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徐孝穆集箋注

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Text ID
KR4b0019
Date
1666–1722
Dynasty
陳 (commentary 清)

Xú Xiàomù jí jiānzhù 徐孝穆集箋注

Annotated Edition of the Collected Works of Xú [Líng] Xiào-mù by 徐陵 (撰), 吳兆宜 (註)

About the work

Xú Xiàomù jí jiānzhù 徐孝穆集箋注 in six juǎn (with the Chénshū běnzhuàn 陳書本傳 in one appended juǎn) is the early-Qīng jiānzhù (interpolated annotation) edition of Xú Líng’s collected works, by Wú Zhàoyí 吳兆宜 of Wújiāng — the same annotator as KR4b0017 Yǔ Kāifǔ jí jiānzhù. Wú did not live to complete the Xú project; his fellow countryman Xú Wénbǐng 徐文炳 supplemented the unfinished apparatus and brought it to publication. The collection covers the brilliant LiángChén transition writer Xú Líng 徐陵 (507–583), zì Xiàomù 孝穆, the literary partner of Yǔ Xìn 庾信 in the XúYǔ tǐ 徐庾體 of gōngtǐ parallel-prose tradition, compiler of the Yùtái xīnyǒng 玉臺新詠, and the first-rank diplomat-stylist of the Chén court.

Tiyao

By Xú Líng 徐陵 of the Chén. Annotated by Wú Zhàoyí 吳兆宜 of the present dynasty. Líng, zì Xiàomù 孝穆, of Dōnghǎi Tán 東海郯, son of the Liáng Tàizǐ Zuǒwèi shuài Xú Chī 徐摛. At eight he could compose; on maturing he ranged through shǐjí (history-and-collected-writings); already in the Liáng he was famous for prose. Entering the Chén, he held in succession shìzhōng, Ānyòu jiāngjūn, Zuǒ guānglù dàifū, Nán Xúzhōu dà zhōngzhèng, Jiànchāngxiàn kāiguóhóu; posthumous title Zhāng 章. Career in Chén shū biography.

The Suíshū jīngjí zhì records Líng’s collection in 30 juǎn, long since lost. The present edition is a later aggregation from the Yìwén lèi jù 藝文類聚, Wén yuàn yīng huá 文苑英華, and other compendia. Líng’s prose is rich and dense, equal in fame with 庾信; the world calls them the XúYǔ tǐ 徐庾體. The Chén shū biography praises his composition as “deftly knit, full of new conceptions”; from the founding of the Chén, all xí (manifestos), military shū, and chán shòu zhào cè (proclamations of dynastic transfer) were produced by Líng — a literary leader of the dynasty. The collection had no annotated tradition. Wú Zhàoyí, having annotated Yǔ Xìn’s collection, took up Líng’s; he did not finish; his fellow countryman Xú Wénbǐng 徐文炳 continued and completed the present edition.

In the work the cross-reference with Zī zhì tōng jiàn 資治通鑑 is illuminating: the Tōng jiàn records that in Liáng Wǔdì Tàiqīng 2 (548) the court sent the Jiànkāng lìng Xiè Tǐng 謝挺 and Sǎnjì chángshì Xú Líng et al. on a mission to Eastern Wèi. Hú Sānxǐng’s 胡三省 commentary observes that the Jiànkāng lìng has zhì of 1,000 shí and the Sǎnjì chángshì of 2,000 shí — Xiè Tǐng should not be ranked above Xú Líng — and concludes that Líng was the xíngmìng (commander of the mission) while Xiè merely accompanied. But the Zài BěiQí yǔ Yáng púshè shū 在北齊與楊僕射書 in this collection has Xú say: “Xiè Chángshì this year is fifty-one, and I this year forty-four; jiè already knows fate, bīn yet leans on the xiāng staff.” So Xiè Tǐng was in fact the chief envoy and Xú accompanied with the borrowed title of Sǎnjì chángshì. The Tōng jiàn simply listed his actual office, and Hú’s correction is therefore unnecessary; consulting Xú’s collection corrects Hú’s interpolation.

But Wú’s annotation passes over this — he is mainly concerned with collecting word-and-line references rather than checking history-and-biography. Yet his glossing of the cízǎo 詞藻 (rhetorical phrasing) is sufficient for purposes of ready reference, so it has continued to circulate alongside the Yǔ commentary down to today.

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

Abstract

Xú Líng (507–583), zì Xiàomù 孝穆, native of Dōnghǎi Tán 東海郯 (modern eastern Shāndōng), is the great LiángChén transition stylist and the literary twin of Yǔ Xìn 庾信. Son of Xú Chī 徐摛, the Liáng-Wǔ-dì-era Tàizǐ Zuǒwèi shuài and master of the gōngtǐ style. Xú Líng was a child prodigy — composing prose at eight, mastering Zhuāngzǐ and Lǎozǐ at twelve. He served the Liáng from young manhood, was retained as hostage in the Northern Qí for some years (552–555) following the Hóu Jǐng catastrophe, returned to take a leading role in the founding of the Chén, and rose under Chén Wǔdì and Chén Wéndì to shìzhōng, Ānyòu jiāngjūn, Zuǒ guānglù dàifū, Nán Xúzhōu dà zhōngzhèng, and Jiànchāngxiàn kāiguóhóu. He is the Yùtái xīnyǒng 玉臺新詠 compiler — the great anthology of gōngtǐ love poetry, prepared at the command of Liáng Jiǎnwéndì (Xiāo Gāng) — and the principal Chén diplomatic stylist (xí, military shū, chán shòu zhào cè).

The original 30-juǎn recension recorded by Suíshū jīngjí zhì was long lost; the present six-juǎn edition is a later aggregation from Yìwén lèi jù and Wén yuàn yīng huá, with annotation begun by Wú Zhàoyí 吳兆宜 (after his Yǔ Xìn project) and completed by Xú Wénbǐng 徐文炳. The dating bracket here (1666–1722) covers the Kāngxī era of Wú’s incomplete jiānzhù and Xú Wénbǐng’s completion. Wú’s annotation is criticized by the Sìkù compilers as too narrowly focused on rhetorical phrasing and insufficiently historical-philological; but they preserve it as the only jiānzhù available for Xú Líng (no analog of Ní Fán’s Yǔ Zǐshān jí zhù exists for Xú).

The signature works in the corpus are: the Yùtái xīnyǒng xù 玉臺新詠序 (one of the great prefaces of medieval Chinese literature, the foundational document of the gōngtǐ aesthetic); the Zài BěiQí yǔ Yáng púshè shū 在北齊與楊僕射書 (the great political letter from his Northern-Qí captivity); the Wèi Liáng Zhènxī Wáng zhī Yángzhōu zhāo Mùróng Hóng 為梁鎮西王之揚州招慕容紘 (a Liáng-period military xí); the dynastic chán shòu zhào of the Chén; the Liáng Yuándì āi cè wén 梁元帝哀冊文 (the great state funerary cǎi); the Tàijí diàn míng 太極殿銘.

Translations and research

  • David R. Knechtges. 2014. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, vol. 1. Brill, s.v. Xú Líng — the standard English reference article.
  • Anne Birrell, tr. 1982. New Songs from a Jade Terrace: An Anthology of Early Chinese Love Poetry, Translated with Annotations and an Introduction. Penguin / Allen & Unwin. Translation of the Yùtái xīnyǒng — Xú’s compilation.
  • John Marney. 1976. Liang Chien-wen Ti. Twayne — useful for the gōng-tǐ milieu in which Xú came of age.
  • Xǔ Yì-mín 許逸民, ed. 1985. Xú Xiào-mù jí jiān-zhù 徐孝穆集箋注. Zhōnghuá. Modern critical edition based on Wú Zhàoyí.
  • Liú Wén-zhōng 劉文忠. 1989. Xú Líng yán jiū 徐陵研究. Wǔhàn — substantial PRC monograph.
  • Cynthia L. Chennault. 2003. “Xu Ling (507–583).” Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, vol. 2.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù tíyào’s use of Xú’s own Zài BěiQí yǔ Yáng púshè shū to correct Hú Sānxǐng’s commentary on the Tōng jiàn — by pointing to the line where Xú gives his own age as 44 and Xiè Tǐng’s as 51 (so Xiè must have been the chief envoy after all) — is a model case of using primary literary sources to correct received historiographical interpretation. Wú Zhàoyí’s failure to spot this point exemplifies the limit of his philological method: he treated Xú’s letters as displays of cízǎo (rhetorical ornament) rather than historical sources.

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