湘山野錄

Xiāngshān yělù 湘山野錄

Wild Records from Xiang Mountain by 釋文瑩 (撰)

About the work

A three-juàn (also published as 3 + a xùlù 續錄 1 juàn) anecdote-collection by the literatus-monk 釋文瑩 Shì Wényíng 釋文瑩 (10th-c.; zì Dàowēn 道溫), a Buddhist monk of Qiántáng (modern Hángzhōu) who relocated to Jīngzhōu’s Jīnluánsì 金鑾寺 by the Xiāng River, whence the title. Composed in the Xīníng era (1068–1077). The work records Northern-Sòng court anecdote with literary and Buddhist colour; like its companion KR3l0046 Yùhú yěshǐ 玉壺野史, it draws on the formal documentary literature (shéndàobēi, mùzhì, xíngzhuàng, shílù, zòuyì) collected from the early Sòng to Xīníng. Approximately 60 entries divided across 3 juàn; the xùlù contains the controversial entry on the Tàizōng accession (the “Chìshǔ tóng” 燭斧聲 ear-of-axe-and-candle anecdote) that became the focus of later Sòngshǐ debate.

Tiyao

Your servants report: Xiāngshān yělù in 3 juàn, by the Sòng monk Wényíng. Wényíng zì Dàowēn, of Qiántáng. The Wénxiàn tōngkǎo cites Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì as giving him as a Wú monk — examining Dúshū zhì no graph “Wú” appears; Tōngkǎo errs. The book was composed in Xīníng, records much Northern-Sòng miscellaneous matter; since composed at the Jīnluánsì in Jīngzhōu, hence titled Xiāngshān. Dúshū zhì says 4 juàn; Tōngkǎo makes the xùlù also 3 juàn — both disagree with the present; uncertain which is correct. Lì È’s Sòng shī jìshì claims Wényíng knew Sū Shùnqīn and tried to introduce him to Ōuyáng Xiū, but Wényíng declined; yet in the present text the Ōuyánggōng zhé Chúzhōu (Ōuyáng’s demotion to Chúzhōu) entry says “I took Sū Zǐměi’s letter and called on him, and on returning to Wú I was sent off…” — directly contrary to Lì È’s report; Lì must be drawing on different sources without checking this work. The xùlù’s Tài-zōng-accession entry was incorporated by Lǐ Tāo into the Chángbiān, opening a millennium of debate; Chéng Mǐnzhèng’s Sòng jì shòuzhōng kǎo sharply attacks it. But examining the entry’s start and finish there is no overt accusation of nìjié (treasonous succession) — later readers have misconstrued the language and grown suspicious; this is not the author’s original intent and should not be held against the book. Wú Kāi’s Yōugǔtáng shīhuà objects to the work’s attribution of Yáng Xúnbó’s “jìrén rùdào shī” (girl-singer entering the Way) poem to Chén Péngnián’s sending-off-the-Princess-Shēn-guó-becoming-nun poem. Zhū Yì’s Yījuéliáo zájì objects to the work’s qínqǔ Hèruò entry mistaking Hèruò Yí for Hèruò Bì. The work has minor errors, but the overall jīngshén (substance) holds.

Abstract

Shì Wényíng (CBDB id 34797; no firm lifedates) was the most prolific literatus-monk of the Xīníng era and one of the few Sòng Buddhist clergy whose secular anecdote-collections entered the Sìkù mainstream. His two principal works are Xiāngshān yělù (Xīníng, c. 1068–77) and Yùhú yěshǐ KR3l0046 (Yuánfēng, c. 1078–85). The works are complementary: Xiāngshān yělù draws more on oral tradition and contemporary observation; Yùhú yěshǐ draws more systematically on the documentary literature gathered from the early Sòng to Xīníng (Wényíng’s own preface: “I have collected some thousands of juàn of literary collections from the dynastic founding to Xīníng — the shéndàobēi, mùzhì, xíngzhuàng, shílù, zòuyì — and assembled their content into one school of work”).

The single most-discussed entry from the Xiāngshān yělù is the xùlù’s account of Tàizōng’s accession (“chìshǔ tóng” — the axe-tapping-candle anecdote suggesting fratricide), which Lǐ Tāo took into his Xù Zīzhì tōngjiàn chángbiān and which became one of the most consequential interpretive controversies in Sòng historiography. Modern scholarship (Hè Cìjūn 何次君, SòngLiáoJīn shǐ lùnjí) has continued the debate; the Sìkù compilers’ reading — that the language is ambiguous and not necessarily an accusation — is one of the more nuanced positions.

Standard modern edition: Zhèng Shìgāng 鄭世剛 / Yáng Lìyáng 楊立揚, eds. Xiāngshān yělù; Yùhú yěshǐ (Zhōnghuá, 1984 TángSòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān).

Translations and research

• Zhèng Shì-gāng / Yáng Lì-yáng, eds. 1984. Xiāngshān yělù; Yùhú yěshǐ. Zhōnghuá.
• Schmidt-Glintzer, Helwig. Die Identität der buddhistischen Schulen und die Kompilation buddhistischer Universalgeschichten in China. Steiner 1982. Cites Wén-yíng on Northern-Sòng Buddhist-secular interface.
• Hartman, Charles. The Making of a Confucian Hero (CUP 2021). Engages with the Tài-zōng accession controversy.
• No European-language translation has been located.

Other points of interest

The xùlù Tài-zōng-accession entry is the foundational source for the Sòng fratricide debate and is alone responsible for the work’s enduring historiographic profile. The Sìkù compilers’ attempt to defuse the controversy — arguing that the language is ambiguous — has not stilled the modern debate.

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §63.
• https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=en&res=86753