駱丞集

Luò chéng jí 駱丞集

Collected Works of Magistrate Luò (Luò Bīn-wáng) by 駱賓王 (撰), 顏文選 (註)

About the work

Luò chéng jí 駱丞集 in 4 juǎn — the title using chéng 丞 (“vice-magistrate”) in reference to Luò Bīnwáng’s last office as Línhǎi chéng 臨海丞 — is a Míng-period 4-juǎn recension of the writings of Luò Bīnwáng 駱賓王 (627–684?), fourth of the Sì jié 四傑 (“Four Outstanding Ones”), with a running commentary (zhù 註) by the Míng jǐshìzhōng 給事中 Yán Wénxuǎn 顏文選 顏文選. The collection contains sòng, fù, gǔshī, lǜshī, juéjù, xù, biǎo, qǐ, shū, and zázhù; among the zázhù is the famous Dài Lǐ Jìngyè tǎo Wǔshì xí 代李敬業討武氏檄 (“Proclamation Against Wǔhòu, Drafted on Behalf of Lǐ Jìngyè”), the manifesto Luò composed for Lǐ Jìngyè’s 684 rising — a text Wǔhòu herself, on first reading, is said to have ordered to be circulated as a scolding to her chief ministers (“how could you have failed to recruit such a man?”).

Tiyao

The Luò chéng jí in 4 juǎn was composed by Luò Bīnwáng of the Táng. Bīnwáng of Yìwū 義烏 served up to shìyùshǐ 侍御史 and was demoted to Línhǎi chéng 臨海丞. Afterwards he joined Xú Jìngyè 徐敬業 in transmitting a proclamation to attack Wǔhòu; the troops were defeated and his fate is unknown. The events are set out in his biography in the Táng standard histories. In Zhōngzōng’s reign an edict called for the recovery of his writings; over a hundred pieces were obtained, and Xī Yúnqīng 郗雲卿 was commanded to edit them. Chén Zhènsūn’s 陳振孫 Shūlù jiětí 書錄解題 cites Yúnqīng’s old preface, which says he was “executed in the Guāngzhái disturbance at Guǎnglíng” — that is taken from Lǐ Xiàoyì’s 李孝逸 victory dispatch. Mèng Qǐ’s 孟棨 Běnshì shī 本事詩, however, says that Bīnwáng tonsured himself, traveled all the famous mountains, and that Sòng Zhīwèn 宋之問 met him at Língyǐn sì 靈隱寺, where Luò supplied the famous couplet “xù lóu guān cānghǎi rì, mén duì Zhèjiāng cháo 續樓觀滄海日門對浙江潮.”

Inspecting the present collection: Luò and Sòng Zhīwèn were on close terms — there are dedicated and parting pieces between them in Jiāngnán and Yǎnzhōu 兗州. They cannot have been strangers, so how should Sòng have failed to recognize him in person? Fēng Yǎn 封演 — a Tiānbǎo man, very close in date to Luò — records the xù lóu couplet in his Jiànwén jì 見聞記 but does not say it was Luò’s. Mèng Qǐ’s book is later, and only it has the story. Likely, the Wǔhòu changed Táng to Zhōu and people resented it, and the failure of Lǐ Jìngyè and Luò Bīnwáng was widely lamented, so this story was fabricated; Mèng Qǐ failed to verify it and incorporated it in error.

The collection is recorded as 10 juǎn in both Tángshū yìwén zhì; the Sòng yìwén zhì additionally lists a Bǎi dào pàn 百道判 in 3 juǎn — both now lost. The present 4-juǎn recension is a later compilation. The commentary is by the Míng jǐshìzhōng Yán Wénxuǎn 顏文選, whose attestations are sparse and faulty, almost without value; but in the absence of any other commentary tradition, and because a few of his notes are usable, it has been retained for reference.

(Reverently collated and submitted in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 41 = 1776. Chief compilers: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.)

Abstract

The Sòng catalogs (Chóngwén zǒngmù, Tángshū yìwén zhì) record a 10-juǎn Luò Bīnwáng wén jí 駱賓王文集 edited under Zhōngzōng by Xī Yúnqīng 郗雲卿; this is the version cited and abridged by all later anthologists. By the YuánMíng the 10-juǎn recension was already attenuated; the 4-juǎn version transmitted in the Sìkù WYG was assembled in the late Míng. Yán Wénxuǎn’s commentary is the only surviving running annotation of Luò; his interpretations of allusions are often loose, but the Sìkù compilers retained him in the absence of alternatives.

Luò Bīnwáng (627–684? per CBDB; the catalog meta gives only “d. 684”; CBDB followed for the conventional birth year) was a Wùzhōu 婺州 Yìwū 義烏 native (modern Yìwū in central Zhèjiāng), a child prodigy who according to legend composed the Yǒngé 詠鵝 (“Ode to the Goose”) at seven suì. After early service in the Liángwángfǔ 梁王府, he held a series of low offices culminating in shìyùshǐ 侍御史 and was imprisoned briefly under Gāozōng on a charge of corruption (the resulting Zài yù yǒng chán 在獄詠蟬, “Ode to the Cicada from Prison,” is one of the most-cited yǒngwù 詠物 lyrics of the early Táng). Demoted to Línhǎi chéng 臨海丞 — the title that gives the collection its name — and resigned. In Guāngzhái 1 (684) he joined Xú Jìngyè 徐敬業 (= Lǐ Jìngyè 李敬業) in his rebellion against Wǔhòu, drafting the famous tǎo Wǔ xí 討武檄 (“Proclamation Against Wǔ”); when the rebellion collapsed within a few months, Luò vanished — the standard histories say he was killed in the rout at Guǎnglíng 廣陵, but the Běnshì shī tradition records the alternative account of his tonsure and survival as a wandering monk, which Sū Shì 蘇軾 and others picked up. The Sìkù tíyào sets out the textual case for the LǐXiàoyì version against the MèngQǐ legend.

Translations and research

• Stephen Owen. 1977. The Poetry of the Early T’ang. Yale UP. Substantial chapter on Luò and the Four Outstanding Ones.
• Chen Xizhong 陳熙中, ed. 1985. Luò Bīn-wáng wén jí 駱賓王文集. Shànghǎi gǔjí. Modern critical edition.
• Huang Yi-zhen 黃懿楨. 2002. Luò Bīn-wáng yán-jiū 駱賓王研究. Wén-jīn. Substantial monograph.
• Paul W. Kroll. 1986. “The Significance of the Fu in the History of T’ang Poetry.” T’oung Pao — discussion of Luò’s fù.

Other points of interest

The Dài Lǐ Jìngyè tǎo Wǔshì xí — Wǔhòu’s reaction to which is preserved in Zīzhì tōngjiàn 資治通鑑 juǎn 203 — became one of the canonical examples of the xí 檄 (military proclamation) genre, regularly anthologized in the Wénxuǎn tradition and the imperial-examination zhīshū templates of the Sòng.

Links

• Luo Binwang (Wikipedia)
• Luo Binwang (Wikidata Q713093)
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §54 (Tang literature).