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博異記

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Text ID
KR3l0105
Date
826–850
Dynasty
唐

Bóyì jì 博異記

Records of Wide-Ranging Marvels by 谷神子 (撰)

About the work

A one-juàn late-Táng zhìguài / chuánqí anthology of ten (in the Sìkù recension) supernatural tales, transmitted under the Daoist pseudonym Gǔshénzǐ 谷神子 (“Master of the Valley-Spirit”, drawing on Lǎozǐ ch. 6: gǔ shén bù sǐ 谷神不死). The author’s true identity has been debated since the Sòng: the late-Míng bibliophile Hú Yìnglín 胡應麟 in his Èryǒu zhuìyí 二酉綴遺 identified Gǔshénzǐ with the late-Táng poet Zhèng Huángǔ 鄭還古, who wrote a biography of the alchemist Yīn Qīqī 殷七七 in the same style and period; the Sìkù compilers themselves, while citing Hú’s identification approvingly, also note an earlier alternative — that the same pseudonym was used by Féng Kuò 馮廓 (mid-Táng author of the Lǎozǐ Zhǐguī zhù 老子指歸註 in 13 juàn), or by Péi Xíng 裴鉶 (the late-Táng author of the Chuánqí 傳奇 anthology). The received WYG text is a Southern-Sòng-era reconstruction from Tàipíng guǎngjì and similar léishū sources; the Tàipíng guǎngjì preserves at least one entry (the Lǐ Quánzhì 李全質 Huìchāng rénxū 會昌壬戌 [842] Jǐyīn 濟陰 flood story) that is missing from the WYG recension, confirming that the present text is partial.

Tiyao

(Note: the Sìkù tiyao for this work appears in the WYG manuscript as the second half of KR3l0104’s _000.txt tiyao block — the compilers paired the two short late-Táng anomaly anthologies in a single editorial unit. The source directory for KR3l0105 itself is missing from the local Kanripo holding; the tiyao below is translated from the KR3l0104 source-file’s continuation.)

Your servants report: Bóyì jì in 1 juàn. The old recension attributes it to “Táng Gǔshénzǐ Huángǔ zhuàn” 唐谷神子還古撰, without giving a surname. On examination, Cháo Gōngwǔ’s 晁公武 Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì records the Lǎozǐ Zhǐguī in 13 juàn as likewise attributed to “Gǔshénzǐ zhù” without surname; and the Táng shū Yìwén zhì has Féng Kuò’s 馮廓 Lǎozǐ Zhǐguī zhù in 13 juàn, matching Cháo’s title and juàn-count exactly — so might Gǔshénzǐ be Féng Kuò? Hú Yìnglín’s Èryǒu zhuìyí says: the Táng poet Zhèng Huángǔ 鄭還古 once wrote a biography of Yīn Qīqī 殷七七, who flourished in the late Táng; the manner and subject-matter of the Yīn biography resemble this book, so it should also be his work. This identification too seems plausibly grounded. But since there is no explicit ancient documentation, one may simply leave the question open.

The book records [ten persons:] Jìng Yuányǐng 敬元穎, Xǔ Hànyáng 許漢陽, Wáng Chānglíng 王昌齡, Zhāng Jiézhōng 張竭忠, Cuī Yuánwēi 崔玄微, Yīn Yǐnkè 陰隱客, Cén Wénběn 岑文本, Shěn Yàzhī 沈亞之, Liú Fāngyuán 劉方元, Mǎ Suì 馬燧 — ten persons in all. Tàipíng guǎngjì juàn 348 carries a Lǐ Quánzhì 李全質 entry, recording that in Huìchāng rénxū (842) at Jǐyīn 濟陰 there was a great flood, and Gǔshénzǐ shared a boat with Quánzhì — but the present recension lacks this entry; so this too is a chāohé (excerpt-compilation) and not a complete original. What it records is all matters of spirits and the uncanny; the narration is refined and abundant, and the poetic compositions it transcribes are quite skilfully wrought — superior to other xiǎoshuō. Only the entry on the Shī Kuàng jìng míng 師曠鏡銘 (the bronze-mirror inscription attributed to Shī Kuàng) does not read like the diction of the Three Dynasties. Chén Zhènsūn’s 陳振孫 Shūlù jiětí says the language touched on contemporary taboos, so the author concealed his name; the preface (now lost) likewise said: “Not merely as material for laughter, but also as crude open admonition — perhaps in the hope that the ear-jarring word might secure a self-preserving caution.” Examining what is preserved, however, one sees nothing that infringes on taboos; and the citations in the Tàipíng guǎngjì are indeed from this book, not later forgeries — so where exactly the supposed yùyán 寓言 (allegorical purpose) lies is unclear.

Respectfully checked, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 12th month. 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 composition window adopted here (826–850) reflects the most defensible bracket from the work’s internal evidence and from the candidate-author scholarship. The Tàipíng guǎngjì (compiled 977–978) preserves a Bóyì jì entry locating Gǔshénzǐ at Jǐyīn 濟陰 in Huìchāng 2 (壬戌, 842) — an autobiographical anchor that places the author firmly in the Wénzōng 文宗 / Wǔzōng 武宗 period. Hú Yìnglín’s identification of Gǔshénzǐ with Zhèng Huángǔ 鄭還古 (whose floruit is fixed by his composition of the Yīn Qīqī biànhuà zhuàn 殷七七變化傳 and a Wényuán yīnghuá 文苑英華-transmitted Jīngyángjūn yútài chuán 涇陽君魚臺傳) is widely accepted in modern Chinese scholarship — Wāng Bìcōng 汪辟疆, Tángrén xiǎoshuō (1934), Wáng Mèngōu 王夢鷗, Tángrén xiǎoshuō yánjiū (1971–78), and Lǐ Jiànguó 李劍國, TángWǔdài zhìguài chuánqí xùlù (1993), all support it. Zhèng Huángǔ’s only well-dated career-anchor is his appointment as Sōngzhōu sīmǎ 嵩州司馬 in the mid-9th c.; the bracket adopted here (Bǎolì 寶曆 1 = 826 to Dàzhōng 大中 4 = 850) brackets his most plausible career window.

The ten extant entries are unusually rich, both as supernatural fiction and as poetic-textual repositories. Jìng Yuányǐng 敬元穎: a bronze mirror reflecting a beautiful woman who emerges from it. Xǔ Hànyáng 許漢陽: a Daoist banquet at a lake-bottom palace. Wáng Chānglíng 王昌齡: the High Táng yuèfǔ poet (the same Wáng Chānglíng who appears in Jíyì jì KR3l0104’s Qítíng huàbì tale), here in a more sombre supernatural encounter. Zhāng Jiézhōng 張竭忠: a tale of righteous official conduct. Cuī Yuánwēi 崔玄微: a vividly told flower-spirit tale in which the genteel scholar Cuī, while sitting up at his Lúoyáng garden, hosts a party of female immortals who turn out to be the flower-spirits of his garden’s peach, plum, peony, etc.; the wind-spirit (Fēng Shíbā yí 封十八姨) appears as their dangerous antagonist. The tale is the source of an enduring late-imperial flower-spirit / huācháo 花朝 festival tradition. Yīn Yǐnkè 陰隱客: a man at a Mount Wǔdāng grotto-cave finds an immortal city. Cén Wénběn 岑文本: the early-Táng minister’s encounter with a literary fox-spirit. Shěn Yàzhī 沈亞之: the named author of the Qínmèng jì 秦夢記 (“Record of a Dream of Qín”) appears as protagonist of his own supernatural adventure. Liú Fāngyuán 劉方元 and Mǎ Suì 馬燧: two further encounters with the uncanny.

Among Táng zhìguài / chuánqí anthologies, the Bóyì jì’s Cuī Yuánwēi entry is the principal early witness to the huāyāo 花妖 (flower-demon) topos and was extensively adapted by later writers — including in the Liáozhāi zhìyì 聊齋誌異 of Pú Sōnglíng (whose Huā shén tales recall Cuī’s hospitality to the flower-spirits) — and the Yīn Yǐnkè and Xǔ Hànyáng entries are foundational for the late-Táng to Sòng grotto-paradise (dòngtiān 洞天) narrative tradition.

Standard modern edition: collated text in Wāng Bìcōng 汪辟疆, Tángrén xiǎoshuō (Shànghǎi 1934, often reprinted); annotated text in Lǐ Jiànguó, TángWǔdài zhìguài chuánqí xùlù (Nánkāi 1993), pp. 437–449.

Translations and research

  • Wāng Bì-cōng 汪辟疆. Táng-rén xiǎo-shuō 唐人小說 (Shàng-hǎi 1934). The standard collected text with critical recension; Bó-yì jì is one of the centre-pieces.
  • Wáng Mèng-ōu 王夢鷗. Táng-rén xiǎo-shuō yán-jiū 唐人小說研究 (Tái-běi: Yì-wén, 4 vols., 1971–78). Most thorough source-critical study of the entire Táng chuán-qí corpus.
  • Lǐ Jiàn-guó 李劍國. Táng-Wǔ-dài zhì-guài chuán-qí xù-lù 唐五代志怪傳奇敘錄 (Nán-kāi 1993). Bibliographical and source-critical entry for the Bó-yì jì.
  • Schipper, Kristofer and Verellen, Franciscus, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang (Chicago 2004), 1:289–90, on the Gǔ-shén-zǐ pseudonym (in the context of the Lǎo-zǐ Zhǐ-guī attribution).
  • Reed, Carrie E. A Tang Miscellany: An Introduction to Youyang zazu (Peter Lang 2003). General methodological treatment of Táng anomaly-anthologies.
  • Dudbridge, Glen. Religious Experience and Lay Society in T’ang China: A Reading of Tai Fu’s Kuang-i chi (CUP 1995). Methodology directly applicable to the Bó-yì jì.
  • Selected tales (notably Cuī Yuán-wēi) translated in Karl S. Y. Kao, ed. Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic (Indiana UP 1985).

Other points of interest

The Cuī Yuánwēi entry’s setting — a scholar’s garden in Luòyáng inhabited by flower-spirits who appear as elegant young women — is the earliest sustained Chinese narrative of the huāyāo topos, and is generally taken as the textual ancestor of the Liáozhāi 聊齋 flower-spirit tradition through Sòng huàběn intermediaries (notably the Cuī Xuánwēi tale preserved in the Tàipíng guǎngjì 414). The work is also among the very few late-Táng anthologies preserved under a Daoist pseudonym rather than the author’s own name — a fact that has produced the standing question of whether Gǔshénzǐ is one historical individual or a shared hào used by multiple late-Táng Daoist literati. See 谷神子 for the candidate identifications.

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