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江文通集

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Text ID
KR4b0015
Date
1758–1758
Dynasty
梁

Jiāng Wéntōng jí 江文通集

Collected Works of Jiāng [Yān] Wéntōng by 江淹 (撰), 梁賓 (編)

About the work

Jiāng Wéntōng jí 江文通集 in four juǎn preserves the writings of Jiāng Yān 江淹 (444–505), zì Wéntōng 文通, the late LiúSòng / Southern-Qí / early-Liáng poet best known as the author of the Hèn fù 恨賦 (fù on lamentations) and the Bié fù 別賦 (fù on partings) — twin pillars of medieval Chinese fù literature. The present recension is the Sìkù-WYG four-juǎn collation prepared by Liáng Bīn 梁賓 of Jǐyáng Kǎochéng 濟陽考城 — Jiāng’s hometown — in Qiánlóng wùyín (1758), conflating the older Wāng Shìxián 汪士賢 and Zhāng Pǔ 張溥 prints with the manuscript copy from the Tāng Bīn 湯斌 family of Suīzhōu 睢州.

Tiyao

Jiāng Yān’s collection in four juǎn, by Jiāng Yān 江淹 of the Liáng. Yān, zì Wéntōng 文通, of Jǐyáng Kǎochéng 濟陽考城. Served the Qí to guànjūn jiāngjūn lìbù shàngshū 冠軍將軍吏部尚書; entered the Liáng as jīnzǐ guānglù dàifū 金紫光祿大夫, enfeoffed Lǐlínghóu 醴陵侯, posthumous title Xiàn 獻. His Tóng jiàn zàn 銅劍贊 has been catalogued.

Yān’s zì xù zhuàn (autobiographical preface) says: from his youth to his maturity he never wrote a shū 書 (book), only a jí in ten juǎn. Examining the offices listed in his self-stated biography, he stops at zhōngshūshìláng 中書侍郎 — collating against the standard histories, this is the first year of Jiànyuán 建元 (479) — so anything written from Yǒngmíng 永明 (483) onward is not yet in the autobiographical version.

The old recension is now scattered. What circulates today is only the Shèxiàn 歙縣 Wāng Shìxián 汪士賢 print and the Tàicāng 太倉 Zhāng Pǔ 張溥 print. The present edition is what Liáng Bīn 梁賓 (a fellow countryman of Jiāng Yān, of Jǐyáng Kǎochéng) put together in Qiánlóng wùyín (1758), comparing the Wāng and Zhāng prints, and supplementing them with the Tāng Bīn 湯斌 family copy from Suīzhōu 睢州. The Wāng print lacks: Zhī jǐ fù 知己賦 (one piece), four lines of Jǐng fù 井賦, Tóng jiàn zàn 銅劍贊 (one piece), Yǒng měirén chūn yóu 詠美人春遊 (one piece), Zhēng yuàn 征怨 (one piece). The Zhāng print lacks: Wèi Xiāomǒu bài Tàifù Yángzhōu mù biǎo 為蕭某拜太傅揚州牧表 (one piece). All these are now restored.

Other restorations: in Dài zuì Jiāngnán sī běi guī fù 待罪江南思北歸賦, Zhāng’s print lacks the four-character title-head; in Shàngshū fú 尚書符, Zhāng lacks under the title the eight-character interlinear note “qǐ Dōuguān jūn jú fú lántái 起都官軍局符蘭臺”; in Wèi Xiāomǒu chóng ràng Yángzhōu biǎo 為蕭某重讓揚州表, the line “Rén Jūn fú fù tú zhī zhòng 任鈞符負圖之重”, Zhāng’s print is missing the character “fú 符”; in Wèi Xiāomǒu ràng Tàifù xiàngguó shí jùn jiǔ xī biǎo 為蕭某讓太傅相國十郡九錫表 (head), Zhāng’s print lacks the five characters “bèi jiǔ xī zhī lǐ 備九錫之禮”; in Shàng Jiànpíng Wáng shū 上建平王書 (end), Wāng’s print lacks the eight characters “cǐ xīn jì zhào sǐ qiě bù xiǔ 此心既照死且不朽”. All these have been corrected. The remaining character-and-line variants are also fully recorded as yì tóng 異同 readings.

For instance, in the Zá nǐ shī xù 雜擬詩序, the line fāng cǎo nìng gòng qì 芳草寧共氣 — this edition errs by writing qì 氣 as qì 棄 (the abandoned graph) — small mistakes are unavoidable, but on the whole this edition is better than the others. Reverently collated, third month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Chief compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief collator: Lù Fèichí.

(Note: the tíyào’s reference to Liáng Bīn editing in Qiánlóng wùyín is Qiánlóng 23 = 1758; the Sìkù collation date is 1778, twenty years later.)

Abstract

Jiāng Yān (444–505), one of the major figures of late-Southern-Dynasties literary culture, was originally placed at the heart of the Bié fù 別賦 / Hèn fù 恨賦 fù tradition; the famous adage jiāng láng cái jìn 江郎才盡 (“Master Jiāng’s talent has run dry”) — said to refer to Jiāng’s loss of poetic power in his later years — is so deeply attached to him that it became the figure-of-speech for any premature creative decline. The Liáng shū biography reports that he kept a zì xù (autobiographical preface) recording only ten juǎn up to ca. 479; the Suí zhì and Táng bibliographies record fuller editions. The transmission was disrupted; by MíngQīng times only the Wāng Shìxián 汪士賢 (Shèxiàn) and Zhāng Pǔ 張溥 (Bǎi sān jiā jí) editions circulated.

The Sìkù-WYG four-juǎn base text is the Qiánlóng 23 (1758) collation by Liáng Bīn 梁賓 of Jǐyáng Kǎochéng — Jiāng Yān’s home district; submission for the Sìkù in 1778. Liáng’s textual apparatus is exemplary: cross-collation against three independent witnesses (Wāng Shìxián, Zhāng Pǔ, Tāng Bīn family copy from Suīzhōu) with full yì tóng documentation; restoration of multiple omitted pieces (notably Zhī jǐ fù, Tóng jiàn zàn, Yǒng měirén chūn yóu, Zhēng yuàn, Wèi Xiāomǒu bài Tàifù biǎo); restoration of long-lost interlinear notes and missing lines.

The signature works that secure Jiāng Yān’s permanent reputation are: Hèn fù 恨賦 and Bié fù 別賦 (the great fù on lamentation and parting); Yún jiā fù 雲家賦; the Zá tǐ shī 雜體詩 series imitating thirty-odd earlier poets (a foundational document for medieval reception of HànWèiSòng poetry); the Yīnyáng dǎo lùn 陰陽倒論; the Tóng jiàn zàn 銅劍贊 (also separately classed under Yìshù 藝術 in the Suí zhì). Wilkinson notes Jiāng Yān as the author of one of the historiographies of Qí (annals-biography form), the lost Qí shǐ 齊史.

The dating window in the frontmatter (1758) reflects Liáng Bīn’s Qiánlóng 23 collation — the actual date of textual establishment for this recension. Earlier dating brackets for Jiāng Yān himself (444–505) are well-established by his Liáng shū biography and confirmed by CBDB.

Translations and research

  • Mark Bender. 1991. Style and the Sociopolitical Context: A Study of the Poetry of Chiang Yen (444–505). PhD diss., U. of Pennsylvania.
  • David R. Knechtges, tr. 1996. Wen xuan, or Selections of Refined Literature, vol. 3. Princeton UP — translates Hèn fù and Bié fù with extensive annotation.
  • Robert E. Hegel. 1981. “Style and Substance in Chinese Literary History,” in Critical Inquiry 7.4 — discusses Jiāng’s Zá tǐ shī.
  • Yú Shào-chū 俞紹初, ed. 1984. Jiāng Wéntōng jí huì zhù 江文通集彙註. Zhōnghuá. Standard modern critical edition.
  • Hú Zhī-jì 胡之驥, comp. 1980 [1599]. Jiāng Wéntōng wén jí huì zhù 江文通文集彙註. Shànghǎi gǔjí (reprint of the Wànlì-era variorum) — important Míng predecessor.
  • David R. Knechtges. 2014. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide. Brill, s.v. Jiāng Yān.

Other points of interest

The jiāng láng cái jìn legend — supposedly originating in Nán shǐ’s account of Jiāng’s dream of Guō Pú 郭璞 reclaiming a five-color brush — has so dominated reception that it has eclipsed the late-period prose works (the biǎo on Xiāo Yǎn / Liáng Wǔdì’s accession, the Yángzhōu mù biǎo sequence) preserved in this very volume, which display considerable late-period literary command. The Sìkù tíyào’s patient cataloging of Liáng Bīn’s restorations is therefore a small monument to Jiāng’s full Southern-Qí / early-Liáng career.

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