Sòng bài lèi chāo 宋稗類鈔
Classified Excerpts from Song Unofficial Sources
by 潘永因 (Pān Yǒngyīn, Qīng, 編).
About the work
A 36-juǎn early-Qīng anthology of excerpts from Sòng-period unofficial sources — shīhuà 詩話 (poetry-talk), bǐjì 筆記 (note-form prose), and shuōbù 説部 (miscellaneous prose) — organized into 59 mén with a closing sōu yí 搜遺 supplement. Compiled by Pān Yǒngyīn 潘永因 (fl. 17th cent.; CBDB has no match — biographical details from local gazetteers only). The earliest known edition is 1669. The work is in the Jiāng Shǎoyú shìshí lèiyuàn 江少虞《事實類苑》 (Sòng-period predecessor) tradition: a private zhāilù (excerpt-anthology) of Sòng-period biji material, ordered by topical mén. Its principal methodological defect, noted by the Sìkù editors and underscored by Wilkinson, is that it follows the standard Míng practice of not citing its sources — making it difficult to use as a research instrument when one needs to trace specific anecdotes back to their original bǐjì origins.
Tiyao
We submit the following: the Sòng bài lèi chāo in 36 juǎn is compiled by Pān Yǒngyīn of our dynasty. Yǒngyīn’s Dú shǐ jīn dài 讀史津逮 is already separately catalogued. The present work takes the shīhuà and shuōbù (poetry-talk and miscellaneous prose) of the Sòng and groups them by category — 59 mén in all — with a closing Sōu yí (gleanings) section to fill gaps left in the various mén. It belongs to the same family as Jiāng Shǎoyú’s Shìshí lèiyuàn. Only — it does not record the original source — which is a fault. Indeed Míng compilers of older material frequently behaved in this way; Yǒngyīn carries on the old habit. (As one might say of late-Míng practice.)
There are also boundary-violations. In the Yì shù (special distinctions) mén the Lú Yán-rang hónglíng bǐng xiàn incident actually belongs to the late Táng; in the Fú mìng (charged with the mandate) mén the Gēngshēn dì affair, in the Wǔ bèi (military preparation) mén the Tàidìng-era Dèng Bì incident, both descend into Yuán-period material. In the Chǎn mèi (sycophancy) mén the case where Xú Xuéshī impeached Yán Sōng — a Jiādìng man and namesake Yán Sōng — was reworded as Xuémó, also blending Míng-period material. All these are breaches of dynastic limit. Further, in the Wǔ bèi mén the entry on Dí Qīng — failing to ancestral-line Dí Rénjié, refusing to remove the qíngwén (face-tattoo) — and the like, are not always well classed.
Even so, the Sòng zájì (miscellaneous-records) literature is the most diffuse of any period; this zhuójí yīnghuá (drawing-on-the-flower) compendium is rich and full and divided into mén, making consultation reasonable — preserving it remains useful as a kǎohé (verification) reference. Respectfully revised and submitted, first month of the fiftieth year of Qiánlóng [1785].
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 Sòng bài lèi chāo is the principal early-Qīng category-anthology of Sòng bǐjì literature. It belongs to the Sòngbài / Qīngbài lineage: Pān Yǒngyīn’s work is the model for Xú Kē’s 徐珂 1916 Qīng bài lèi chāo 清稗類鈔 (Wilkinson §62.3.8 makes this connection explicit). Compilation falls in the early Kāngxī decade (1660s); the earliest known edition is 1669.
The compiler, Pān Yǒngyīn 潘永因 (CBDB has no match), is recorded in local gazetteers as a 17th-century yímín (Míng loyalist who stayed out of Qīng office) — but the firm biographical record is thin. Together with his elder brother Pān Yǒngyīnshū / Yǒngzhōu (the orthography varies in sources) he is credited with the Dú shǐ jīn dài 讀史津逮 — a historiographical guide separately catalogued in the Sìkù.
The work’s 59 mén + sōu yí organization preserves the standard MíngQīng bǐjì-as-lèishū form. The Sìkù editors’ two principal criticisms — failure to cite sources, and occasional dynastic-boundary violations (in-text examples drawn from late-Táng, Yuán, and Míng material rather than from the Sòng proper) — are taken up explicitly by Wilkinson (§62.3.8): “Unfortunately, Pān follows the common Míng practice of not citing sources.” Nevertheless, the work is the standard early-Qīng one-volume Sòng bǐjì anthology; the standard modern edition is Liú Zhuōyīng 劉卓英’s punctuated Shūmù wénxiàn 1985 two-volume edition.
The work entered the Sìkù in Qiánlóng 50 (1785) under the Zǐbù lèishū classification. The 1669 first edition (Guǎngwén reprint, 1967) and the 1985 punctuated edition together constitute the standard modern access.
Translations and research
- Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (Harvard, 2018), §62.3.8 — the standard English-language treatment; notes the work as the model for Xú Kē’s 1916 Qīng bài lèi chāo.
- Liú Zhuō-yīng 劉卓英, Sòng bài lèi chāo (Shū-mù wén-xiàn 書目文獻, 1985) — the standard modern punctuated edition in 2 volumes.
- Guǎng-wén 1967 reprint of the 1669 edition (in Scripta Sinica).
- Hú Dào-jìng 胡道靜, Zhōngguó gǔdài de lèishū (Zhōng-huá, 1982), §Qīng.
No European-language complete translation; individual entries have been translated in scholarly articles on Sòng-period social and cultural history.
Other points of interest
The Sòng bài lèi chāo is one of the qíshū (model works) — along with Jiāng Shǎoyú’s Sòng Shìshí lèiyuàn — for the bài lèi chāo genre: anthologies of unofficial-source material organized topically, prepared for reading by literati rather than for source-tracing by historians. Its 20th-century successor, Xú Kē’s Qīng bài lèi chāo (1916, 13,500 excerpts in 92 categories totalling some 3 million words), explicitly models its title on Pān’s work and serves the same function for late-Qīng materials. The Sòng bài lèi chāo is now searchable in the e-Sìkù and Scripta Sinica databases.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Sòng bài lèi chāo entry.
- Wilkinson §62.3.8.