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玉壺野史

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Text ID
KR3l0046
Date
1078–1085
Dynasty
北宋

Yùhú yěshǐ 玉壺野史

Wild History of the Jade Pot by 釋文瑩 (撰)

About the work

A ten-juàn compilation by 釋文瑩 Shì Wényíng 釋文瑩, composed in Yuánfēng (1078–85) after his KR3l0045 Xiāngshān yělù. “Yùhú” 玉壺 (“Jade Pot”) is the author’s reclusive retreat. The work is documentarily distinct from the Xiāngshān yělù: per the author’s own preface, he had “collected several thousand juàn of literary collections from the dynastic founding to Xīníng — the shéndàobēi, mùzhì, xíngzhuàng, shílù, zòuyì — and assembled their content into one work.” The Yùhú yěshǐ is therefore the systematic-documentary counterpart to the Xiāngshān yělù’s more oral-anecdotal mode. The work has circulated under variant titles (Yùhú qīnghuà 玉壺清話, Yùhú yěshǐ — the title in the present Sìkù recension); occasional excerpts under further sub-titles (Yùhú qīnghuà in Xuéhǎi lèibiān) represent later editorial improvisation.

Tiyao

Your servants report: Yùhú yěshǐ in 10 juàn, by the Sòng monk Wényíng. By Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì, Wényíng’s Xiāngshān yělù was composed in Xīníng; this work in Yuánfēng, after the Yělù. Front has the author’s preface saying: “I have collected several thousand juàn of literary collections from the founding to Xīníng — the shéndàobēi, mùzhì, xíngzhuàng, shílù, zòuyì — and assembled their content into one school of work.” Thus complementing and circulating alongside the Yělù. “Yùhú” is his reclusive place. Wénxiàn tōngkǎo records Wényíng Yùhú qīnghuà in 10 juàn; the various books cite the work mostly under the title Yùhú qīnghuà. This text uniquely uses yěshǐ; one suspects later-hand title-change. But the Yuán-era Nánxī shīhuà already cites it as Yùhú yěshǐ, so the practice is old. As for Cáo Róng’s Xuéhǎi lèibiān extracting the work’s poetry-talk passages under a separate title Yùhú qīnghuà — that is dùzhuàn wújī (fabrication without basis) and not what the ancients had. Zhōu Bìdà’s Èrlǎotáng shīhuà once objected to the work’s record of Wáng Yǔchēng errors; Zhào Yǔshí’s Bīntuì lù objected to its mistaking Liáng Gù’s brother for Liáng Gù’s son; Wáng Mào’s Yěkè cóngshū objected to its mistaking Páng Jí’s response to Rénzōng for Liáng Shì’s. Not without errors of report, but the bulk supports source-criticism.

Abstract

The work is the principal Northern-Sòng bǐjì drawing systematically on documentary genres (shéndàobēi funerary inscriptions, mùzhì tomb tablets, xíngzhuàng conduct-records, shílù veritable records, zòuyì memorials) rather than on oral tradition alone. Approximately 200 entries divided across 10 juàn. Topics include:

  • Sòng founding history (with the Xiāngshān yělù’s Tài-zōng-accession controversy backgrounded here through documentary-genre material);
  • Zhēnzōng and Rénzōng court biography of senior officials;
  • Qìnglì reform and Xīníng New Policies;
  • poetry-talk material (the shīhuà sub-collection extracted under the name Yùhú qīnghuà in the Xuéhǎi lèibiān);
  • Northern-Sòng Buddhist court patronage (the only part of Wényíng’s corpus that reveals his Buddhist identity).

The work has a complex title-history: contemporary citations mostly use Yùhú qīnghuà; the Sìkù recension uses Yùhú yěshǐ; the Yuán-era Nánxī shīhuà already used Yùhú yěshǐ. The Sòng-era qīnghuà title plausibly refers to the work’s distinctive prose register (the qīng “clear” tone of the documentary-genre extracts), with yěshǐ a later editorial label.

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. Standard critical edition.
  • Schmidt-Glintzer, Helwig. Die Identität der buddhistischen Schulen und die Kompilation buddhistischer Universalgeschichten in China. Steiner 1982. Cites Wén-yíng.
  • Egan, Ronald C. The Problem of Beauty (HUP 2006). Uses Yùhú yěshǐ on Northern-Sòng aesthetics.
  • No European-language translation has been located.

Other points of interest

The work’s editorial principle — drawing on documentary genres (tomb-inscriptions, conduct-records, etc.) rather than oral tradition — anticipates the jìzhuàntǐ (biographical-form) Sòng bǐjì that became dominant in the Southern Sòng (Sāncháo míngchén yánxíng lù etc.). Shì Wényíng is therefore a hinge figure in the methodological evolution of Sòng bǐjì.

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