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何水部集

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Text ID
KR4b0014
Date
1517–1517
Dynasty
梁

Hé Shuǐbù jí 何水部集

Collected Works of Hé [Xùn], Member of the Water Bureau by 何遜 (撰)

About the work

Hé Shuǐbù jí 何水部集 in one juǎn preserves the verse of the Liáng-period poet Hé Xùn 何遜 (ca. 480–518), titled by his rank as Shuǐbù yuánwài láng 水部員外郎. Hé is the canonical “minor” poet of the Liáng yǒngmíng / yǒngmíng yú aesthetic — the figure Dù Fǔ 杜甫 invoked in Hé Xùn què jì shī, hé Cuī Míntóng 和何遜寄詩 (and many later occasions) to claim a literary lineage. The Liáng poet Wáng Sēngrú 王僧孺 first edited Hé into eight juǎn (recorded by Liáng shū); even by the Northern Sòng (Huáng Bósī’s Dōngguān yú lùn) the eight-juǎn form was already showing losses, and it disappeared in the YuánMíng period. The present one-juǎn recension is the Míng Zhèngdé dīngchǒu (1517) Sōngjiāng print of Zhāng Hóng 張紘 — 95 shī plus Fàn Yún 范雲 / Liú Xiàochuò 劉孝綽 tóngzuò attachments, 13 liánjù, and a closing Qī zhào 七召. Originally co-printed with KR3eq0001 (Yīn Kěng’s collection), separated by Zhāng later. Note that the catalog frontmatter does not give Hé’s lifedates; standard scholarship places them ca. 480–518.

Tiyao

By Hé Xùn 何遜 of the Liáng. Xùn, zì Zhòngyán 仲言, of Dōnghǎi Tán 東海郯. Officially rose to Shuǐbù yuánwài láng 水部員外郎; hence the conventional title from the Táng onward, Hé Shuǐbù. Wáng Sēngrú 王僧孺 once compiled Xùn’s poems into eight juǎn. Sòng Huáng Bósī’s Dōngguān yú lùn has a bá (postface) on Xùn’s collection, calling it “Sòng Mǐnqiú’s 宋敏求 family copy of the Chūnmíng Sòng family text”; the juǎn count then still corresponds to the Liáng shū. But the lines Bósī cites — hūn yā jiē chì guī 昏鴉接翅歸, jīn sù lǐ sāo tóu 金粟裹搔頭 etc. — are not in the present volume; so by then there were already losses. The old recension has long since vanished; the eight juǎn are no longer recoverable. Even the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn citations of Hé’s verse are all what we today commonly know — so by the YuánMíng intersection nothing else remained.

The present text is the Míng Zhèngdé dīngchǒu (1517) Sōngjiāng print of Zhāng Hóng 張紘. The opening carries Hé’s brief biography; 95 shī in all, with appended Fàn Yún 范雲 and Liú Xiàochuò 劉孝綽 tóngzuò Nǐ gǔ 同作擬古 (two pieces) and 13 liánjù 聯句; the closing piece is the Qī zhào 七召. Zhāng’s postface notes that this collection was originally cut together with KR3eq0001 Yīn Kēng 陰鏗 jí — the two were close in genre but distinct in flavor, and Zhāng felt they should not be combined; he separated them and re-cut Hé alone with assistance of his colleagues Lù Màozhī 陸懋之 of Pílíng 毗陵 and Lǐ Shēngzhī 李昇之 of Yǒngjiā 永嘉.

The Yùtái xīnyǒng records Hé’s Xué qīngqīng hé biān cǎo 學青青河邊草; the present edition retitles it Nǐ qīngqīng hé pàn cǎo zhuǎn yùn tǐ wéi rén zuò qí rén shí jié gōng gē 擬青青河畔草轉韻體為人作其人識節工歌 — different from the Yùtái xīnyǒng. Pre-Liù-cháo shī tí 詩題 conventions had no such elaborate titles; this is clearly a later interpolation. Furthermore, Qīngqīng hé biān cǎo is by Cài Yōng 蔡邕; Qīngqīng hé pàn cǎo is by Méi Shèng 枚乘 — Six-Dynasties imitations of one or the other are clearly distinguished. This present piece imitates Cài’s biān 邊 form, but the title carries pàn 畔 — clearly a later editor changing it on the strength of the Gǔ shī shí jiǔ shǒu’s wording. Furthermore, the original is non-rhyme-shifting; this poem shifts rhyme — the editor wrongly added zhuǎn yùn tǐ 轉韻體. The character-and-line text has thus been considerably tampered with; this is no longer the old recension.

Abstract

Hé Xùn (ca. 480–518), zì Zhòngyán 仲言, native of Dōnghǎi Tán 東海郯 (modern eastern Shāndōng / northern Jiāngsū), held minor offices culminating in Shuǐbù yuánwài láng 水部員外郎 (Member of the Water Bureau) under Liáng Wǔdì — hence the conventional Táng-onward title Hé Shuǐbù. As a Yǒngmíng / gōngtǐ 宮體 poet of the second wave, he excelled at the close-knit description and tonal precision the Yǒngmíng group pioneered, and his poems on landscape, parting, and yǒng wù 詠物 (objects) became the canonical model of intimate / domestic verse in the medieval tradition. His standing was secured for posterity by Dù Fǔ’s many references — Hé Xùn què jì shī, hé Cuī Míntóng and the famous “Wǎn jié jiàn yán Bāo zhào shī, ér jīn shuí sì? wéi yǒu Hé láng” 晚節漸於詩律細, 而今誰似? 唯有何郎 (in Èr fù shī xiè 二賦詩謝).

The transmitted text has had a vexed history: the Liáng original of eight juǎn (per Wáng Sēngrú’s edition recorded in Liáng shū) was already showing losses in the Northern Sòng (per Huáng Bósī’s Dōngguān yú lùn) and disappeared in the YuánMíng. The Sìkù-WYG base is the Míng Zhèngdé dīngchǒu (1517) Sōngjiāng print of Zhāng Hóng 張紘 — 95 shī, three tóngzuò attachments, 13 liánjù, and the Qī zhào — itself based on a Yuán-period transmission whose textual integrity the Sìkù compilers explicitly question (the Nǐ qīngqīng hé pàn cǎo zhuǎn yùn tǐ title is a Míng emendation, the rhyme-shift label a clear interpolation). The dating bracket here (1517) is the Zhāng Hóng print date.

The signature works are: Lín àn yè zuò shī 臨案夜坐詩 (the canonical “moonlit travel” piece); Sòng Wéi sī mǎ bié 送韋司馬別 (parting); the Yǒng zǎo méi 詠早梅 series (foundational for the yǒng wù tradition of plum-blossom poetry); Yǔ Sū Jiǔ Dé yè zuò shī 與蘇九德夜坐詩; Lín hǎi rì chū fā 臨海日初發. Mid-Táng to late-Táng poetics from Dù Fǔ to Lǐ Shāngyǐn 李商隱 explicitly cite Hé as a stylistic forebear.

Translations and research

  • Joseph Wagner. 1986. The Lotus Boat: The Origins of Chinese Tz’u Poetry. Columbia UP — discusses Hé as part of the gōng-tǐ lineage that fed into cí.
  • Wú Pèilín 吳培林. 2008. Hé Xùn jí jiào zhù 何遜集校註. Wén-jīn — the principal modern critical edition.
  • Lǐ Bóqí 李伯齊, ed. 1989. Hé Xùn jí 何遜集. Zhōnghuá. Earlier critical edition.
  • David R. Knechtges. 2014. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, vol. 1. Brill, s.v. Hé Xùn — the standard English reference article.
  • Stephen Owen. 2018. “From the Han through the Tang,” in The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù tíyào’s discrimination of biān 邊 from pàn 畔 in the imitation of Qīngqīng hé biān/pàn cǎo is a useful philological case — the Hàn predecessor texts (one by Cài Yōng 蔡邕 with biān, one in the Gǔ shī shí jiǔ shǒu with pàn attributed to Méi Shèng 枚乘) circulated in parallel, and confusion of the two opens a window onto Míng-period editorial habits with respect to HànWèi gǔ shī.

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