Yōuxián gǔchuī 幽閒鼓吹
Drum-and-Fife Music of Leisure by 張固 (撰)
About the work
A one-juàn anecdote collection (in the present recension 26 entries; 25 per the Sòng Dúshū zhì count) by the late-Táng official 張固 Zhāng Gù (fl. Xiántōng, c. 860–883). Each entry treats a court event or official anecdote of the Yuánhé to Dàzhōng period (806–860). Despite the title’s suggestion of “leisure music,” the entries carry consistent moral-political weight: examination misconduct, ministerial integrity and its lapses, imperial-favourite politics, and Xuānzōng-era ceremonial. The Sìkù compilers commend the work for being shíshí kějù 切實可據 (factually reliable) compared to most Táng xiǎoshuō.
Tiyao
Your servants report: Yōuxián gǔchuī in 1 juàn, by the Táng Zhāng Gù. Gù’s beginnings and ends are not known in detail. The old text has a Míng-dynasty colophon by Gù Yuánqìng 顧元慶 stating that there are 25 sections (piān), which agrees with Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì. The present text has 26 — the discrepancy arises because the entry “Yuán Zǎi and his son” has been mistakenly split into two. Gù Yuánqìng further says Gù collected matters from the Yìzōng and Xīzōng reigns relating to Xuānzōng; this is incorrect — events of Yuánhé and Huìchāng are abundant in the book, not only Xuānzōng. Gù Yuánqìng also reports that Yáo Wéngōng 姚文公 in his Táng shī gǔchuī preface says that Sòng Gāozōng in retirement at Déshòu gōng compiled TángSòng anecdote under the title Yōuxián gǔchuī — the basis for this is unknown, and Gù Yuánqìng himself doubted it. The Táng shū Yìwén zhì under xiǎoshuō class records Zhāng Gù Yōuxián gǔchuī in 1 juàn, so the work plainly originates with a Táng author; even if Sòng Gāozōng had a homonymous work, it would be only an accidental name-coincidence, and the present text is not it. Although Gù’s record is brief in extent, his entries mostly bear on law-and-warning and are not made-up tales without source-critical value; among Táng xiǎoshuō it is comparatively reliable.
Abstract
CBDB id 93447 records Zhāng Gù with c_fl_earliest_year 860; a second figure ID 190999 c_index_year 883 may be the same. The work is one of the more disciplined late-Táng bǐjì: 25 (or 26) anecdotes, each compact, each treating one identifiable political or administrative event. Several of the famous Tang anecdotes — including Zhāng Yánshǎng’s 張延賞 dealings with Lǐ Sù 李愬, Péi Dù’s modesty, the Cuī Yán 崔郾 examination of Dù Mù 杜牧, the Niú Sēngrú / Lǐ Déyù politics — circulate primarily through this work. The text is widely cited by Tàipíng guǎngjì and Tàipíng yùlǎn; the Tōngjiàn draws on several entries. Modern study has corroborated several of its narratives against other sources (Wāng Yún 汪雲, Zhōu Xūnchū).
Standard modern collation: Yōuxián gǔchuī, included in Yáng Jiāluò 楊家駱’s Bǐjì xiǎoshuō dàguān and in Zhōnghuá’s TángSòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān (1958, 1985).
Translations and research
- Zhōu Xūn-chū 周勛初, ed. 2002. Táng-rén yì-shì huì-biān. Shànghǎi gǔjí. Extensively cross-references Yōuxián gǔchuī.
- Reed, Carrie E. 2003. Chinese Chronicles of the Strange. Peter Lang. Discusses Yōuxián gǔchuī as representative of late-Táng disciplined anecdote.
- No complete European-language translation has been located.
Other points of interest
The work’s most-cited entry is the story of Dù Mù’s 杜牧 ranking-fifth in the jìnshì of 828 through Cuī Yán’s intervention. The narrative is the canonical source for the social-political dynamics of late-Táng examination practice.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §61.3.
- https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=en&res=86268