Xún Xù jí 荀勖集
Collected Works of Xun Xu (Reconstructed) by 荀勖 (撰)
About the work
A reconstructed collection (jíyìběn 輯佚本) of the literary and official writings of Xún Xù 荀勖 (d. 289 CE), the Western Jìn 西晉 Director of the Imperial Library (Mìshū jiān 祕書監), bibliographer, and musicologist. Organized in two juǎn, the surviving fragments are preserved primarily in the Tàipíng yùlǎn 太平御覽 under the attribution 《荀勖集》, and include occasional poetry such as 〈從武帝華林園宴〉 (Attending Emperor Wu’s Feast in the Hua Lin Garden) and other court compositions, as well as memorial and administrative writings.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source. This text is an extra-catalog reconstruction not included in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書.
Abstract
Xún Xù 荀勖 (zì Gōngzēng 公曾; d. 289 CE) was one of the most powerful and intellectually influential officials of the Western Jìn court. His bibliographic work — the Jìn Zhōngjīng bù 晉中經簿 — established the four-branch (jīng / shǐ / zǐ / jí 經史子集) classification system that governed Chinese imperial bibliography for the next fifteen centuries (see also 荀勖). He chaired the commission that collated the Jízhǒng 汲冢 bamboo-slip archive discovered in 281, worked alongside 束晳 Shù Xī. As court musicologist he reformed the pitch-standards of the Tàiyuè 太樂.
His surviving literary compositions reflect his role as a courtier: 〈從武帝華林園宴〉 (two poems accompanying Jìn Wǔdì 晉武帝 at the Hua Lin Garden) and 〈三月三日從華林園〉 are typical yuyuan 御苑 court verse. The Suíshū Jīngjízhì lists a Xún Xù jí 荀勖集 in five juǎn, but it did not survive. The Tàipíng yùlǎn 御覽 (vols. 222, 265) cites from it directly. Zhāng Pǔ 張溥 included a Xún Gōngzēng jí 荀公曾集 in his Hàn Wèi Liùcháo bǎisān jiā jí 漢魏六朝百三家集.
Translations and research
- Nugent, Christopher M.B. Manifest in Words, Written on Paper: Producing and Circulating Poetry in Tang Dynasty China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2010. (Background on pre-Tang bieji survival.)
Links
- Wikipedia: Xun Xu