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唐摭言

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Text ID
KR3l0017
Date
954–954
Dynasty
五代

Táng zhāiyán 唐摭言

Tang Gleanings by 王定保 (撰)

About the work

A fifteen-juàn compilation by the long-lived Wáng Dìngbǎo 王定保 (870–941; Sìkù gives lifedates “Xiántōng gēngyín 870 → at the time of composition aged 85, so Xiǎndé 1 = 954”) on Tang examination culture: it is the single most important primary source for the jìnshì examination, its rituals, its ceremonies of celebration and defeat, and the social practice of the jìnshì corporation. Wáng Dìngbǎo himself passed the jìnshì in Guānghuà 3 (900) — six years before Zhū Wēn’s deposition of Āidì ended the Táng. After the dynasty’s fall he was unable to return north and entered the service of Liú Yǐn 劉隱 at Guǎngzhōu, finally serving under the Southern Hàn (Liú Yǎn). The work is composed in old age (c. 954) and is informed by the lifelong perspective of a Táng jìnshì who outlived his dynasty by nearly half a century. Per the Sìkù’s count the present text is in 103 mén (categories); Cháo Gōngwǔ counted 63 — perhaps an earlier abridged edition.

Tiyao

Your servants report: Táng zhāiyán in 15 juàn, by the Five-Dynasties Wáng Dìngbǎo. The old text does not give his place of origin; his preface calls Wáng Pǔ 王溥 his cóngwēng (grand-uncle by lineage), so he is of the Wáng [Pǔ] clan. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí says Dìngbǎo was son-in-law of Wú Róng 吳融; passed jìnshì of Guānghuà 3 (900); after the chaos went to Húnán. The Wǔdài shǐ Nán Hàn shìjiā records Dìngbǎo as the Yōngguǎn xúnguān who, prevented by chaos from returning, was appointed by Liú Yǐn to his secretariat; he was still living at the time of [Liú] Yǎn’s reign-titling. His end is not in detail recorded. From the year of his jìnshì it is only six years to Zhū Wēn’s seizure of the throne; and the preface calls Wáng Pǔ “Chief Minister” — so the work was completed after HòuZhōu Xiǎndé 1 (954), and bears the Táng guóhào in deliberate retrospect rather than as contemporary terminology. Dìngbǎo was born in Xiántōng gēngyín (870); by this date he was 85 years old. This is plainly a work of his last years. Around the same time the NánTáng xiānggòng shì Hé Huì 何晦 had also written a Táng zhāiyán in 15 juàn — the same title; Hé’s book has not been seen, while the WángDìngbǎo text cut by Shāng Jùn in the Bàihǎi is greatly abridged and seriously distorted. The present text is from the transcript of Sòng Bīnwáng of Sōngjiāng, end-collated with Wāng Shìhóng’s edition; particularly complete. Recently a Yángzhōu fresh print derives from this text. Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì says the work has 63 mén; the present has 103 — the discrepancy is too large to be a copyist’s error; perhaps Shāng Wéijùn’s predecessors already had an abridged form. The book gives yǒu Táng yīdài (the whole Tang dynasty) examination institutions in unusual detail, with much that the zhèngshǐ Yìwén zhì did not record; the various miscellaneous matters too are sufficient to observe the customs of the examination arena, to verify the rise and fall of shìxí, with law-and-warning conjoined — a permanent mirror. It is unlike other miscellaneous xiǎoshuō that merely record strange occurrences. From Dìngbǎo’s own remarks the source was what he heard from Lù Yí 陸扆, Wú Róng 吳融, Lǐ Wò 李渥, Yán Yáo 顏蕘, Wáng Pǔ 王溥, Wáng Huàn 王渙, Lú Yánràng 盧延讓, Yáng Zàntú 楊贊圖, Cuī Jíruò 崔籍若, and so on. Respectfully presented in the 5th month of Qiánlóng 43 [1778].

Abstract

The work’s documentary value is unique. It is the primary source for: (a) the jìnshì examination ritual — the bāngtóu “head of the list,” the yànjí banquet, the qǔjiāng feast, the visit to the Cíēn pagoda; (b) the social practice of xíngjuàn 行卷 (presenting writing to potential patrons); (c) the jìnshì corporation’s internal hierarchy and self-image; (d) examiner-examinee patronage practice (zuòzhǔ 座主 / ménshēng 門生); (e) the demoralisation and partial collapse of the late-Táng examination system in the Huáng Cháo era. Many of the most-cited Táng examination anecdotes — the Cuī Yán / Dù Mù matter, the Wáng Wéi / Princess intrigue, Liú Yǔxī’s ill-judged poem and consequent demotion, the YuánBái rivalry, and so on — derive primarily from this work.

Standard modern critical edition: Jiāng Hànchūn 姜漢椿 / Táng zhāiyán (Shànghǎi shèhuì kēxué, 2003); also Lǐ Bīngzé 李炳澤’s coll. (Xītài, 1957).

Translations and research

  • Tackett, Nicolas. 2014. The Destruction of the Medieval Chinese Aristocracy (HUP). Uses Táng zhāiyán extensively for late-Táng examination prosopography.
  • Twitchett, Denis. 1992. The Writing of Official History under the T’ang. CUP. Cites Táng zhāiyán on examination history.
  • Moore, Oliver. 2004. Rituals of Recruitment in Tang China: Reading an Annual Programme in the Collected Statements by Wang Dingbao (870–940). Brill. A monograph centred on Táng zhāiyán and its examination-rituals material, with translations of substantial passages.
  • Lǐ Bīng-zé 李炳澤, coll. 1957. Táng zhāiyán. Zhōnghuá.

Other points of interest

Moore’s Rituals of Recruitment (2004) is the only book-length European-language treatment and the most important modern study; for any reader serious about Táng examination culture it is the obligatory companion to the original.

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