Chén Lín jí 陳琳集
Collected Works of Chen Lin (Reconstructed) by 陳琳 (撰)
About the work
A reconstructed collection (jíyìběn 輯佚本) of the literary writings of Chén Lín 陳琳 (?–217 CE), one of the Jiàn’ān qīzǐ 建安七子 (Seven Masters of the Jiàn’ān Era). Organized in two juǎn, the collection opens with the famous yuefu ballad 〈飲馬長城窟行〉 (Watering Horses at the Great Wall Moat), cited from the Yùtái xīnyǒng 玉臺新詠 (juǎn 1), the Shī jì 詩紀 (juǎn 16), and the Lèfǔ shījí 樂府詩集. Citations throughout are drawn from Sān guó zhì 三國志 annotations, Lèi jù 類聚, Wén xuǎn 文選, and other encyclopaedic sources. Prose works include the celebrated 〈為袁紹檄豫州文〉 (Proclamation Denouncing Cáo Cāo on Behalf of Yuán Shào), one of the most celebrated zhànwén 戰文 (proclamations of war) in Chinese literature. Compiled by Zhāng Pǔ 張溥 (1602–1641) for his Hàn Wèi Liùcháo bǎisān jiā jí 漢魏六朝百三家集.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source. This text is an extra-catalog reconstruction not included in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書.
Abstract
Chén Lín 陳琳 (?–217 CE; zì Kǒngzhāng 孔璋; CBDB id 14334) was a native of Guǎnglíng 廣陵 (modern Jiangsu). He served first as a secretary under Hé Jìn 何進 during the later Han court crisis, then under Yuán Shào 袁紹, and finally as a literary secretary (jì shì 記室) under Cáo Cāo 曹操 after the defeat of Yuán Shào at Guāndù 官渡 in 200 CE. His biography appears in Sān guó zhì (Wèishū 魏書 21) and Wén xuǎn annotations. He died in the epidemic of 217 CE that also claimed several other members of the Seven Masters. See 陳琳 for full biography.
Chen Lin’s literary reputation rests primarily on two achievements. First, his yuefu verse — particularly the 〈飲馬長城窟行〉, which transforms a pre-existing folk theme into an antiwar lament of great emotional power — was singled out for praise by later critics. Zhōng Róng 鍾嶸 in the Shī pǐn 詩品 ranked him in the middle grade. Second, his 〈為袁紹檄豫州文〉, which catalogued the crimes of Cáo Cāo in vivid and savage prose, became a model of the proclamation genre; the Wén xuǎn preserves it in full. The Suíshū 隋書 Jīngjí zhì records a collected works of Chen Lin in ten juǎn, long since lost. The present reconstruction was assembled by Zhāng Pǔ from citations in the Yùtái xīnyǒng, Shī jì, Lèi jù, Shū chāo 書鈔, Wén xuǎn annotations, and the Sān guó zhì annotations of Péi Sōngzhī 裴松之. Wilkinson notes that all the Seven Masters of the Jiàn’ān period have single-syllable names and that they collectively represent the flowering of early medieval literary culture in the orbit of Cáo Cāo (Chinese History: A New Manual, §34.2.3 cross-reference to “literary groups”). The standard collection of pre-Táng poetry, Lù Qīnlì 逯欽立’s Xiān-Qín Hàn Wèi Jìn Nánběicháo shī 先秦漢魏晉南北朝詩 (Zhōnghuá, 1983), provides the most authoritative reconstruction of Chen Lin’s verse.
Translations and research
- Knechtges, David R., and Taiping Chang, eds. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide. Leiden: Brill, 2010–2014. Entry on Chen Lin.
- Holzman, Donald. “Literary Criticism in China in the Early Third Century A.D.” Asiatische Studien 28 (1974): 113–149. (Discussion of the Jiàn’ān milieu.)
- Lù Qīnlì 逯欽立, ed. Xiān-Qín Hàn Wèi Jìn Nánběicháo shī 先秦漢魏晉南北朝詩. 3 vols. Zhōnghuá, 1983. Authoritative reconstruction of Chen Lin’s poetry.
Links
- Wikipedia: Chen Lin (poet)