Bózhái biān 泊宅編
Compilation from the Floating-House by 方勺 (撰)
About the work
A three-juàn anecdote-collection (originally 10 juàn per Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì; the 3-juàn version is a Míng Bàihǎi condensation) by 方勺 Fāng Sháo 方勺 (1066–1141; zì Rénshēng 仁聲, self-styled Bózhái wēng 泊宅翁). Native of Wùzhōu 婺州; under Yuányòu was recommended by Sū Shì from the Hángzhōu prefecture; later moved to the Xīxī district of Húzhōu (where Zhāng Zhìhé 張志和 had once moored his boat, named the Bózhái cūn “Floating-House Village”), whence Fāng’s hào. The work records Yuányòu — Zhènghé (1086–1117) court and country old report, with critical comment on Wáng Ānshí, Zhāng Shāngyīng, and (notably) the Yuèzhōu general Zōng Zé 宗澤 — Zōng was Fāng’s xiānglǐ (countryman) but had not yet risen to fame in the Huīzōng era, so Fāng criticised him as hào shā (love of killing), a judgment Sòng historians later treated as Fāng’s blind spot. The work contains substantial unique material on the Fāng Là 方臘 rebellion (1120–22), in which the Hāngzhōu commoner-rebel was Fāng Sháo’s distant clan-member.
Tiyao
Your servants report: Bózhái biān in 3 juàn, by the Sòng Fāng Sháo. Sháo zì Rénshēng, of Wùzhōu. In Yuányòu, Sū Shì governing Hángzhōu, in connection with the prefectural examination once recommended Sháo, who consequently became one of Sū’s disciples. Later he moved to Húzhōu’s Xīxī, the old mooring-place of Zhāng Zhìhé; later residents called it Bózhái cūn by Zhìhé’s “Fàn zhái fú jiā” expression; Sháo lived there and called himself Bózhái wēng. The Zhèjiāng tōngzhì cites Pān Liángguì as praising Sháo: “lofty in transcendent flight, his spirit and feeling free and clear, like a high gentleman of JìnSòng times, almost ending his days in seclusion”; yet in the book is a entry on the malarial conditions of Lóngnán and Ānyuǎn districts of Qiánzhōu, with the author noting it from his own experience as Guǎngōu chángpíng jìdiǎn visiting the district — so he was also an official in Jiāngyòu (Jiāngxī). The Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì records Bózhái biān in 10 juàn; the present text has 3 juàn — Míng Shāng Jùn’s Bàihǎi cut combining the original, with some omissions made at print-cutting time. Records Yuányòu through Zhènghé court and country old matter. Sháo being Sū Shì’s disciple is critical of Wáng Ānshí and Zhāng Shāngyīng. Zōng Zé was Sháo’s xiānglǐ (countryman), yet in Huīzōng time Zōng had not yet achieved his name (he was Jiànyán hero); Sháo therefore criticises him as hàoshā — judgment not entirely fair. Yet his yíwén yìshì (lost reports, missed matters) gathered are abundant; what kǎogǔzhě (antiquaries) cannot dismiss. The work has occasional fùzhù (notes), as the jiàoshòu wùjù Jiànbǎn kūn wéi jīn (Magistrate erring at the Jiàn-block “kūn read as jīn”) entry says “I do not wish to reveal his name” — but the line-note reads “Yáo Yòu, the shàngshū”…
Abstract
Fāng Sháo (CBDB id 29843; 1066–1141) was a low-ranking Sū-Shì-circle literatus turned recluse, whose composition window for the Bózhái biān (per the Yuányòu — Zhènghé span recorded) is c. 1110–1117. The work’s status as one of the principal Northern-Sòng sources for the Fāng Là rebellion of 1120 — a peasant uprising in Hāngzhōu that briefly threatened Northern-Sòng power before being crushed — rests on Fāng Sháo’s clan-membership in the rebel’s lineage and his consequent first-hand or near-first-hand information; entries on Fāng Là’s rise, recruitment, and defeat are preserved here. The work has therefore been heavily mined by historians of Sòng peasant rebellion (e.g., Kao Yu-kung’s Cambridge History of China contributions).
The work’s other distinctive contributions: detailed account of the jiàozǐ 教子 paper-money operation in Sìchuān (cross-reference KR3l0034 Dōngzhāi jìshì); account of malaria in Lóngnán and Ānyuǎn with the author’s guǎngōu chángpíng (Charitable Granary Inspector) tenure as authentication; shīhuà observations on the SūShì circle.
Standard modern edition: Xǔ Pèizǎo 許沛藻 / Yáng Lìyáng 楊立揚, eds. Bózhái biān (Zhōnghuá, 1983 TángSòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān) — with reconstruction of the Sòng 10-juàn form from Yǒnglè dàdiǎn.
Translations and research
- Kao, Yu-kung. 1962. A Study of the Fang La Rebellion. HJAS 24: 17–63. Major user of Bózhái biān.
- von Glahn, Richard. Fountain of Fortune (UCP 1996). Uses Bózhái biān on Sòng paper money.
- Egan, Ronald C. Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi (HUP 1994). Uses Bózhái biān on Sū Shì circle.
- No European-language translation has been located.
Other points of interest
Fāng Sháo’s clan-relation to Fāng Là — the would-be rebel-king of Wùzhōu — gives the work an unusual primary-source position on a peasant rebellion: Sòng historiography is generally written from the suppressing-officials’ standpoint, but Fāng Sháo’s perspective is that of an educated clan-member of the rebel side. Modern researchers (Kao Yu-kung, Hè Cìjūn) treat the work as the single most important primary source for the rebellion.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §63.
- https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=en&res=86919