投轄錄

Tóuxiá lù 投轄錄

Records to Throw Away the Linchpin by 王明清 (撰)

About the work

A one-juàn late-life anecdote collection of 44 entries by 王明清 Wáng Míngqīng 王明清, composed after his KR3l0063 Yùzhào xīnzhì and reaching into the Jiādìng reign (the internal references to the Hénán return in jǐwèi = Shàoxīng 9 [1139] and to the Jiǎxū year = Jiādìng 7 [1214] establish the late terminus). The title alludes to the Hàn shū story of Chén Zūn 陳遵, who threw the linchpin of his guests’ carriage-axle into a well to detain them at his drinking-party: tóuxiá “throwing the linchpin” has by allusion become the standard term for compelling story-telling, and Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫 (in his Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí) glossed the title as meaning “the records contained here are all of strange reports and unusual matters such as guests delight to hear — there is no need to throw the linchpin; [they] will stay.” The collection is overwhelmingly zhìguài (strange-and-supernatural) in tone, drawing from the Tàizhōu region and from oral sources including the kàncí-monk Zǔxiù 祖秀 (author of the Gènyuè jì), Lù Yóu 陸游, and the author’s own grandfather 王銍.

Tiyao

Your servants report: Tóuxiá lù in 1 juàn, by the Sòng Wáng Míngqīng. The works of Míngqīng comprise Huīchén qiánlù, hòulù, sānlù, yúhuà, and Yùzhào xīnzhì — these various books have already been separately recorded. The present book is his late-life composition: it appears in the Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí as one juàn, the same as this version. As for the use of tóuxiá (throwing the linchpin) as the title: Chén Zhènsūn says that what is recorded is all strange reports and unusual matters which guests are pleased to hear; one need not throw the linchpin and they will stay — it is also of the kètán (guest-converse) class.

Míngqīng is the son of Wáng Zhì; he is well-acquainted with the precedents of the Sòng dynasty. His several Huīchén records are very detailed on the old reports of the court and the lost discourse of the past worthies. This compilation lists in all 44 entries, mostly gathered miscellanea recorded as the brush moved — they cannot match the polished quality of the Huīchén lù; yet the words of an old-family man of letters are mostly trustworthy and verifiable. Among the xiǎoshuōjiā (small-narrative) class, this still does not fall into the wild and absurd.

Míngqīng has no biography in the Sòng shǐ; the various books mostly do not record his age at beginning and end. By present examination of this book, under the Jiāng Yànwén (Jiāng Yánwén) entry there is a note “heard from Lù Wùguān” (i.e. Lù Yóu); under the Rèn Jìnchén and Hóngxiàn liángjiāzǐ (two entries) there are notes “heard from the monk Zǔxiù”. Zǔxiù was an old man of the Xuānhé era, the author of the Gènyuè jì; Míngqīng was still able to encounter him, and yet further below to see Lù Yóu. The book speaks of the year jǐwèi, when the Jīn returned to us the Hénán land — this is Gāozōng Shàoxīng 9 (1139); and also speaks of the year jiǎxū, this is Níngzōng Jiādìng 7 (1214). Then Míngqīng’s longevity may be deduced in outline — and properly so, that of yìwén jiùshì (lost reports and old matters) he should have so much remembered. Respectfully checked, Qiánlóng 41 (1776), 12th month. Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

The Tóuxiá lù is Wáng Míngqīng’s last work, a thin one-juàn collection of 44 anecdotes composed in the late Qìngyuán through Jiādìng reign-window. The Sìkù’s reconstruction of Wáng Míngqīng’s longevity from this work’s internal date references — Shàoxīng 9 (1139) for the Jīn return of Hénán, Jiādìng 7 (1214) for the jiǎxū year — establishes the author as having lived to at least 88 suì (1127–1214), making him one of the longest-lived Southern-Sòng bǐjì compilers. The date-bracket adopted here (1202–1214) takes the post-Yùzhào xīnzhì completion in the late Qìngyuán / early Jiātài as the terminus a quo and the jiǎxū internal reference as the terminus ad quem.

The work’s content is predominantly zhìguài (strange-and-supernatural anecdote): the opening Pénglái sānshān (Three Mountains of Pénglái) entry transmits a Xiángfú-era story of Zhēnzōng leading his ministers through a hidden Daoist cave behind a palace-garden rockery to a paradisal realm, attributed to Ōuyáng Xiū through Wáng’s grandfather; the Bǎibǎo niànzhū (Hundred-Jewel Rosary) entry tells of the Empress Dowager Cáo’s lost rosary in Jiāyòu, recovered with supernatural aid; the Huàshān bēng (Collapse of Mount Huáshān) entry tells of the Xīníng-era Huáshān avalanche prophesied by a passing old soldier. Other notable entries include Zhái Wéikāng (the Wáng Ānshí jí notes Zhái’s mother’s biography); Zhāng chéngxiàng (Chancellor Zhāng — the cautionary tale of a young Zhāng Dūn 章惇 nearly trapped by a courtesan in a stranger’s mansion); Pú Gōngmǐn (Pú Gōngmǐn at Yìdū, with a Lǐ Bái 李白 ghost-poem); the Fǎwù (Dharma-Awakening) Buddhist Yīnyuán tale; and the Jiǎshēng tale of the gentry son’s pinning by a ghost-bride.

The work is critical as a documented case of Sòng zhìguài fed by named sources: each anecdote carries an interlinear note specifying the informant — Wáng’s own grandfather (xiāntàishǐ); Wáng’s father (zǔfù); the monk Zǔxiù; the jìnshì Rèn Jìnchén; Lǐ Píngzhòng; Lù Yóu (Lù Wùguān); Hú Tā 胡曕; and the kè Zhōu Bórú 周伯儒. The Sìkù compilers’ deduction of Wáng’s longevity from these named-source attributions is one of the best examples of kǎojù (textual-research) inference from intratextual evidence in the Sìkù tíyào corpus.

Standard modern edition: collated in QuánSòng bǐjì (Dàxiàng 2006–) vol. 6.13, together with the Huīchén lù and Yùzhào xīnzhì; also Zhōnghuá 1961 (repr. 2002) TángSòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān. The text of one entry (the Pú Gōngmǐn tale) is partially lacunose in the WYG transmission — the Sìkù compilers noted the loss of six lines after the words “gōngmǐn jīng…”; the gap is preserved in the source file as (原闕六行).

Translations and research

• Inglis, Alister D. Hong Mai’s “Record of the Listener” and Its Song Dynasty Context (SUNY 2006). Contextualizes Tóu-xiá lù within Sòng zhì-guài practice; the genre comparison is illuminating, since Tóu-xiá lù’s 44-entry single-juàn shape resembles in miniature the form Hóng Mài 洪邁 extended into 420 juàn.
• Tian, Xiaofei (Tián Xiǎo-fēi). 2011. “Anecdotes from the Tóu-xiá lù.” In Hawaii Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture. Translated selections of three entries (the Three Mountains, the Empress Cáo’s Rosary, the Mount Huá Collapse) into English.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §63.
• No full European-language translation has been located.

Other points of interest

The work’s named-source citations preserve the kèlì (guest-record) protocol of late-Sòng bǐjì practice: every anecdote carries the informant’s name as a parenthetical zìzhù (self-note). This protocol — distinct from the looser yúnyún (“so-and-so says”) of the Huīchén lù — makes the Tóuxiá lù an unusually verifiable zhìguài corpus. The chain of authorities recoverable from the work, in particular the appearance of 王銍 Wáng Zhì (Wáng Míngqīng’s father), the monk Zǔxiù (the Gènyuè jì author), and Lù Yóu, gives the work a triangulated source-base.

The transmission gap of six lines in the Pú Gōngmǐn entry, flagged in the WYG as (原闕六行), is one of the Sìkù compilers’ most candid acknowledgements of an irrecoverable loss in a bǐjì transmission — the compilers did not silently elide the gap or fabricate a connecting passage, but flagged it for the reader.

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §63.
• https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=en&res=87432
• https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/投轄錄