Yīnhuà lù 因話錄
Records Occasioned by Conversation by 趙璘 (撰)
About the work
A six-juàn anecdote-collection by the mid-9th-century official 趙璘 Zhào Lín 趙璘 (zì Zézhāng 澤章), passed jìnshì in Kāichéng 3 (838), serving as zuǒbǔquè 左補闕 in Dàzhōng 7 (853) and later as Governor of Qūzhōu 衢州 (Zhèjiāng). The work is unusually well-organised: the six juàn are divided into five “bù” 部 in imitation of the five-note scale — Gōngbù 宮部 (“Imperial”) for the emperors, Shāngbù 商部 for ministers (juàn 2, 3), Juébù 角部 for the unofficed gentry (juàn 4), Zhǐbù 徵部 for institutional matter and witticisms (juàn 5), Yǔbù 羽部 for objects, with miscellaneous matter appended. The author’s status as great-nephew of the Dézōng-era chief minister Zhào Zōngrú 趙宗儒, and as son of the Zhāoyìng wèi Zhào Kàng 趙伉, with maternal-line connection to the “Xījuàn Liǔshì” — a sub-lineage of the Liǔ clan — gave him unusual access to Táng court anecdote.
Tiyao
Your servants report: Yīnhuà lù in 6 juàn, by the Táng Zhào Lín. Lín’s zì was Zézhāng. According to the Táng shū Zǎixiàng shìxì biǎo he was of the Nányáng Zhào clan, later moved to Píngyuán; great-nephew of the Dézōng-era chief minister Zōngrú, and son of the Zhāoyìng wèi [Zhào] Kàng. Jìnshì in Kāichéng 3 (838); in Dàzhōng 7 (853) zuǒbǔquè; later Governor of Qūzhōu — both as recorded in this book and in the Táng shū Yìwén zhì. Míng Shāng Jùn cut this work into the Bàihǎi with the entitlement “yuánwài láng”; the basis is uncertain. The book is divided into five “parts”: juàn 1 Gōngbù records the emperors; juàn 2 and 3 Shāngbù record ministers and officials; juàn 4 Juébù records the unofficed (fán bùshì zhě xián lì zhī 凡不仕者咸隸之); juàn 5 Zhǐbù records gùshì (typological precedents and ceremonial) with comic matters appended; juàn 6 Yǔbù records objects, with appended what could not be slotted elsewhere. Lín’s lineage was eminent and he was maternal grandson of the Xījuàn Liǔ clan, with extensive access to court precedent; the book is generally of the xiǎoshuō genre but is often substantial enough to supplement the standard histories. As for the entry on Liú Yǔxī’s exile to Bōzhōu, the present text says [Liǔ] Zōngyuán petitioned to exchange his Liǔzhōu post for Liú’s Bōzhōu, that the emperor refused, and that chief minister Péi Dù then intervened, changing the appointment to Liánzhōu — but Sīmǎ Guāng’s Tōngjiàn kǎoyì notes: per Zōngyuán’s tomb-inscription the petition was being drafted but not yet submitted, not submitted and refused; further, when Yǔxī was being assigned to Bōzhōu, Péi Dù had not yet entered the chief ministership — so the present account is factually wrong. Also the entry recording the Dàzhōng 7 edict cancelling the New Year’s Day audience because of a predicted solar eclipse: according to Tōngjiàn the Wénzōng did not hold court that year because of a wind-paralysis attack, and the solar eclipse fell on the second-month shuò, so cancellation of the New Year audience cannot have been on eclipse grounds — also a slip. But other matters are mostly sound and serve as proof-texts; the Tōngjiàn draws on the work frequently, and it ultimately stands above the run of Táng xiǎoshuō. We accordingly promote it and list it among the xiǎoshuō category. Respectfully presented in the 5th month of Qiánlóng 44 [1779].
Abstract
The Yīnhuà lù is widely considered one of the most reliable Táng bǐjì, the Sìkù judgment (“above the run of Táng xiǎoshuō”) being a fair summary of the modern view. Its organising principle — the five musical-note “bù” — is a literary conceit, but the resulting hierarchical arrangement (emperors, ministers, gentry, institutional matter, objects) makes the work an early example of self-conscious editorial structure in the genre. The date of composition is not fixed in the text; internal evidence (the Dàzhōng references) places it in the 850s or 860s. The author lived into the Xiántōng era (860–874).
Several modern reference works treat Yīnhuà lù as a key source for: (a) Táng official-procedure and ceremonial precedent (Zhǐbù), (b) the social history of the Táng bureaucratic elite (Shāngbù), and (c) the connoisseurship and material culture of late Táng (Yǔbù). The famous “tea-drinking begins south of the Chángjiāng” entry in Yǔbù is one of the most cited early references to tea-customs spread from south to north.
Translations and research
- Tián Tíng-zhù 田廷柱, coll. 2002. Liú-Bīnkè jiāhuà lù 劉賓客嘉話錄, Yīn-huà lù 因話錄, Jiā-shì tán-lù 賈氏譚錄. Zhōnghuá (Táng-Sòng shǐ-liào bǐjì cóngkān). Standard modern critical edition.
- Zhōu Xūn-chū 周勛初, ed. 2002. Táng-rén yì-shì huì-biān. Shànghǎi gǔjí. Cross-references Yīnhuà lù with related collections.
- Twitchett, Denis. The Writing of Official History under the T’ang (CUP 1992) — notes Yīnhuà lù among Tang unofficial-history sources.
- No complete European-language translation has been located.
Other points of interest
The arrangement under musical-note categories (gōngshāngjuézhǐyǔ) is one of the few Táng bǐjì to adopt a formal taxonomical conceit; later imitators include Wáng Dìngbǎo’s Táng zhāiyán in its category-style organisation.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §61.3 (Táng bǐjì).
- https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=en&res=86202