Chén Sī Wáng jí 陳思王集
Collected Works of the Prince of Chen (Cao Zhi, Reconstructed) by 曹植 (撰)
About the work
A reconstructed collection (jíyìběn 輯佚本) of the literary writings of Cáo Zhí 曹植 (192–232 CE), Prince of Chén 陳王, zì Zǐjiàn 子建. Organized in ten juǎn, the collection opens with the 〈東征賦〉 (Rhapsody on the Eastern Campaign, composed 建安 19 [214 CE], with Cáo Zhí’s own first-person preface identifying himself as “典禁兵衛官省” — official in charge of the palace guards — confirming authorship context). The 〈酒賦〉, 〈幽思賦〉, and other characteristic fù, as well as memorials signed “臣植言” (Your servant Zhi states), prose letters, and verse are among the surviving fragments. Compiled by Zhāng Pǔ 張溥 for his Hàn Wèi Liùcháo bǎisān jiā jí 漢魏六朝百三家集. This jíyìběn is distinct from the transmitted Cáo Zhí jí editions held elsewhere; the Kānripo corpus does not include a WYG edition of Cáo Zhí’s collected works under this entry.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source. This text is an extra-catalog reconstruction not included in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書.
Abstract
Cáo Zhí 曹植 (192–232 CE; zì Zǐjiàn 子建; CBDB id 30270), enfeoffed as Prince of Chén 陳王 and posthumously titled Sī 思 (giving the style Chén Sī Wáng 陳思王), was the third son of Cáo Cāo 曹操 and younger brother of Cáo Pī 曹丕. He is widely regarded as the greatest poet of the Wèi dynasty and one of the towering figures of the entire classical Chinese poetic tradition. His biography is in Sān guó zhì (Wèishū, juǎn 19). He nearly succeeded Cáo Cāo as the heir of the Wèi domain — his father is said to have long favored him — but lost the succession struggle to his older brother Cáo Pī, allegedly due to his dissolute behavior. After Cáo Pī became emperor (220 CE), Cáo Zhí was kept under close surveillance, frequently transferred between fiefdoms, and prevented from exercising any real power. He died in 232 CE. As Wilkinson records: Cáo Zhí “used the term [Dongyi 東夷] as an insult … to the kingdom of Wu,” illustrating how the vocabulary of the period carried political valence (Chinese History: A New Manual, §23.2). See 曹植 for full biography.
Cáo Zhí’s literary achievements span verse, fù, and prose letters. His 〈洛神賦〉 (Rhapsody on the Nymph of the Luo River) is one of the most celebrated works in all of Chinese literature, combining elaborate mythological imagery with a veiled narrative of frustrated longing (traditionally interpreted as allegorizing his separation from the Lady Zhēn 甄氏, or, alternatively, his frustrated political ambitions). His 〈白馬篇〉, 〈名都篇〉, and series of yuefu adaptations set the standard for five-character verse in the Wei period. Zhōng Róng 鍾嶸 in the Shī pǐn 詩品 placed him in the upper grade and hailed him as the supreme master of five-character verse for ten generations. The Suíshū Jīngjí zhì records a collected works of thirty juǎn. Zhāng Pǔ’s reconstruction assembles surviving texts from across encyclopaedic and literary sources. The standard reconstruction of his poetry is in Lù Qīnlì 逯欽立’s Xiān-Qín Hàn Wèi Jìn Nánběicháo shī 先秦漢魏晉南北朝詩 (Zhōnghuá, 1983).
Translations and research
- Knechtges, David R. Wen Xuan, or Selections of Refined Literature. Princeton University Press, 1982–1996. Translations of several Cao Zhi works.
- Holzman, Donald. “Ts’ao Chih and the Immortals.” Asia Major, 3rd ser., 1.1 (1988): 15–57.
- Knechtges, David R., and Taiping Chang, eds. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide. Leiden: Brill, 2010–2014. Entry on Cao Zhi.
- Tian, Xiaofei. The Halberd at Red Cliff: Jian’an and the Three Kingdoms. Harvard University Press, 2018.
- 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.
Links
- Wikipedia: Cao Zhi