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陶淵明集

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Text ID
KR4b0008
Date
526–531
Dynasty
晉

Táo Yuānmíng jí 陶淵明集

Collected Works of Táo Yuānmíng (Táo Qián) by 陶潛 (撰), 蕭統 (編)

About the work

Táo Yuānmíng jí 陶淵明集 in eight juǎn preserves the writings of Táo Qián 陶潛 (Yuānmíng 淵明, 365–427), the great Eastern-Jìn / LiúSòng poet of the eremitic life. The text descended through three early recensions (one 8-juǎn without preface, one 6-juǎn, and the 8-juǎn version edited by Crown Prince Xiāo Tǒng 蕭統 of Liáng, who also wrote the famous opening preface and the parallel Táo Yuānmíng zhuàn); these were combined into a 10-juǎn recension by the Northern Qí scholar Yáng Xiūzhī 陽休之, which absorbed both the Wǔ xiào zhuàn 五孝傳 and the Sìbā mù 四八目 (= Shèng xián qún fǔ lù 聖賢羣輔錄). The Sìkù compilers, taking imperial guidance, judged both these latter texts to be Northern-Qí forgeries, deleted them, and reverted to Xiāo Tǒng’s eight-juǎn division — the present recension.

Tiyao

Táo Yuānmíng jí in eight juǎn, by Táo Qián of the Jìn. The Northern-Qí Yáng Xiūzhī xù lù 陽休之序錄 says Yuānmíng’s collection circulated in three recensions: one of 8 juǎn without preface; one of 6 juǎn with preface and table but with disordered sequence and missing material; and one edited by Xiāo Tǒng 蕭統 (Note: ancient editorial selections are also called “compositions” 撰; thus the Wén xuǎn old prints all carry “Crown Prince Zhāomíng zhuàn 撰,” and Xú Líng’s Yùtái xīnyǒng preface says “zhuàn lù yàn gē fán wéi shí juǎn 撰錄艷歌凡為十巻”; Yáng Xiūzhī’s calling Yuānmíng’s collection Xiāo Tǒng’s zhuàn follows that convention; we retain the original wording here.) — also 8 juǎn, but missing the Wǔ xiào zhuàn 五孝傳 and the Sìbā mù 四八目 (the Sìbā mù is the Shèng xián qún fǔ lù 聖賢羣輔錄). Yáng Xiūzhī combined the three recensions into ten juǎn — already departing from Xiāo Tǒng’s original.

Sòng Xiáng 宋庠 in his Sī jì 私記 says: the Suíshū jīngjí zhì gives Táo’s collection as 9 juǎn, also noting “Liáng had 5 juǎn + 1-juǎn table”; the Tángshū yìwén zhì gives 5 juǎn. In Xiáng’s day there circulated one Xiāo Tǒng 8-juǎn recension (with prose preceding poetry) and one Yáng Xiūzhī 10-juǎn recension; the dozens of other prints were of unclear authority. Xiáng eventually obtained an old Jiāngzuǒ 江左 recension whose ordering was the most disordered of all — the present edition is what Xiáng called the Jiāngzuǒ recension.

But Crown Prince Zhāomíng (= Xiāo Tǒng) lived close to Yuānmíng’s time and yet did not see Wǔ xiào zhuàn and Sìbā mù, did not include them — so on what basis did Yáng Xiūzhī subsequently obtain them? Furthermore, the citations of the Shàngshū in the Wǔ xiào zhuàn and Sìbā mù contradict each other, certainly not the work of one hand. They must be later forgeries that Yáng mistakenly accepted and added in. Subsequent recensions vary in juǎn count and arrangement, but the embedding of forgeries is uniform — and that begins with Yáng’s editing. Xiáng’s Sī jì only suspects the two passages on the “bā rú sān mò 八儒三墨” — also an inadequately careful examination.

The Sìbā mù has now received imperial inspection (ruì jiàn zhǐshì 睿鑒指示) confirming clearly that it is a forgery; it is separately catalogued in the zǐbù lèishū category, with detailed argument. The Wǔ xiào zhuàn — meaning shallow, certainly not Yuānmíng’s — emerged at the same moment as the Sìbā mù, so its forgery need not be argued: both are now deleted. Only the poetry and prose of Táo proper are kept, and the edition retains Xiāo Tǒng’s eight-juǎn division. Although the original Liáng-era ordering can no longer be recovered, weeding out the forgeries and preserving the genuine — this approaches a state close to antiquity.

Reverently collated, tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Chief compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief collator: Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

The textual history of Táo Qián’s collection is one of the most interrogated cases in medieval Chinese editorial scholarship. The earliest surviving named edition is the eight-juǎn recension prepared by Crown Prince Xiāo Tǒng 蕭統 of Liáng (501–531) — the same compiler responsible for the Wén xuǎn — together with his celebrated preface (Táo Yuānmíng jí xù 陶淵明集序) and his parallel Táo Yuānmíng zhuàn 陶淵明傳. Xiāo Tǒng’s preface (the yuán xù preserved in this volume’s front matter) is the founding statement of Táo’s literary canonization, praising the disjunction “spare in form yet rich in meaning” 質而實綺癯而實腴 that Sū Shì 蘇軾 would later adopt as the orthodox reading. Xiāo Tǒng’s only reservation is the Xián qíng fù 閒情賦 (“Stilling the Passions”), which he calls Táo’s “blemish on jade.” The LiúSòng / Northern-Qí scholar Yáng Xiūzhī 陽休之 (509–582) combined Xiāo Tǒng’s text with two other early recensions and added the Wǔ xiào zhuàn 五孝傳 and Sìbā mù 四八目 (= Shèng xián qún fǔ lù 聖賢羣輔錄). The Sìkù compilers (Jì Yún 紀昀 et al., Qiánlóng 46 / 1781), with explicit imperial endorsement, identified both as Northern-Qí forgeries and removed them, restoring an eight-juǎn division they considered closer to Xiāo Tǒng’s original.

The Sòng-era reception led by Sū Shì and Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅 is preserved in the Zǒng lùn 總論 immediately following the yuán xù: Sū’s “of all the poets none I love but Yuānmíng,” Huáng’s “ornate at the surface, fertile within,” and the Cháng zhōu jí 倉州集 reception passages. The dating bracket for this recension is 526–531 — Xiāo Tǒng’s editorial period (he died in 531). The Liáng original is no longer recoverable; readers should treat the WYG eight-juǎn text as a Qiánlóng-era reconstruction whose chief departure from older recensions is the deletion of Wǔ xiào zhuàn and Sìbā mù (still found in the SBCK Jiānzhù Táo Yuānmíng jí KR4b0009).

The signature pieces — Guī qù lái cí 歸去來辭, Táo huā yuán jì 桃花源記 with the matching shī, Yǐn jiǔ 飲酒 (twenty pieces), Guī yuán tián jū 歸園田居 (five pieces), Wǔ liǔ xiānsheng zhuàn 五柳先生傳, Yú huì shī 與荀禘詩, Xián qíng fù 閒情賦 — secured Táo’s place from the late Táng onward as the canonical poet of yǐn yì 隱逸 (eremitic withdrawal), Confucian moral integrity, and viticultural everyday life.

Translations and research

  • James R. Hightower, tr. 1970. The Poetry of T’ao Ch’ien. OUP. The standard complete English translation, with extensive critical apparatus.
  • David Hinton, tr. 1993. The Selected Poems of T’ao Ch’ien. Copper Canyon. Free verse selection.
  • Wendy Swartz. 2008. Reading Tao Yuanming: Shifting Paradigms of Historical Reception (427–1900). HUP. The principal English-language reception history.
  • Charles Yim-tze Kwong. 1994. Tao Qian and the Chinese Poetic Tradition: The Quest for Cultural Identity. UMich.
  • A. R. Davis. 1983. T’ao Yüan-ming. 2 vols. CUP.
  • Lǐ Chén-dōng 李辰冬. 1993. Táo Qián píng zhuàn 陶潛評傳. Wáshí 華世. PRC standard biography.
  • Yuán Xíngpèi 袁行霈. 2003. Táo Yuānmíng jí jiān zhù 陶淵明集箋註. Zhōnghuá. The principal modern critical edition.
  • Lǔ Qìnlì 逯欽立, ed. 1979. Táo Yuānmíng jí 陶淵明集. Zhōnghuá. Earlier standard critical edition.
  • Wáng Yáo 王瑤, ed. 1956. Táo Yuānmíng jí 陶淵明集. Rénmín wénxué.
  • Stephen Owen. 2018. “Tao Yuanming and the Poetry of Withdrawal,” in The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature.

Other points of interest

The Crown Prince’s preface here exhibits the curious editorial choice — universally followed in this volume — of placing prose before poetry, the opposite of later convention. The zǒng lùn gathered after the yuán xù (Sū Shì, Huáng Tíngjiān, Yáng Wànlǐ et al.) is itself a small SòngYuán reception anthology and a useful tool for understanding how the Táo persona was constructed for later tradition.

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