聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

耆舊續聞

6 min read

Text ID
KR3l0074
Date
1205–1220
Dynasty
南宋

Qíjiù xùwén 耆舊續聞

Continued Reports of the Elders by 陳鵠 (錄正/撰)

About the work

A ten-juàn Southern-Sòng bǐjì combining shīhuà (poetry-talk) and literary anecdote, compiled by 陳鵠 Chén Hú 陳鵠 (hào Xītáng 西塘) of Nányáng 南陽. The title’s xù “continued” frames the work as a sequel/supplement — most likely to Wáng Zhì 王銍’s now-lost Qíjiù xùwén tradition (and stands in the larger Yuányòu memorial-anecdote stream that also generated KR3l0049 Bózhái biān and adjacent compilations). The book preserves anecdotes, conversations, and shīhuà on the Yuányòu generation — Sū Shì 蘇軾, Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅, Chén Shīdào 陳師道, Qín Guān 秦觀, Zhāng Lěi 張耒, Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修, and the early Jiāngxī shīpài 江西詩派 — together with material gathered after the southward crossing on Lù Yóu 陸游, Xīn Qìjí 辛棄疾, and other late-twelfth-century figures.

Tiyao

Your servants report: Qíjiù xùwén in 10 juàn. The original copy is inscribed “Recorded and corrected by Chén Hú of Nányáng” (Nányáng Chén Hú lùzhèng 南陽陳鵠錄正), and another copy “Composed by Chén Hú of Xītáng” (Chén Hú Xītáng zhuàn 陳鵠西塘撰) — thus a Nányáng native styled Xītáng; his period, official rank, and native locale are no longer recoverable. The book contains entries on Lù Yóu, Xīn Qìjí, and others’ surviving anecdotes, and the author himself records that he once travelled with Lù Zǐyì 陸子逸, zhīzhōu of Chénzhōu 辰州 — therefore he is a person of Kāixǐ (1205–1207) and after.

What is recorded ranges from old Biànjīng 汴京 affairs down to fine words and beautiful conduct of famous men after the southern crossing — gathered in considerable abundance. Occasionally, beneath an entry, the source-book’s title and the speaker’s name and zì are noted by interlinear gloss — for the book is also a miscellaneous gathering from various shuōbù (anecdote collections) and from the conversations of eminent literati. Among them, several entries on a discussion of xué (learning) with the maternal cousin Zhào Chéngguó 趙承國 in Zhènghé 3 (1113) are in fact drawn from Lǚ Hǎowèn’s 呂好問 hand-letters and inserted among the entries — making them rather indistinguishable from the others. He also calls Zhū Yì 朱翌 “Dàizhì gōng” 待制公 and Lù Zhěn 陸軫 “Tàifù gōng” 太傅公 — directly transcribing the address-style of those families’ transmitted records without going back to correct it. These are points where the editorial principle is not fully refined.

Nevertheless, in the post-Nándù (post-1127) period the old families’ surviving elders and documents were still preserved; therefore what Chén Hú heard and saw is mostly of the Yuányòu worthies’ marginal discourses. Concerning the cardinal principles (zōngzhǐ) of poetry and prose, his fragmentary remarks often catch the essential point — sufficient to enlighten the later student. Again, as in his refutation of the Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà 苕溪漁隱叢話’s criticism of Sū Shì’s Bǔsuànzǐ lyric — finding it without foundation; and his citation of Sòng Qí 宋祁’s memorial in pointing out the error in Ōuyáng Xiū’s epitaph for Xuē Gōngzhèng 薛恭政 — both are genuinely kǎojù (evidentially grounded) work, not mere parroting (chāoshuō). Although among the miscellaneous talk and trivial speech there are passages tending to verbose disorder and lack of proper categorization, the passages worth gathering are also not few. It is indeed a resource for those who would discuss the literary arts. Qiánlóng 44 (1779), 3rd 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

The Sìkù compilers’ inference that Chén Hú lived “after Kāixǐ” (1205–1207) rests on his record of personal travel with Lù Zǐyì 陸子逸 (Lù Yóu’s nephew) as zhīzhōu of Chénzhōu 辰州 — an appointment datable to the Kāixǐ — Jiādìng period — and on the work’s notice of Lù Yóu (d. 1210) and Xīn Qìjí (d. 1207). The catalog meta’s fl. 1184 reflects the alternative dating tied to the only firmly internal-dated entry (Chúnxī 11 = 1184 in a couple of anecdotes); the Sìkù’s post-Kāixǐ terminus is the safer ceiling for composition. The composition window 1205–1220 adopted here brackets the post-Kāixǐ terminus with the early Jiādìng horizon.

Chén Hú’s literary position is solidly within the SūShì circle and the early Jiāngxī shīpài: the work defends Sū Shì’s Bǔsuànzǐ 卜算子 lyric against Hú Zǐ’s 胡仔 Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà 苕溪漁隱叢話, transmits Huáng Tíngjiān, Chén Shīdào, Qín Guān, Zhāng Lěi and Ōuyáng Xiū anecdotes, and preserves yántán (conversation) from the post-Nándù survivors of the Yuányòu generation. The Sìkù’s frank acknowledgement of the editorial shortcomings (the insertion of Lǚ Hǎowèn’s letter material under the Zhènghé 3 cousin-dialogue; the unrevised honorific addresses) marks the work as a transcriptional compilation rather than a polished authorial composition — useful precisely because its sources are not fully digested.

Two pieces of kǎojù are singled out by the Sìkù as the work’s distinct contribution to Sòng literary scholarship: (1) the refutation of Hú Zǐ’s Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà on Sū Shì’s Bǔsuànzǐ (a lyric whose authorship and reading were contested already in the Southern Sòng); (2) the demonstration, citing Sòng Qí, that Ōuyáng Xiū erred in the Xuē Gōngzhèng epitaph — a correction of a famous Liùyī prose piece that subsequent SòngYuán anthologies accepted.

Standard modern edition: Kǒng Fánlǐ 孔凡禮, coll., Qíjiù xùwén (Zhōnghuá 2002, TángSòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān 唐宋史料筆記叢刊 series, in one volume bundled with KR3l0073 Qíjiù xùwén relatives), with reconstruction of the work’s relation to Wáng Zhì’s earlier Mòjì 默記 / Qíjiù xùwén tradition.

Translations and research

  • Yoshikawa, Kōjirō 吉川幸次郎. Sōshi gaisetsu 宋詩概説 (Tōkyō: Iwanami 1962). Cites Qíjiù xùwén for Sū-Shì-circle and Jiāng-xī-pài shī-huà.
  • Egan, Ronald C. Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi (HUP 1994). Uses Qíjiù xùwén on the Bǔsuàn-zǐ lyric controversy and on Sū Shì circle anecdote.
  • Fuller, Michael A. Drifting among Rivers and Lakes: Southern Song Dynasty Poetry and the Problem of Literary History (Harvard Asia Center 2013). Cites Qíjiù xùwén as a Southern-Sòng witness to the Yuán-yòu poetic inheritance.
  • Zhāng Hǎi-míng 張海鳴. “Qíjiù xùwén shī-xué sī-xiǎng yán-jiū” 耆舊續聞詩學思想研究 (M.A. thesis, various PRC universities, several iterations 2008–2017).
  • No European-language translation has been located.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù tíyào’s frank flagging of the work’s editorial inconsistencies — Chén Hú’s insertion of Lǚ Hǎowèn letter material under an apparent first-person dialogue frame, and his unedited preservation of family-honorific titles (Zhū Yì as Dàizhì gōng, Lù Zhěn as Tàifù gōng) — provides a methodological caution for using the work as primary evidence on early-twelfth-century events: anecdotes attributed in the text to direct conversation may in fact derive from earlier documentary or family-record sources, and require independent corroboration before being treated as eyewitness testimony.

Graph View

Backlinks