張燕公集

Zhāng Yāngōng jí 張燕公集

Collected Works of Duke Yān of Zhāng (Zhāng Shuō) by 張說 (撰)

About the work

Zhāng Yāngōng jí 張燕公集 in 25 juǎn is the surviving collection of Zhāng Shuō 張說 (667–731), the Chángān / Luòyáng literary statesman whose two terms as zǎixiàng under Xuánzōng made him — together with his counterpart Sū Tǐng 蘇頲 (Yánguó gōng 燕國公 paired with Xǔguó gōng 許國公, hence the contemporary couplet YānXǔ shǒubǐ 燕許手筆) — one of the two arbiters of court literary style at the opening of the Kāiyuán period. The Yānguó in the title is from his enfeoffment as Yānguó gōng 燕國公. The collection contains fù, gǔshī, lǜshī, juéjù, zhèn, zhèncí, biǎo, zhuāng, qǐ, xù, bēi, mùzhìmíng, and the substantial body of cè 策 (examination-question rubrics) and biǎopī 表批 (memorial responses) that Zhāng drafted in his capacity as imperial zhìgào 制誥.

Tiyao

Zhāng Yāngōng jí in 25 juǎn was composed by Zhāng Shuō of the Táng. Shuō’s zì was Dàojì 道濟, alternatively Shuōzhī 説之, a Luòyáng man, who rose to zuǒ chéngxiàng 左丞相 and was enfeoffed as Yānguó gōng 燕國公; his career is recorded in his Tángshū biography. His prose is diǎnlì hóngshàn 典麗宏贍 (“classically refined and richly extensive”); in his time he was paired with Sū Tǐng 蘇頲, and most of the great court compositions came from his hand — together they were known as the YānXǔ. The Tángshū yìwén zhì records his collection as 30 juǎn; the version transmitted today stops at 25 juǎn, but the Sòng-period bibliographers all already record 25, so the 5-juǎn loss is old.

The collection’s Yuán Chǔshì jié míng 元處士碣銘 says the preface was composed by the jiāngzuò shǎojiàn 將作少監 [Yuán] Xíngchōng 行冲, the subject’s son; but the Tángshū biography of Xíngchōng does not record him in this office. The Liúshǒu zòu Qìngshān lǐquán biǎo 留守奏慶山醴泉表 cites “the magistrate of Wànnián xiàn 萬年縣, Zhèng Gùzhōng 鄭固忠, reporting that on the 14th of the 6th month, in the Bàlíng xiāng 霸陵鄉 [of Wànnián], a Qìngshān and lǐquán appeared”; the Tángshū Wǔhòu biography reports the same omen as occurring at Xīnfēng xiàn 新豐縣. In all such cases there are discrepancies between the zhuàn and the present collection’s witness; but Zhāng Shuō, writing at the time, can hardly have been wrong, and the Tángshū’s laxness must therefore be considerable. This is why the old text-witnesses of this collection are valuable.

The collection was first printed in the Jiājìng 嘉靖 period (1522–1566) by Zhāng Shuō’s descendants; this print is full of errors and lacunae. The Sìkù compilers cross-checked the Tángshū biography, the Wén yuàn yīng huá 文苑英華, and the Wéncuì 文粹, and recovered from these sources 60-some pieces not in the transmitted collection: 1 sòng, 1 zhèn, 18 biǎo, 2 shū, 6 zhuàng, 3 cè, 1 pīdá, 11 xù, 1 qǐ, 2 shū, 1 lùbù, 4 bēi, 9 mùzhì, 1 xíngzhuàng. These were arranged by genre and inserted at the appropriate places, the original ordering errors corrected, and the collection re-divided into 25 juǎn — restoring something close to a complete text.

(Reverently collated and submitted in the twelfth month of Qiánlóng 46 = 1781. 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 Tángshū yìwén zhì records Zhāng Yāngōng jí in 30 juǎn; the Sòng Chóngwén zǒngmù and Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí already give 25 juǎn, so the loss of 5 juǎn predates the Sòng. The transmitted text is a Jiājìng-period (1522–1566) family print by Zhāng Shuō’s descendants, full of typesetting errors. The Sìkù augmentation — adding 60-some pieces from Wén yuàn yīng huá and Wéncuì, with deliberate genre-reorganization — is the principal editorial labor of the tíyào compilers, and the WYG print is therefore one of the rare cases in which the Sìkù significantly expanded the available corpus rather than merely transmitting it.

Zhāng Shuō (667–731 per CBDB; the catalog meta gives 667–730, one year displaced) was a Hénán 河南 Luòyáng native; zì Dàojì 道濟 (alt. Shuōzhī 説之). Top of the Cè xiánliángfāngzhèng 賢良方正 examination of Yǒngchāng 1 (689). Successively fèngtàizǔ wén 奉太祖文, Mìshūshěng 秘書省 deputy, and Zǐbù shàngshū 紫微舍人; in his middle career a key conspirator in the 705 court coup that restored Zhōngzōng. Twice zǎixiàng under Xuánzōng (in Kāiyuán 1 = 713 and Kāiyuán 9 = 721); enfeoffed as Yānguó gōng 燕國公 in Kāiyuán 17 (729). His political career was punctuated by exiles — first to Láizhōu 萊州 in 716 over a dispute with Yáo Chóng 姚崇, then briefly to Yuèzhōu 岳州 in 728 over a dispute with Yǔwén Róng 宇文融 — both productive of substantial occasional verse. He died in office in Kāiyuán 18 (731).

In court literary terms, Zhāng was the senior arbiter of the Kāiyuán generation: his pairing with Sū Tǐng 蘇頲 (the YānXǔ couplet) made the two of them effectively the official drafters of all major zhìgào 制誥 in the early Kāiyuán; his patronage of younger poets — Hè Zhīzhāng 賀知章, Wáng Hàn 王翰, and through them indirectly Lǐ Bái 李白 李白 — made him a critical mediator between the late-Wǔ-zhōu generation and the High Táng.

Translations and research

• Stephen Owen. 2013. The Poetry of the High Tang: An Anthology with Annotated Translations. Lib. of Chinese Humanities. The most extensive English-language treatment of Zhāng Shuō’s poetry in context.
• Xu Pengxue 徐鵬學, ed. 2013. Zhāng Yān-gōng jí jiān-zhù 張燕公集箋注. Zhōnghuá. The principal modern annotated edition.
• Yùwén Suǒ-ān 宇文所安 / Stephen Owen. 1981. The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T’ang. Yale UP.
• Denis Twitchett. 1992. The Writing of Official History under the T’ang. CUP. Important context for Zhāng’s zhì-gào and biǎo drafting career.
• Wǔ Yún 武芸, ed. 1986. Zhāng Shuō nián-pǔ 張說年譜.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù tíyào is unusually frank about the Tángshū’s historiographical errors — citing two specific cases (the misattribution of Yuán Xíngchōng’s office, and the confusion of Wànnián and Xīnfēng as the site of an early Wǔzhōu portent) where Zhāng Shuō’s contemporary witness must override the standard history. This is one of the cleaner examples of the Sìkù compilers using a literary collection as a primary historiographical source.

Links

• Zhang Shuo (Wikipedia)
• Zhang Shuo (Wikidata Q713112)
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §54 (Tang literature).