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酉陽雜俎

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Text ID
KR3l0125
Date
853–863
Dynasty
唐

Yǒuyáng zázǔ 酉陽雜俎

Miscellany of Tidbits from the Yǒuyáng (Mountain Cave) by 段成式 (撰)

About the work

The Yǒuyáng zázǔ 酉陽雜俎 of 段成式 Duàn Chéngshì 段成式 (c. 803–863) is the most celebrated and intellectually substantial bǐjì / xiǎoshuō miscellany of the late Táng, comprising a 20-juàn principal collection (qiánjí 前集) and a 10-juàn continuation (xùjí 續集), together c. 1,288 entries. The title takes its first word from Yǒuyáng 酉陽 — a name for the legendary mountain-cave at Yǒuyáng (mod. Húnán) that the early Daoist tradition (cf. Yǒuyáng dòng in KR5… Dòngtiān fúdì) identifies as the depository of a great cache of secret books; zázǔ 雜俎 (“miscellaneous viands on a sacrificial stand”) frames the work as a banquet of varied delicacies. Duàn’s range is unparalleled in the Táng bǐjì: alongside the zhìguài and chuánqí matter typical of the genre, he records local lore, foreign (Persian, Arab, South-Indian, Korean) ethnography, monastic and Daoist ritual, mineralogy and botany, food and culinary technique (including the standard 20 entries on wines and spices), erotic-medical practice, calligraphic and pictorial connoisseurship, palace anecdote, Buddhist iconography, and bibliographic curiosity. The work has been the principal foreign-language source on Táng-era cosmopolitanism for sinology since Edward Schafer’s foundational AS 1963 article and is the prototype Wilkinson §61.3.11 cites for the late-Táng bǐjì genre.

A note on the title. The catalog meta for this entry writes 西陽 西陽 (with 西 “west”), which is a typographical slip; the standard form is 酉陽 酉陽 (with 酉, the tenth earthly branch / the Yǒuyáng cave-name) and is the form on the source-file title page itself. Flagging the slip per project convention; the correction is retained in the work-note title above.

Tiyao

The source for this entry is the Sìbù cóngkān (SBCK) recension; the qiánjí frontmatter carries Lǐ Yúnhú’s 李雲鵠 Wànlìwùshēn (1608) “Engraving Preface to the Yǒuyáng zázǔ*” and a second preface, “Yǒuyáng zázǔ xù”, in place of a Sìkù tíyào proper.*

Lǐ Yúnhú (Wànlì 36 / 戊申 / 1608) records: when he was young, the Yǒuyáng zázǔ was already in his reading; his great-uncle Zhào kǎo showed him the Yǒu (recension) preserved in his ancestor [Zhào Shìzōngbó]‘s library, comparing readings; the work treats matters classical, historical, mineralogical, botanical, ritual, and curious, fit for “replacing the fly-whisk and idle talk”. But the manuscript transmission has accumulated errors, and so he has had the corrected text re-engraved. He cites Sìkù-style precedents (Lǎozǐ’s library-room, Wángshì’s Qīngxiāng 青箱), comparing his work to the ancient palace-librarian’s office. Signed: Bestowed-degree jìnshì of the South Capital, deputed by Sìchuān to be Investigating Censor, Nèixiāng Lǐ Yúnhú, written at the Qīngyìtáng 清議堂.

The second preface notes that the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo 文獻通考 records 20 juàn of qiánjí + 10 juàn of xùjí; that in the world only the qiánjí circulates, while the xùjí survives only as scattered fragments — until the preface-writer, browsing a Wúzhōng 吳中 book-stall in wùzǐ (1648 [a sexagenary cycle]), found a copy of the xùjí in 10 juàn still entirely intact, bought it for “a hair-weight of gold”, and resolved to collate it.

(No Sìkù tíyào appears in the source file at hand; the WYG recension is also catalogued.)

Abstract

Duàn Chéngshì, zì Kēgǔ 柯古 (c. 803–863), of Zōupíng 鄒平 (mod. Shāndōng), was the son of Duàn Wénchāng 段文昌, a Táng zǎixiàng 宰相, and rose to Shàngshūláng 尚書郎 and Jiāngzhōu cìshǐ 江州刺史 before ending his career as Tàicháng shǎoqīng 太常少卿. He died on Xiántōng 4 / 6 (24 June 863) per Jiù Tángshū j. 167. The Yǒuyáng zázǔ is the literary by-product of his lifetime of voracious reading and conversation; modern scholarship dates the principal qiánjí to the mid-850s (c. 853–860), with the xùjí compiled in the early 860s before Duàn’s death. Carrie Reed (2003) argues the qiánjí circulated as a unified text by Xiántōng 4 (863) and was already cited by the late-Táng léishū tradition (e.g. Hùnjiàn lù 混簡錄).

Structure. The 20 juàn of the qiánjí are divided into 30 thematic sections (piān 篇): Zhōngzhì 忠志 (loyal-officials), Lǐyì 禮異 (anomalous ritual), Tiānzhì 天咫 (astronomy and cosmology), Yùgé 玉格 (jade-and-tablet — Daoist lore), Húshǐ 壺史 (Daoist immortals), Bèisūn 貝編 (Buddhist lore), Jīngyì 境異 (foreign countries — including the famous Cinderella-prototype tale Yèxiàn 葉限 in Zhuànjì 嬰), Xǐzhào 喜兆 (auspicious omens), Huòzhào 禍兆 (inauspicious omens), Wùgé 物革 (transformations of objects), Zéfú 詭服 (anomalous costume), Sìtǎ 寺塔 (Buddhist monasteries and stupas — closely related to Duàn’s separate KR6r0128 Sìtǎ jì), Yīnxī 殷羑 (jokes and anecdotes), Xiéjiàn 黥盜 (tattooed brigands), Yányīn 諺見 (popular proverbs), Cǎopiān 草篇 / Mùpiān 木篇 (plants), Càipiān 菜篇 (vegetables), Niǎopiān 鳥篇 (birds), Yúpiān 魚篇 (fish), Língpiān 鱗介篇 (scaled creatures), Chóngpiān 蟲篇 (insects), Zhīruò 支諾皋 (anomaly tales, in three juàn; the celebrated section), etc. The xùjí 續集 (10 juàn) adds further sections including the Sìtǎ jì 寺塔記 (preserved here as well as separately in the Taishō at KR6r0128 / T2093), Biànzì 貶誤 (correction of textual errors), Sìtǎjì xù 續寺塔記, and supplements to the Zhīnuògāo anomaly tales.

Foreign content. The Yǒuyáng zázǔ is the foundational sinological source for the Táng’s cosmopolitan horizons: Duàn records Persian (Bōsī 波斯) astrolabes and ritual; Indian (Tiānzhú 天竺) anatomy and pharmacology; Arab (Dàshí 大食) plants; Korean (Xīnluó 新羅) customs; and contains the earliest known full version of the Cinderella type-tale (the Yèxiàn 葉限 story in juàn 21 xùjí, Zhuànjì) — narrated from a Zhuàng/Yáo 壮/瑤 informant in the southwestern frontier. Schafer’s The Golden Peaches of Samarkand (1963) and The Vermilion Bird (1967) mined the Yǒuyáng zázǔ extensively for Táng-cosmopolitan material-history.

Recensions and transmission. The Wénxiàn tōngkǎo (1308) records the full 20 + 10 juàn extent. The Míng saw a divergence: the qiánjí circulated continuously, but the xùjí was scarce. The Lǐ Yúnhú 1608 SBCK recension (preserved in this entry) is one of the principal recovered Míng witnesses. The standard modern critical edition is Fāng Nánshēng 方南生, coll., Yǒuyáng zázǔ (Zhōnghuá shūjú 1981; rev. 2005), which collates the SBCK, Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, and Sìkù WYG recensions and prints 1,288 entries. The Sìkù quánshū recension is in the zǐ division xiǎoshuōjiā category — KR3l0125 here is sourced as WYG per the catalog meta (V1047.7, p637), though the actual source files in this entry are the SBCK recension.

Reception. Cited continuously from the late Táng (Lǐ Shāngyǐn 李商隱, Wēn Tíngyún 溫庭筠 — Duàn’s circle of poetic peers — already allude to Yǒuyáng zázǔ material); standard SòngYuán léishū (the Tàipíng guǎngjì KR3l0118, Yìwén lèijù, Chūxué jì) excerpt extensively from it. By the Qīng it had become the canonical Táng bǐjì; Jì Yún 紀昀 names it as exemplary in the Sìkù divisional preface. Modern scholarship: foundational article Edward H. Schafer, “Notes on Tuán Ch’eng-shih and his writings”, AS 16 (1963): 14–34; comprehensive monograph Carrie E. Reed, A Tang Miscellany: An Introduction to Youyang zazu (Peter Lang, 2003), with companion articles on the Cinderella tale and Duàn’s tattooed-brigands section in JAOS 119.3 (1999): 360–376.

Translations and research

  • Reed, Carrie E. A Tang Miscellany: An Introduction to Youyang zazu. Peter Lang, 2003. The principal English-language monograph: source-critical, biographical, and thematic survey.
  • Reed, Carrie E. “Tattoo in Early China,” JAOS 119.3 (1999): 360–376. Translation and study of the Xié-jiàn (黥盜) section.
  • Reed, Carrie E. “Motivation and Meaning of a ‘Hodge-podge’: Duan Chengshi’s Youyang zazu,” JAOS 123.1 (2003): 121–145. Programmatic study of Duàn’s miscellany method.
  • Reed, Carrie E. Chinese Chronicles of the Strange: The Nuogao ji by Duan Chengshi. Peter Lang, 2001. Translation of the Zhī-nuò-gāo (支諾皋) section.
  • Schafer, Edward H. “Notes on Tuán Ch’eng-shih and his Writings,” Asia Major 16 (1963): 14–34. The foundational sinological article.
  • Schafer, Edward H. The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T’ang Exotics. UC Press, 1963. Draws heavily on Yǒuyáng zázǔ foreign-ethnographic material.
  • Schafer, Edward H. The Vermilion Bird: T’ang Images of the South. UC Press, 1967. Similar.
  • Fāng Nán-shēng 方南生, coll. Yǒuyáng zázǔ 酉陽雜俎. Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1981; rev. 2005. The standard critical edition.
  • Imamura Yoshio 今村与志雄, ed. and trans. Yūyō zasso 酉陽雜俎. 5 vols. (Tōyō bunko 382, 386, 397, 401, 412). Heibonsha, 1980–81. The principal full Japanese translation, with running scholarly notes — indispensable for Western scholars without Reed’s English support.
  • Hé Jiè-jūn 何劍均 and others, eds. Yǒuyáng zázǔ jiào-jiān 酉陽雜俎校箋. Sì-chuān cí-shū chūbǎnshè, 2020. The most recent comprehensive critical edition.
  • Wáng Bǐ-Jiā 王碧家, Yǒuyáng zázǔ yán-jiū 酉陽雜俎研究. Wén-jīn chūbǎnshè, 1988. Standard Chinese-language monograph.
  • Hou Cailin 侯彩玲. Yǒuyáng zázǔ yánjiū 酉陽雜俎研究. Bǎ-Shǔ shūshè, 2009.

Other points of interest

The Yǒuyáng zázǔ contains the earliest extant full text of the Cinderella type-tale: the Yèxiàn 葉限 story in Zhīnuògāo xùjí 1 (一說 in xùjí j. 1), narrated from a southwestern Zhuàng/Yáo informant in Yōngzhōu 邕州. The tale was first identified as a Cinderella-type by R. D. Jameson in 1932 (Three Lectures on Chinese Folklore); it is now the standard example of pre-Perrault Eurasian fairy-tale transmission and the basis of Arthur Waley’s much-cited 1947 article “The Chinese Cinderella Story” (Folklore 58.1: 226–238). The textual stability of the Duàn-version across the SòngMíngQīng transmission is itself an interesting case-study.

Duàn’s Sìtǎ jì 寺塔記 (recorded both as one of the xùjí sections of the Yǒuyáng zázǔ and as an independent 1-juàn work in the Buddhist canon at KR6r0128 / T2093) is the only surviving first-person Cháng’ān-monastic gazetteer of the immediate pre-Wǔ-zōng-persecution (842–845) period — a uniquely valuable source for Buddhist iconography and monastic property in late-Táng Cháng’ān (cf. studies by Antonino Forte and Albert E. Dien).

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