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涑水記聞

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Text ID
KR3l0030
Date
1070–1086
Dynasty
北宋

Sùshuǐ jìwén 涑水記聞

Sushui’s [Sima Guang’s] Records of Things Heard by 司馬光 (撰)

About the work

A sixteen-juàn (with a one-juàn bǔyí 補遺 appendix) collection of court anecdote and political memoirs by the great Northern-Sòng statesman and historian 司馬光 Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光 (1019–1086), compiled in his retirement at Luòyáng during the Xīníng — Yuánfēng era (1071–1086) while he was simultaneously assembling the Zīzhì tōngjiàn. The “Sùshuǐ” of the title is the stream that ran by his ancestral home in Xiàxiàn 夏縣 (Shǎnzhōu, modern Shānxī), and the name was also one of his hào. The work is the principal bǐjì source for Sòng court politics from Tàizǔ through Shénzōng, with especially detailed coverage of the Qìnglì, Jiāyòu, Zhìpíng and early Xīníng periods. The work was incomplete at Sīmǎ Guāng’s death and circulated in various reorganised forms from the late Northern Sòng onward.

Tiyao

Your servants report: Sùshuǐ jìwén in 16 juàn, by the Sòng Sīmǎ Guāng. Guāng’s biography is in the Sòng shǐ. The book records the matters of court ritual and ministerial conduct from the early Sòng to Shénzōng. … At the time of Yuánfēng the work was already in unsettled form, and its content excited annoyance — Lǚ Wénjìng [Lǚ Yíjiǎn]‘s descendants found several entries on Lǚ Yíjiǎn objectionable and lobbied against the book. Wénjìng’s heirs disputed the authenticity, claiming the book was not Guāng’s complete work; Guāng’s great-grandson Lǚshìláng Sīmǎ Jí 司馬伋 added his weight on their side, submitting a memorial requesting the woodblocks be destroyed. Those acquainted with the matter mocked the suppression — the gōnglùn (public discourse) could not be denied by mere private grievance. The Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì records the work in 30 juàn; Shūlù jiětí in 10 juàn. We have at present three transmitted versions, the text differing only minutely but the juàn divisions varying: one in 10 juàn agreeing with Chén Zhènsūn’s record; one in 2 juàn (compiler unknown); one in 16 juàn plus a bǔyí 1 juàn. The 16-juàn version has duplicated entries from juàn 9 to juàn 13 — failures of editorial pruning. The work was incomplete at Guāng’s death and circulated in unfinished form; transmitting copyists arranged it ad libitum, so from the Sòng onward the juàn count is variable. We have now collated and reorganised: where one event is given with differing detail and the differences can mutually support, we have kept both; where the same entry repeats with no useful difference, we have cut. The bǔyí of 1 juàn — some suspect this is Lǐ Tāo’s referenced “Sīmǎ Guāng rìjì”; the Shūlù jiětí lists “Wēngōng rìjì” in 1 juàn, on Guāng’s Xīníng court service, recording court politics, ministerial moves, court-audiences and imperial pronouncements, from Xīníng 1 first month to Xīníng 3 tenth month when he left for Yǒngxìng. The present bǔyí records Xīníng matter, but contains no audience-and-pronouncement, and extends to Xīníng 10 (1077) — clearly not the rìjì. We incorporate it into the present book for a total of 16 juàn; the juàn count differs from old editions but Guāng’s text is not modified. Respectfully presented in the 8th month of Qiánlóng 46 [1781].

Abstract

The Sùshuǐ jìwén is one of the most important Northern-Sòng bǐjì. Its content includes:

  • Coverage of every major political event from the Tàizǔ founding through Shénzōng (Sīmǎ Guāng’s own lifetime); for many Rénzōng-era events Sīmǎ’s testimony — based on first-hand contact with the senior officials of the previous generation — is the principal source.
  • Detailed treatment of the Qìnglì xīnzhèng (Fàn Zhòngyān reform) and especially of the Xīníng New Policies controversy, with Sīmǎ’s Yuányòu-faction perspective on Wáng Ānshí 王安石 made fully explicit.
  • A substantial body of personal-political memoir: Sīmǎ’s reconstruction of his own conduct in opposition to Wáng Ānshí, of his relations with Lǚ Yíjiǎn 呂夷簡’s heirs (the source of the post-1086 suppression controversy), and of his Hánlín / Yùshǐtái tenure.
  • Cross-referencing with Tōngjiàn kǎoyì: many Sùshuǐ jìwén entries are also documented sources for the Tōngjiàn’s mid-Sòng coverage.

Standard modern critical edition: Dèng Guǎngmíng 鄧廣銘 / Zhāng Xīqìng 張希清, eds. Sùshuǐ jìwén (Zhōnghuá 1989; TángSòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān). This edition reconciles the principal Sòng witnesses.

Translations and research

  • Dèng Guǎng-míng 鄧廣銘 / Zhāng Xī-qìng 張希清, eds. 1989. Sù-shuǐ jì-wén. Zhōnghuá.
  • Bol, Peter K. “This Culture of Ours”. SUP 1992. Cites Sù-shuǐ jì-wén extensively for Rén-zōng-era political and intellectual history.
  • Smith, Paul Jakov. 2009. “Shen-tsung’s Reign and the New Policies,” in Cambridge History of China, vol. 5. Uses the work for anti-reform documentation.
  • Levine, Ari Daniel. 2008. Divided by a Common Language. UHP. Major user of Sù-shuǐ jì-wén on faction-discourse.
  • Hartman, Charles. The Making of a Confucian Hero (2021) — major engagement with Sī-mǎ’s anecdotal historiography.
  • No complete European-language translation has been located; numerous selective translations of individual entries.

Other points of interest

The Lǚ-clan suppression effort following Sīmǎ Guāng’s death — Lǚ Yíjiǎn’s descendants seeking to destroy the woodblocks because of Sīmǎ’s unflattering portrayal of their ancestor — is one of the best-documented Sòng examples of a family seeking to control posthumous reputation through book-suppression, and is itself an entry-point for studying Sòng family politics and the public-private boundary of bǐjì writing.

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