Chǔ cí bǔ zhù 楚詞補注
Supplementary Commentary on the Chu ci by 洪興祖 (撰)
About the work
The Chǔ cí bǔ zhù 楚詞補注 (Supplementary Commentary on the Chu ci) by Hóng Xīngzǔ 洪興祖 (1090–1155) is the standard Sòng-period supplement to Wáng Yì’s Zhāng jù (KR4a0002). Hóng prints Wáng Yì’s commentary in full, then appends his own supplementary notes — each prefixed by the marker bǔ yuē 補曰 to keep the layers distinct — drawing on the manuscript collations of Sū Shì 蘇軾, Hóng Yùfù 洪玉父, Yáo Tínghuī 姚廷輝, Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽脩, Sūn Xīnlǎo 孫莘老, Sū Zǐróng 蘇頌, Guān Zǐdōng 關子東, and Yè Shǎoxié 葉少協, plus the Gǔ wén Chǔ cí shì wén 古文楚辭釋文. The work also originally carried a separate Kǎo yì 考異 in one juǎn; in the WYG transmission line preserved here, the Kǎo yì notes have been distributed under the relevant clauses by an unknown later hand. As the Sìkù tíyào notes, “among the various commentaries on the Chǔ cí, this is in particular the best edition (shàn běn 善本); thus Chén Zhènsūn praised the diligence of Hóng’s labor, and Zhū Xī’s Jí zhù (KR4a0004) likewise drew much from his interpretations.” It is the principal medium through which Wáng Yì’s Zhāng jù has been transmitted from the twelfth century to the present.
Tiyao
From the WYG tíyào of 乾隆四十六年九月 (1781/9):
Your servants etc. respectfully report: the Chǔ cí bǔ zhù in seventeen juǎn was composed by Hóng Xīngzǔ 洪興祖 of the Sòng. Xīngzǔ, zì Qìngshàn 慶善, of Dānyáng 丹陽. In the Zhènghé era he passed the shàngshè 上舎 grade; after the southern crossing he was summoned for examination and appointed bìshūshěng zhèngzì 秘書省正字, then served as Judicial Commissioner of Jiāngdōng (tí diǎn xíng yù 提㸃刑獄) and Prefect of Zhēnzhōu and Ráozhōu. Subsequently he offended Qín Huì 秦檜, was placed under punitive registration at Zhāozhōu, and died there. His career is recorded in the Sòng shǐ, Rú lín zhuàn.
According to Chén Zhènsūn’s 陳振孫 Shū lù jiě tí, which lists Bǔzhù Chǔcí in seventeen juǎn + Kǎo yì in one juǎn: “Xīngzǔ in his youth obtained from Liǔ Zhǎnrú 栁展如 a copy hand-collated by Sū Dōngpō 蘇東坡 in ten juǎn, in which all variant readings from various copies were given side by side; later he obtained recensions of fourteen or fifteen further families starting from Hóng Yùfù 洪玉父 and collated them, producing the definitive text. He began by supplementing what was missing in Wáng Yì’s Zhāng jù, completing the work; later he obtained the recension of Yáo Tínghuī 姚廷輝 and made the Kǎo yì, appending it after the old-script Shìwén; later still he obtained the recensions of Ōuyáng Yǒngshū 歐陽永叔, Sūn Shēnlǎo 孫莘老, and Sū Zǐróng 蘇子容 from Guān Zǐdōng 關子東 and Yè Shǎoxié 葉少協, with which he supplemented what the Kǎo yì had missed.”
So the old recension carried the Shì wén together with the text, and the Kǎo yì in one juǎn was appended outside the seventeen juǎn of bǔ zhù. In the present recension, the colophon at the end of each juǎn still bears the seal “Máo Biǎo 毛表, zì Zòushū 奏叔, of the next generation after Jígǔgé 汲古閣, has emended this text against the old recension”; but the Kǎo yì has already been distributed under the individual clauses, and we do not know who interpolated it.
After the table of contents there is also an fù jì 附記 by Xīngzǔ, citing Bào Qīnzhǐ 鮑欽止 to the effect that “the Biàn sāo 辨騷 is not part of the original Chǔ cí; the present text should not record the two prefaces of Bān Mèngjiān 班孟堅; in the old recension these came after Tiān wèn and Jiǔ tàn, and they are now appended at the end of the first general section.” In the present recension the two Bān Gù prefaces do indeed appear at the end of Lí sāo, in agreement with the report; yet Liú Xié’s 劉勰 Biàn sāo is also still listed after the prefaces, for reasons not entirely clear — perhaps Hóng meant to say it should not be there but did not dare summarily to delete it.
The Hàn commentators were generally terse and concise, often citing the gloss but not setting out the evidence in full. Xīngzǔ’s edition prints Wáng Yì’s notes in front and his own shū tōng zhèng míng 疏通證明 — bǔ zhù — in the rear, expanding much on Wáng’s notes; he uses the marker characters bǔ yuē 補曰 to distinguish them so they will not be mixed with the original — quite unlike the writers of the Míng who altered ancient texts at will and made arbitrary additions and deletions. Among the various commentaries on the Chǔ cí this is in particular a fine edition; Chén Zhènsūn praised its diligent effort, and Zhū Xī in his Jí zhù (KR4a0004) likewise drew much from its interpretations.
Respectfully collated and submitted, ninth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Chief compilers Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅; chief collator Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Hóng Xīngzǔ undertook his Bǔ zhù in stages over a long period, beginning from a Sū Shì–collated ten-juan recension obtained in his youth and accumulating the readings of fourteen or fifteen further family copies. The Kǎo yì 考異 was originally a separate juǎn of variant-collation notes; in the WYG line of transmission these have been redistributed under the individual clauses (an editorial intervention the Sìkù compilers themselves were unable to attribute). The body of the work prints Wáng Yì’s text and Zhāng jù commentary unaltered, then adds Hóng’s own bǔzhù paragraphs marked off by the explicit marker bǔ yuē 補曰 — a methodologically self-conscious procedure that the Sìkù tíyào singles out as exceptionally restrained by comparison with later (Míng) editorial practice.
The dating bracket adopted in the frontmatter (1110 / 1155) reflects the long compositional process: Hóng accumulated material from his youth through his successive provincial appointments, and the work continued to receive additions until his death in punitive registration at Zhāozhōu in 1155. Both Wáng Yì’s text and Hóng’s commentary were transmitted as a unit through the Sòng print tradition; modern critical editions (Bái Huàwén 白化文 et al., Zhonghua, 1983) take Hóng’s recension as the platform.
The text was attacked by Qín Huì 秦檜’s faction along with its author and was for a time officially suppressed, but it survived through private circulation. Its allegorical reading of the Lí sāo and the Jiǔ gē — extending Wáng Yì’s loyal-minister frame — became, together with Zhū Xī’s Jí zhù (KR4a0004), the orthodox interpretive vocabulary of the Chǔ cí through Yuán, Míng, and Qīng times.
Translations and research
- Bái Huà-wén 白化文 et al., punctuators. 1983. Chǔ cí bǔ zhù 楚辭補注. Zhonghua. The standard modern critical edition.
- Cui Fuzhang 崔富章 and Li Daming 李大明, chief eds. 2003. Chǔ cí jí jiào jí shì 楚辭集校集釋. 4 vols. Hubei jiaoyu — collates Hóng’s recension throughout.
- Wang, Ping. 2006. “Reading the Chu ci with Hong Xingzu.” In Recarving the Dragon: Understanding Chinese Poetics, ed. Olga Lomová. Karolinum, 95–116.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s frank admission that it cannot identify the agent who broke up the originally separate Kǎo yì and embedded its notes among the clauses (“未知誰所竄亂也”) is a small but striking moment of imperial-editorial humility — and a warning to modern users that the Kǎo yì in the WYG witness must be read against the Húkè 胡刻 / Máoshì Jígǔgé 毛氏汲古閣 lines that preserve it as a separate juan.