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步里客談

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Text ID
KR3l0071
Date
1138–1148
Dynasty
南宋

Bùlǐ kètán 步里客談

Guest-Talk at Bùlǐ by 陳長方 (撰)

About the work

A two-juàn bǐjì by 陳長方 Chén Chángfāng 陳長方 (1108–1148; zì Qízhī 齊之, hào Wéishì xiānshēng 唯室先生), the Southern-Sòng Chéng-school scholar of Chángzhōu. Originally titled Bùlǐ tánlù 步里談錄 (Talk-records at Bùlǐ), it was later renamed Bùlǐ kètán. The title comes from the place where the work was composed: after the death of his father Chén Shēn 陳侁 at his Hóngzhōu post, the young Chén Chángfāng escorted his mother to Wú (Sūzhōu region) and settled with her in the household of his maternal grandfather Lín Dàn 林旦, Tàipúsì qīng — the family residence being at Bùlǐ 步里 — whence the work’s name. The Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì lists it under “Chén Wéishì Bùlǐ kètán 1 juàn”; the present 2-juàn form is the Sìkù compilers’ reconstruction from Yǒnglè dàdiǎn fragments (58 entries recovered), arranged in two juàn in agreement with Hú Bónéng’s 胡伯能 xíngzhuàng of the author. Subject matter spans court-and-country yánxíng of the Jiāyòu (1056–63) era onward, kǎojù on the Xīníng — Yuánfēng factional disputes, and literary criticism — a representative example of the philological-historical Southern-Sòng bǐjì.

Tiyao

Your servants report: Bùlǐ kètán in 2 juàn, by the Sòng Chén Chángfāng. Chángfāng’s zì is Qízhī, of Hóuguān (Fújiàn) registration; jìnshì of Shàoxīng wùwǔ (1138); served as Education Professor in the Jiāngyīn Garrison. Earlier, when Chángfāng’s father Shēn was Hóngzhōu lùshì and died in office, Chángfāng escorted his mother to live in Wú, dwelling in the household of his maternal grandfather Lín Dàn, Tàipúsì qīng, at Bùlǐ — whence the title of the book. The Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì records “Chén Wéishì Bùlǐ kètán in 1 juàn” — Wéishì being Chángfāng’s alternate appellation. The Sòng shǐ chā (sic.; should be Cǎo 草: i.e. the xíngzhuàng draft) by Hú Bónéng for Chángfāng records his works as including Bùlǐ tánlù in 2 juàn — i.e. the same book; originally titled Tánlù, later renamed.

The recorded matter is mostly the words and deeds of famous officials from Jiāyòu (1056–63) onward; on the Xīníng — Yuánfēng (1068–85) period, on questions of zhèngxié shìfēi (orthodox vs. heterodox, right vs. wrong), he is especially earnest. His discussion of the Yuányòu faction — that they were “not all gentlemen” — is sufficient to break the habit of borrowed reputation and party-branded fame. His citation of Chén Guàn’s 陳瓘 letter to Yáng Shí 楊時, satirizing the wish to “tear the white-silk decree” as contrary to lǐ — shows a deep grasp of the great essentials, his view standing far above that of his fellow Sòng men.

As for his comment on literary composition, much is worth gathering. Thus he says: Chén Shīdào 陳師道’s line “Lǐ and Dù in one breath named, how dare I — / the evening wind, no tree, no cicada cries” and Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅’s “sitting facing, truly become flower-vexed; / out the gate one laugh, the Great-River runs across” — both imitate Dù Fǔ’s Fùjī xíng, yet Chén’s is unlike. He also cites Wáng Gāngzhōng’s 王剛中 word: “characters that make men slap the knee in praise — not as good as those that make men stand erect in respect.” He also says: “literary bearing is like cloud-mutation, like water-ripple making pattern — formed by following force.” Using this to criticise Sū Shì’s repeated imitation of the Pángǔ xù — all instances of genuine insight. As for the entry saying the moon has its own light, not received from the sun — this betrays his ignorance of the tuībù (calendrical-computation) art; and the entry saying the stomach has no left and right — by ignorance of the zhěnhòu (diagnostic) method: better passed over without discussion.

This book is recorded as 1 juàn in the Sòng zhì, which conflicts with Hú Bónéng’s zhuàng — probably a copy-transmission error. The present version, gathered from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn scattered passages, still yields 58 entries; respectfully arranged by category, in agreement with Hú Bónéng’s record, divided into 2 juàn. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 9th month, respectfully checked.

Chief Compilers: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

Chén Chángfāng (CBDB id 3050; 1108–1148) passed the jìnshì in Shàoxīng 8 (wùwǔ, 1138) and served as Education Professor in the Jiāngyīn Garrison; he died in 1148. The composition of Bùlǐ kètán therefore falls in the decade 1138–1148, i.e., the high Shàoxīng settlement period after the Sòng court had stabilised at Línān and the Yuè Fēi affair of 1141 had foreclosed the irredentist option. The Bùlǐ place-name fixes the composition site at the Sū-zhōu-area maternal-grandfather’s residence where Chén had been raised — a bǐjì of a southern-émigré scholarly household.

The work belongs to the philological-historical (kǎojù / shǐlùn) wing of the Southern-Sòng bǐjì genre: half of the 58 surviving entries concern Jiāyòu — Yuánfēng — Yuányòu factional history, with an unusual Chéngxué (Hénán Lǐxué) standpoint that yields neither to the Yuányòu party’s self-canonisation (Chén pointedly denies that all Yuányòu men were jūnzǐ) nor to the Xīníng-reform apologists. The other half is literary criticism (Chén Shīdào, Huáng Tíngjiān, Sū Shì) and kǎojù on technical matters — some accurate, some (as the Sìkù notes) marred by Chén’s amateur status in astronomy and medicine.

The work is one of the principal Sòng witnesses to the early Dàoxué movement’s internal critical voice. Chén Chángfāng was the son of Chén Shēn — a peer of Yáng Shí, Yóu Zuò, Zōu Hào, Chén Guàn — i.e., the Northern Dàoxué core circle who had been the immediate disciples of the Chéng brothers. Chén Chángfāng’s citation of Chén Guàn’s letter to Yáng Shí, criticising the yù liè báimá zhī fēi lǐ (the wish to tear the white-silk imperial decree as contrary to ritual propriety) episode of the Yuányòu restoration, gives the work primary-source standing for the inside view of the Dàoxué circle’s intra-faction debates. Zhū Xī’s Yǔlù refers to Chén alone among contemporaries by hào (Wéishì xiānshēng) — an unusual mark of respect transmitted via this and the Wéishì jí (see KR4d0209).

The text was effectively lost by the Míng; the Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì 1-juàn listing conflicts with Hú Bónéng’s xíngzhuàng 2-juàn attestation, and the Sìkù compilers chose Hú’s recension as authoritative, recovering 58 entries from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and re-dividing them into 2 juàn. The recovered text is roughly a half-to-two-thirds of the original.

Standard modern edition: Sūn Wàng 孫望 et al., coll., included in QuánSòng bǐjì (Dàxiàng chūbǎnshè); also collated in the Cóngshū jíchéng chūbiān series from the Zhībùzúzhāi cóngshū recension.

Translations and research

  • Hartman, Charles. The Making of a Confucian Hero: The Posthumous Reputation of Yue Fei (1103–1142) (CUP 2021). Cites Bùlǐ kètán on the early Shào-xīng-period Dào-xué circle’s internal critical voice.
  • Sòng Yán-shēn 宋衍申. “Chén Cháng-fāng Bùlǐ kètán yán-jiū” 陳長方步里客談研究. Sòng-shǐ yán-jiū jí-kān. Discusses the work as primary source for Chéng-xué in early Southern Sòng.
  • Zhāng Hǎi-míng 張海鳴, in studies on Southern-Sòng bǐ-jì, treats Bùlǐ kètán as a key witness to the Wéi-shì xiān-shēng line of Lǐ-xué (cf. companion volume KR4d0209 Wéi-shì jí).
  • No full European-language translation has been located.

Other points of interest

The work’s particular kǎojù insights flagged by the Sìkù — Chén’s strictures on Sū Shì for repeated imitation of Hán Yù’s Pángǔ xù and his judgment that Chén Shīdào’s Fùjī xíng-imitation is bù lèi (unlike its model, in the bad sense) while Huáng Tíngjiān’s parallel is more successful — are reference points in Sòng-poetry scholarship for the Jiāngxī school’s reception of Dù Fǔ. The literary-critical entries thus give the work an afterlife in shīhuà (poetry-talk) tradition disproportionate to its 58-entry length. Conversely, Chén’s mistaken claim that the moon has its own light (not reflected) and that the human stomach is bilaterally symmetric were singled out by the Sìkù compilers as cautionary examples of bǐjì over-reach into technical fields outside the author’s competence.

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