隋煬帝集

Suí Yángdì jí 隋煬帝集

Collected Works of Emperor Yang of Sui (Reconstructed) by 隋煬帝 (撰)

About the work

A reconstructed collection (jíyìběn 輯佚本) of the surviving literary writings of Emperor Yáng 隋煬帝 (569–618 CE), personal name Yáng Guǎng 楊廣, the second and last effective emperor of the Sui dynasty, organized in five juǎn. This is by far the largest collection in the KR4b0078–0087 range (ca. 12,500 lines), reflecting the emperor’s prolific literary output and the exceptional preservation effort of Zhāng Pǔ 張溥.

The five juǎn divide the corpus roughly as follows:

• Juǎn 1: Poetry — the most famous items include 〈飲馬長城窟行示從征群臣〉 (Yǐn mǎ Chángchéng kū xíng shì cónɡzhēng qúnchén, March to Water Horses at the Great Wall — Shown to the Officials on Campaign), a frontier ballad in imitation of the Han lèifǔ prototype, cited from Wényuān yīnghuá 文苑英華 juǎn 209, Lèifǔ shī jí 樂府詩集 juǎn 38, and Luò Qīnlì’s reconstruction of Sui poetry. Also includes 〈擬飲馬長城窟〉 and numerous court-occasion poems (yìng zhào 應詔) cited in Shī jì 詩紀 juǎn 120.
• Juǎn 2: Fù 賦 (rhapsodies) and miscellaneous prose — including the 〈歸藩賦〉 (Guī fān fù, Rhapsody on Returning to the Fief), cited in Běishǐ 北史 juǎn 83, and 〈神傷賦〉 (Shén shāng fù, Rhapsody on Spiritual Grief), cited in Běishǐ juǎn 14 (Xuānhuá fūrén Chén shì zhuàn); both rhapsodies are noted as lost (yì 佚) in the reconstruction.
• Juǎn 3: Imperial edicts (zhào 詔) and official documents — including the 〈為啟民可汗置城造屋詔〉 (Wèi Qǐmín kě hán zhì chéng zào wū zhào, Edict for Building a City and Houses for the Qimin Qaghan of the Turks), documenting Sui relations with the Eastern Türk confederation.
• Juǎn 4: Imperial correspondence — including 〈璽書荅啟民可汗〉 (Xǐ shū dá Qǐmín kě hán, Imperial Letter in Reply to the Qimin Qaghan) and letters to Buddhist ecclesiastics.
• Juǎn 5: Buddhist texts and letters — opening with 〈荅釋智顗遺旨文〉 (Dá Shì Zhìyǐ yízhǐ wén, Response to the Posthumous Instructions of Master Zhiyi), Yáng Guǎng’s reply to Zhìyǐ 智顗 (538–597), the founder of the Tiāntái 天台 school of Buddhism, with whom he had a close personal relationship dating to his years as Prince of Jin 晉王.

Tiyao

No tiyao found in source. This text is an extra-catalog reconstruction not included in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書.

Abstract

Yáng Guǎng 楊廣 (569–618 CE), posthumously styled Emperor Yáng 煬帝 of the Suí 隋, was the second son of Emperor Wen of Sui 隋文帝. He served as Viceroy of the south from Yangzhou following the Sui conquest of the Chén 陳 dynasty (589 CE), where he came under the influence of Southern literati culture and became a devoted patron of Southern-style poetry. He was an accomplished poet who helped set the literary tone for the early Tang court by championing the elegant, sensuous register of Liang-Chen palace verse.

As the Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature (Denecke et al. 2017, p. 949) notes, “Emperor Yang of Sui 隋煬帝 (569–618) was fascinated by Southern literature and culture… Emperor Yang’s beguilement by Southern literary culture was blamed for his own fall and the fall of his dynasty” by traditional critics. This retrospective moralizing colored the reception of his poetry for centuries. His literary output ranges from court-occasion verse (yìng zhào 應詔) and frontier ballads in lèifǔ style to Buddhist devotional writings and imperial edicts of great rhetorical elaboration. His relationship with the Tiāntái patriarch Zhìyǐ 智顗 (whom he met in 591 CE and with whom he remained in correspondence until Zhiyi’s death in 597) is documented in multiple items in the collection and provides important evidence for Buddhist history.

Zhāng Pǔ 張溥 compiled this reconstruction for the Hàn Wèi Liùcháo bǎisān jiā jí 漢魏六朝百三家集. The collected poems are also edited in Luò Qīnlì’s 逯欽立 Xiān Qín Hàn Wèi Jìn Nán-Běicháo shī (1983) and Dīng Fúbǎo’s 丁福保 Quán Suí shī 全隋詩. The present file notes (lines 12128 ff.) that the final nine poems in the file come from the appendix (fùlù 附錄) section of Dīng’s edition.

See 隋煬帝 for the full person note.

Translations and research

• Mather, Richard B. “The Mystical Ascent of the T’ien-t’ai Mountains.” Monumenta Serica 20 (1961). (Context for Sui Buddhist literary culture.)
• Forte, Antonino. Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh Century. Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1976. (Background on early Tang political culture, with Sui antecedents.)
• Denecke, Wiebke, Wai-Yee Li, and Xiaofei Tian, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature (1000 BCE–900 CE). Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. 949–952 on Emperor Yang’s literary patronage and Southern influence.
• Knechtges, David R., and Taiping Chang, eds. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide. Leiden: Brill, 2010–2014. Entry on Yang Guang / Emperor Yang of Sui.

Links

• Wikipedia: Emperor Yang of Sui
• Suíshū 隋書 juǎn 3–4 (imperial annals)
• Wényuān yīnghuá 文苑英華 juǎn 209 (poetry citations)
• Lèifǔ shī jí 樂府詩集 juǎn 38 (citations)