聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

括異志

6 min read

Text ID
KR3l0117
Date
1078–1085
Dynasty
宋

Kuòyì zhì 括異志

A Comprehensive Account of the Strange by 張師正 (撰)

About the work

A ten-juǎn zhìguài compilation by the late-Northern-Sòng official Zhāng Shīzhèng 張師正 (hào Xiāngguó 襄國 — “from Xiāngguó,” i.e., modern Xíngtái 邢台 in Héběi; see 張師正). Active in the Xīníng (1068–1077) and Yuánfēng (1078–1085) reigns, Zhāng was a serial xiǎoshuō compiler: in addition to the present Kuòyì zhì he is credited (with varying confidence) with the Bǔ Zhōngtán 補倩談, the Tājiàn yī piān 倦遊雜錄 (or Juànyóu zálù), and the Yī shuō 譯說. The Kuòyì zhì opens with the canonical Sòngzhōu kuángsēng anecdote — a mad monk in Sòngzhōu (the future imperial seat) who prophesies that the place “will give rise to a Son of Heaven,” anchoring the entire collection in the foundation-mythology of the Zhào ruling house. The book then ranges over eunuchs and emperors, civil officials and military commanders, monks and Daoists, ghosts and goblins, dreams and prophecies — a representative cross-section of mid-to-late Northern-Sòng zhìguài. The transmitted recension here is the SBCK (Sìbù cóngkān) edition, photographically reproducing a Jiànníngfǔ Máshāzhèn (建寧府麻沙鎮 — i.e., Fújiàn Jiànyáng) Sòng print bearing the colophon “Carved for circulation at the residence of Yú Shūyì of Máshā Town, Jiànníng Prefecture” (建寧府麻沙鎮虞叔異宅刋行); the imprint is unfortunately undated but is generally placed in the Southern-Sòng. The work is not in the Sìkù quánshū — the Sìkù compilers having let it fall through. There is therefore no Qián-lóng-period tíyào for this book.

Prefaces

(Other Sòng witnesses to the work — the Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì 郡齋讀書志 of Cháo Gōngwǔ and the Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí 直齋書錄解題 of Chén Zhènsūn — record the work as “Kuòyì zhì 10 juǎn, by Zhāng Shīzhèng of Xiāngguó, completed Xīníng 中”; the Sòngshǐ Yìwén zhì concurs. Chén observes that Zhāng “had repeatedly held office and remained in the láng ranks without further promotion, so vented his frustration in zhìguài” — the standard later view of the compiler’s motivation.)

Abstract

The Kuòyì zhì belongs to the second wave of Northern-Sòng zhìguài — the wave that follows Xú Xuàn’s KR3l0114 Jīshén lù and Wú Shū’s KR3l0115 Jiānghuái yìrén lù and precedes Hóng Mài’s Yíjiān zhì. The compiler Zhāng Shīzhèng’s dates are not securely recorded; he appears in the historical record as a lángzhōng-class official under Shénzōng, having held postings in Héběi and Shǎnxī, never advanced beyond the láng ranks, and devoting his retirement to xiǎoshuō compilation. His self-styled provenance Xiāngguó — i.e., Xíngzhōu (modern Héběi) — places him in the orbit of the Northern Sòng northern military circle. The bracket adopted here (1078–1085) reflects the Yuánfēng setting that the latest internal events of the Kuòyì zhì suggest; the work is sometimes dated slightly earlier, to Xīníng (the Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì’s formulation).

The ten juǎn are organised mostly by social rank of the protagonist rather than by topic: juǎn 1 covers imperial and chief-counsellor anecdotes (the founding-prophecy of the Zhào house at Sòngzhōu; the Hēishā shén descent at Fèngxiáng — the deity-revelation that legitimated Tàizōng’s succession; Láihé Tiānzūn — the dream-deity of Yáng Lì; the Zhāng Qíxián anecdotes); juǎn 2 covers shūmì shǐ (Bureau of Military Affairs) and ministerial-rank figures; juǎn 3 shàobǎo and lángzhōng class; juǎn 4 shěngfù and dàizhì; juǎn 5 cānzhèng and shìdú; juǎn 6–7 minor officials and Daoist practitioners; juǎn 8 cānzhèng and miscellaneous; juǎn 9 lángzhōng and lower-ranking; juǎn 10 fāyùn (transport commissioners) and qīfū (palace eunuchs) and ordinary subjects. This is a markedly officialdom-centric organising principle, contrasting with the geographically-organised Yíjiān zhì.

Substantively the book preserves several anecdotes of major historiographical value: the Hēishā shén prophecy of Tàizǔ’s death and Tàizōng’s accession (a politically delicate piece of foundation-mythology that the official histories play down); the legitimation of the Yìshèng (黑殺) cult-shrine at Zhōuzhì’s Tàipíng township; the Sòngzhōu kuángsēng prophecy that became the standard early-Sòng founding-myth; a substantial collection of anecdotes about the Jiǎ Wèigōng (Jiǎ Chāngcháo) and Lǔgōng (Lǔ Zōngdào) chancellorships. Many of these episodes were quarried by Sòng historians (Sīmǎ Guāng’s Tōngjiàn chángbiān, Lǐ Tāo’s Xù Zīzhì tōngjiàn chángbiān) — though always with the kǎoyì caveat that the source was xiǎoshuō and not zhèngshǐ.

The book has had a textually difficult transmission. It was lost from circulation in the late Sòng, surviving only through the Máshā Sòng print eventually rediscovered and photographically reproduced for the SBCK; the Sìkù compilers did not handle it, so there is no Qiánlóng tiyao. The modern critical edition is Zhāng Màopéng 張茂鵬, ed., Kuòyì zhì (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1996, TángSòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān), which collates the SBCK Máshā print against fragments preserved in the Tàipíng guǎngjì and other Sòng lèishū. Modern scholarship (especially Allen Inglis and Lǐ Jiànguó) treats Kuòyì zhì as one of the principal direct sources of Hóng Mài’s Yíjiān zhì method.

Translations and research

  • Inglis, Alister D. Hong Mai’s “Record of the Listener” and Its Song Dynasty Context (SUNY 2006). Sustained discussion of Kuò-yì zhì as one of Hóng Mài’s models, with detailed engagement with Zhāng Shī-zhèng’s compositional method.
  • Lǐ Jiàn-guó 李劍國. Sòng-dài zhì-guài chuán-qí xù-lù 宋代志怪傳奇敘錄 (Nán-kāi 1997). Definitive source-critical entry; treats authorship, dating, and the relationship between Kuò-yì zhì and the lost Juàn-yóu zá-lù.
  • Zhāng Mào-péng 張茂鵬, ed. Kuò-yì zhì 括異志 (Zhōnghuá shūjú 1996; Táng-Sòng shǐ-liào bǐ-jì cóng-kān). Standard modern critical edition.
  • Campany, Robert Ford. Strange Writing (SUNY 1996). Methodological framework.
  • Chao Hueili. “Kuò-yì zhì yǔ Běi-Sòng zhì-guài xiǎo-shuō de fā-zhǎn” 《括異志》與北宋志怪小説的發展 (Hàn-xué yán-jiū 1995). Article on Kuò-yì zhì’s place in the development of Northern-Sòng zhì-guài.

Other points of interest

The opening Sòngzhōu kuángsēng anecdote — a mad monk in the future imperial seat predicting “this place will give rise to a Son of Heaven” — is one of the early-Sòng founding-myth elements that the standard Sòng histories assimilate only obliquely. Kuòyì zhì’s preservation of the Hēishā shén episode (the deity that allegedly prophesied Tàizǔ’s death and Tàizōng’s elevation to the throne) is the principal xiǎoshuō witness to one of the most politically delicate moments of the Sòng dynasty’s foundation, and is regularly cited in modern scholarship on the jīnguì zhī méng 金匱之盟 (Golden Coffer Pact) controversy.

The SBCK Máshā print is one of the few Sòng-period xiǎoshuō imprints to survive as a complete photographic-facsimile witness — a fact that gives the Kuòyì zhì a value disproportionate to its place in the canon as a witness to Sòng commercial-print culture.

Graph View

Backlinks