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唐國史補

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Text ID
KR3l0006
Date
813–825
Dynasty
唐

Táng guóshǐ bǔ 唐國史補

Supplement to the State History of the Tang by 李肇 (撰)

About the work

A three-juàn anecdotal supplement to the State History of the Táng, composed by 李肇 Lǐ Zhào (fl. early-9th c.) during his tenure as Director of the Left Office of the Department of State Affairs (尚書左司郎中). The entries — 103 in juàn 上, 103 in juàn 中, 102 in juàn 下 — each carry a five-graph topical title (e.g. Lǔshān rǔ xiōngzǐ 魯山乳兄子, Cuī Hào jiàn Lǐ Yōng 崔顥見李邕, Zhāng Xù dé bǐfǎ 張旭得筆法). The book deliberately extends Liú Sù’s 劉餗 lost Suí Táng jiāhuà 隋唐嘉話 forward from Kāiyuán to Chángqìng (727 — c. 824), and Lǐ Zhào’s own preface lays down the editorial rule that he will not record retribution-and-karma narratives, accounts of ghosts and spirits, dream-omens and divinations, or harem matters, but will record verifiable facts, natural principles, doubtful points clarified, didactic warnings, manners and customs, and anecdotes serving wit and conversation (紀事實, 探物理, 辨疑惑, 示勸戒, 採風俗, 助談笑).

Tiyao

Your servants report: Táng guóshǐ bǔ in 3 juàn, by the Táng Lǐ Zhào. The head-title gives him as Shàngshū zuǒsī lángzhōng; his other work the Hànlín zhì gives him as Hànlín xuéshì zuǒbǔquè — a different titulary. Wáng Dìngbǎo’s Táng zhāiyán 唐摭言 places him in the Hànlín as Zhōngshū shèrén during Yuánhé; the Xīn Táng shū Yìwén zhì records that as a Hànlín scholar he was demoted from zhōngshū shèrén to jiāngzuò shǎojiàn for recommending [the disgraced] Bó Qí. Cross-referenced against Táng official-rank usage we conclude that Lǐ Zhào passed zuǒsī lángzhōng → bǔquè → Hànlín scholar → zhōngshū shèrén → demotion; the present book belongs to the period when he held zuǒsī. The contents cover events from Kāiyuán to Chángqìng. It is constructed as a continuation of Liú Sù’s Xiǎoshuō. Juàn 上 and juàn 中 each have 103 entries, juàn 下 has 102; each entry has a five-graph caption. Among the entries, the claim that Wáng Wéi appropriated Lǐ Jiāyòu’s “water-paddy white egret” couplet is unsupported by Lǐ Jiāyòu’s own jí; the Nícháng yǔyī entry has been demonstrated false by Shěn Kuò. The treatment of Lǐ Déyù as “pure-and-upright, without faction” and the imputation of slander by Lù Zhì against Yú Gōngyì are both biased writing. But the entry on Zhāng Xún draws on Lǐ Hàn’s biography; the accounts of Zuǒ Zhèn, Lǐ Qián, Lǐ Yì, Yán Zhēnqīng, Yáng Chéng, Guī Dēng, Zhèng Yīn, Kǒng Kuí, Tián Bù, the wife of Zōu Dàizhēng and the daughter of Yuán Zǎi are all morally instructive. Lǐ Zhōu’s discourse on Heaven and Hell and the analyses of the Yáng-clan and Mù-clan brothers and the “guests” are doctrinally substantial. The last juàn’s technical accounts of various institutional points and of the Xiàmǎ líng, the Xiàngfǔ lián etc. are useful for source-criticism; the entries on chūpú and lúzhì explain a passage in [the biography of] Liú Yù, the Jiànnán shāochūn entry explains a poem of Lǐ Shāngyǐn — and so on, much to be culled. Lǐ Zhào’s own preface, paraphrasing what we have already quoted, defines his editorial principle by exclusion and inclusion. Ōuyáng Xiū took this work as the model for his own Guītián lù — well-deserved. Respectfully presented in the 5th month of Qiánlóng 42 [1777].

Abstract

The work is the most important early-9th-century bǐjì witness to Tang court and literary culture and a major source for the Xīn Táng shū and Zīzhì tōngjiàn. Lǐ Zhào’s clean editorial rules (no karmic retribution, no ghosts, no harem rumour) make the Guóshǐ bǔ unusually focused on the documentary side of Táng anecdote — institutional procedure, literary reputations, calligraphy and music, tea and wine connoisseurship, and political evaluations — and earned it the distinction of being the named model for Ōuyáng Xiū’s Guītián lù 歸田錄 KR3l0032. Juàn 下 in particular is a primary source for Táng administrative ritual (the Shàngshū and Ménxià protocols, the censorial Yùshǐ tái customs) and connoisseurship (tea grades, wine names, fēngsú lists, paper varieties). The work was already standard in the Sòng — the Xīn Táng shū Treatises and Sīmǎ Guāng’s Tōngjiàn kǎoyì repeatedly cite it.

Editorial mode: each entry is given a five-graph caption. Three juàn, 103 + 103 + 102 entries. Composed during Lǐ Zhào’s zuǒsī lángzhōng tenure; dated by internal evidence to the Yuánhé — Chángqìng period (c. 813–825). Standard modern critical edition: Zhōnghuá 1957 (Shànghǎi gǔjí 1979), with collation by Yáng Jiāluò and Zhōu Xūnchū.

Translations and research

  • Yáng Jiā-luò 楊家駱, ed. 1957. Táng guóshǐ bǔ (《唐國史補》合刊本). Shìjiè shūjú.
  • Zhōu Xūn-chū 周勛初. 2002. Táng-rén yì-shì huì-biān 唐人軼事彙編. Shànghǎi gǔjí. Compiles and annotates Guóshǐ bǔ alongside related bǐ-jì.
  • Reischauer, Edwin O., tr. and ann. (in Ennin’s Diary and elsewhere) cites Guóshǐ bǔ as a foreign-trade source.
  • No complete European-language translation has been located.

Other points of interest

The earliest extant Chinese systematic listing of named teas (Xù chá pǐnmù 敘茶品目) in juàn 下 is one of the foundation texts of the Chinese tea-connoisseurship tradition, predating Lù Yǔ’s KR3i0001 Chá jīng 茶經 in receiving formal míngpǐn status from a sitting official. The same juàn is among the earliest sources to list named wines and fēngsú commodities.

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