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朝野僉載

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Text ID
KR3l0003
Date
700–730
Dynasty
唐

Cháoyě qiānzài 朝野僉載

Records of Court and Country Combined by 張鷟 (撰)

About the work

A bǐjì 筆記 collection of WǔZhōu and early-Táng court-and-society anecdotes by the prolific WǔZhōu literatus 張鷟 Zhāng Zhuó (c. 658–730), transmitted as six juàn in the present Sìkù edition but reflecting only a fragment of the original. The content covers oddities, miracles, court whisper, examination culture, official misconduct, mockery, and the marginalia of the WǔZhōu and early Kāiyuán reigns. The work is one of the principal narrative-anecdotal sources for the reign of Wǔ Zétiān 武則天.

Tiyao

Your servants report: the Cháoyě qiānzài in 6 juàn; the old title attributes it to the Táng Zhāng Zhuó. Zhuó’s Lóngjīn fèngsuǐ pàn 龍筋鳳髓判 is already catalogued. The Xīn Táng shū Yìwén zhì records this work in 30 juàn; the Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì records Qiānzài in 20 juàn plus Qiānzài bǔyí 補遺 3 juàn; the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo lists only the 3-juàn supplement. The present 6-juàn text agrees with none of them. Cháo Gōngwǔ 晁公武 (Dúshū zhì 讀書志) further states that the work is arranged under 35 categorical headings, whereas the present text is in continuous-entry form with no category divisions — again incompatible with Cháo. Mò Xiūfú’s 莫休符 Guìlín fēngtǔ jì 桂林風土記 records that during Kāiyuán Yáo Chóng 姚崇 falsely accused Zhuó of receiving bribes while on mission to Jiāngnán; he was sentenced to death, his son petitioned to die in his stead, the sentence was commuted, and he was exiled to Lǐngnán where he died several years after promotion to zhǎngshǐ 長史. By that reckoning he died before Tiānbǎo; yet the present text contains entries referring to the “stone of Zīyáng walking” of Bǎolì 元年 (a Jìngzōng reign-title) and to Mèng Hóngwēi’s audience with Xuānzōng — events postdating Zhuó’s life. The Suíchū tángshūmù of Yóu Mào 尤袤 also lists Cháoyě qiānzài and Qiānzài bǔyí as two separate works. We conclude that the Qiānzài proper is by Zhuó, while the Bǔyí must have been added by a later hand; everything bearing on mid- to late-Táng matters belongs to the Bǔyí. Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫 reports that “the original was 30 juàn; the present is its abridgement,” which we identify with the text in hand — a Sòng-era excerpt that combined the Qiānzài with its Bǔyí, suppressed the category divisions, and was at some unknown later moment redivided from 3 juàn into 6. The work records Táng events with much xiéxuè huāngguài (comic and outlandish) detail, and is for that reason rebuked by Hóng Mài 洪邁 in Róngzhāi suíbǐ 容齋隨筆 as recording “petty trivia, fragmentary and full of vulgar speech.” Nevertheless, much that the eyes and ears could verify is reliable, and Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光 drew on it for the Tōngjiàn. Respectfully presented in the 11th month of Qiánlóng 46 [1781] for collation. Chief compilers Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅; chief proofreader Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Sìkù tíyào already lays out the textual transmission problem succinctly: the work is fragmentary, has been recompiled at least twice, and the present 6-juàn version is a Sòng-era abridgement that has been further redivided. The bulk of Cháoyě qiānzài proper covers the WǔZhōu period — the brutalities of the cruel officials Lái Jùnchén 來俊臣 and Zhōu Xìng 周興, accusations of treason, court hierarchies, examination scandals, popular wit — and is a primary witness to the political culture of Wǔ Zétiān’s reign. Material relating to events after Zhāng Zhuó’s death (the Bǎolì-era entries flagged by the Sìkù compilers, the Xuānzōng audience anecdote) belongs to the Bǔyí and was incorporated through the Sòng abridgement. Despite the textual disarray the work remains one of the Tàipíng guǎngjì 太平廣記’s most-quoted sources for WǔZhōu narrative material and an indispensable companion to the official Táng Histories.

Modern critical edition: Zhào Shǒuyǎn 趙守儼, ed. Cháoyě qiānzài (Zhōnghuá, 1979, TángSòng shǐliào bǐjì series), with collation against the Tàipíng guǎngjì fragments to reconstruct what was lost.

Translations and research

  • Zhào Shǒu-yǎn 趙守儼, ed. 1979. Cháoyě qiānzài 朝野僉載. Zhōnghuá (Táng-Sòng shǐ-liào bǐ-jì cóngkān).
  • Reed, Carrie E. 2003. Chinese Chronicles of the Strange: The Nuogao ji (introduction). Peter Lang. (Discusses Cháoyě qiān-zài as background for Táng zhì-guài.)
  • Zhōu Xūn-chū 周勛初. 1996. Táng yǔ-lín jiào-zhèng 唐語林校證 — extensively cross-references Cháoyě qiān-zài with the larger Táng anecdote tradition.
  • No complete European-language translation has been located.

Other points of interest

The Tàipíng guǎngjì preserves much Cháoyě qiānzài material that the present 6-juàn recension lacks; reconstructing the original work has been a recurrent project of modern bǐjì scholarship.

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