénzǎn (officials of the compilation bureau) were drafting it, each chū gǎo (initial draft) was respectfully presented for the yùlǎn (imperial inspection), and our Huángshàng read down ten lines at once, marking the omissions, pointing out every recondite gloss of the Six Classics and every byway of the Four-Branch corpus that the zǎolí (woodblock cutter) had not yet engraved — none was not personally annotated and sent back to the officials for repeated kǎokǎo (verification). Thus though the work was composed by many hands, it is in essence our Huángshàng’s book determined by his single mind.”

For the shèngxué (sage learning) is deep beyond what guǎn lí miǎo jiàn (the narrow vision of pipe-and-shell) can hope to fathom; thus the breadth of this work is also unprecedented in compilation. Respectfully revised and submitted, twelfth month of the forty-fifth year of Qiánlóng [1780].

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 Pèiwén yùnfǔ is the largest pre-modern Chinese phraseological compendium and the most consulted of the Kāngxī-court compilations. Wilkinson (Manual §6.2.1.6) describes it as the largest of all premodern Chinese dictionaries by volume, indexing approximately 700,000 phrases — substantially more than any later Chinese-language reference work until the Hànyǔ dà cídiǎn of the late 20th century. Compilation was begun in Kāngxī 43 / sixth month (1704) and completed by tenth month of Kāngxī 50 (1711). The work is named after the Pèiwén zhāi 佩文齋 — one of the Kāngxī emperor’s named studios in the Forbidden City. The 76 named compilers include: nine senior huìyuè (supervising readers) headed by 張玉書 Zhāng Yùshū (1642–1711) and 陳廷敬 Chén Tíngjìng (1639–1712); ten zuǎnxiū jiān jiàokān guān (compilation-and-collation officials) headed by Cài Shēngyuán 蔡升元; twelve zuǎnxiū guān; four jiàokān guān; 35 xiàolù guānshēng (collation-and-recording officers and students); and seven jiānzào guān (production supervisors).

The work’s design principle is two-axis indexing of two-character (and longer) compounds. Each compound is indexed by the rhyme of its final character; a poet composing in a particular rhyme can find every two- to four-character compound that ends on that rhyme. This makes it primarily a shīfù (poetry composition) tool — the Kāngxī emperor’s preface explicitly frames it as such — and links it to the resumption of the jìnshì poetry composition requirement that the Qīng partially restored. The 1720 supplement, the Pèiwén yùnfǔ shíyí (KR3k0060) under 王掞 Wáng Yǎn’s direction, gathers additional phrases not in the original.

Wilkinson’s Manual (§6.2.1.6) describes the Pèiwén yùnfǔ as “the most comprehensive premodern collection of compounds” and notes its continuing importance for modern users: “every phrase it contains is searchable in the e-Sìkù,” making it a primary modern-research resource for premodern Chinese phraseology and citation tracing. Its principal author, Zhāng Yùshū 張玉書, was the dominant Kāngxī-period grand-secretary and Hànlín presider; Chén Tíngjìng 陳廷敬 was his close partner in the Kāngxī compilation programmes; 李光地 Lǐ Guāngdì was the third senior huìyuè. The wider zuǎnxiū roster includes 查慎行 Chá Shènxíng (Sòng poetry-criticism authority), 蔣廷錫 Jiǎng Tíngxī (later zǒngcái of the Pián zì lèibiān), and 張廷玉 Zhāng Tíngyù.

A shorter derivative version, the Pèiwén shīfǔ 佩文詩府, was issued specifically for examination candidates after the poetry-composition requirement was restored in 1756. At least six expanded versions were printed over the next two hundred years. The 1840, 1886, 1892, and 1908 reprintings established it as a standard reference; the 1886 Tóngwén shūjú 同文書局 lithograph (later reprinted in the 1937 Wànyǒu wénkù with a four-corner index) is the standard pre-modern access edition. The Shànghǎi gǔjí 1983 four-volume re-typeset is the current Chinese reference standard.

Translations and research

• Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (Harvard, 2018), §6.2.1.6 — the standard English-language entry; ranks it as the largest pre-modern Chinese reference work by phrase-count.
• Hú Dào-jìng 胡道靜, Zhōngguó gǔdài de lèishū (Zhōng-huá, 1982), §Qīng.
• Zhāng Dí-huá 張滌華, Lèishū liú-bié 類書流別 (Shāng-wù, rev. ed. 1985).
• Liú Yè-qiū 劉葉秋, Lèi-shū jiǎn shuō (Zhōng-huá, 1980).

No European-language complete translation, given the volume — but extensively used by all working Chinese-studies scholars; cf. especially Morohashi Tetsuji’s account in the preface to the Dai Kan-Wa jiten of his early reliance on the Pèi-wén yùn-fǔ for compound-phrase coverage.

Other points of interest

The Pèiwén yùnfǔ and the Pián zì lèibiān (KR3k0056) together — the former by final-rhyme, the latter by head-character category — exhaust the early-Qīng court’s systematic indexing of the pre-1644 compound-phrase corpus; the Sìkù tíyào (cited in KR3k0056) declares that no allusion or compound from the Classics and wényán literature could not be found in one or the other. This jīngwěi (warp-and-weft) design is one of the most ambitious reference-tool architectures in the history of Chinese bibliography.

The work’s title encodes its court origin: pèiwén 佩文 means “wearing literature” — a phrase from the Shījīng tradition — and was the Kāngxī emperor’s name for one of his working studios.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Yù dìng Pèiwén yùnfǔ entry.
• Wilkinson §6.2.1.6, §3.1.6.4.
• Wikidata: Q9356988.