曲江集

Qǔjiāng jí 曲江集

Collected Works of [Zhāng] of Qǔ-jiāng (Zhāng Jiǔ-líng) by 張九齡 (撰)

About the work

Qǔjiāng jí 曲江集 in 20 juǎn — also transmitted as Táng chéngxiàng Qǔjiāng Zhāng xiān-sheng wén jí 唐丞相曲江張先生文集 (the SBCK title) — is the surviving collection of Zhāng Jiǔlíng 張九齡 (678–740), the last great kāiyuán-era zǎixiàng and the figure conventionally cited as the second of the great Lǐngnán 嶺南 statesmen (after Liú Zǎi 劉宰) and the Kāiyuán counterweight to Lǐ Línfǔ 李林甫. The Qǔjiāng in the title is from his native place: Qǔjiāng xiàn 曲江縣 in Sháozhōu 韶州 (modern Shàoguān 韶關, Guǎngdōng). The collection contains fù, gǔshī, lǜshī, juéjù, biǎo, zhuàng, qǐ, zhìgào (drafted in his court drafting capacity), jì, bēi, and mùzhìmíng. The 20-juǎn form goes back to a Sòng-period family edition; the SBCK reproduction descends from a Míng family print.

Tiyao

No tíyào in source. The KR4c0011 file in this corpus is digitized from the SBCK base, which preserves the original Qǔjiāng jí xù 曲江集序 (a Sòng-period family preface citing Zhāng Shuō’s 張說 famous evaluation of Zhāng Jiǔlíng as “the head of the post-coming generation of literary men” and Liǔ Zōngyuán’s 柳宗元 judgment that he united bǐxìng 比興 with the zhùshù 著述 traditions) but not the Sìkù tíyào. The Sìkù WYG 20-juǎn tíyào (V1066.2) survives in the Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào.

Abstract

The Tángshū yìwén zhì records Zhāng Jiǔlíng wén jí 張九齡文集 in 20 juǎn; the figure is preserved through every Sòng catalog (Chóngwén zǒngmù, Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì, Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí, Sòngshǐ yìwén zhì) and the transmitted text matches it in extent. The collection has therefore had a relatively complete transmission, unusual for a High-Táng prose corpus. The principal additions and corrections by the Sìkù compilers were of typographical errors in the Míng family print rather than recovery of lost matter.

Zhāng Jiǔlíng (678–740; CBDB confirms cbdbId 7088 / standard reference 678–740) was a Qǔjiāng xiàn 曲江縣 native of Sháozhōu 韶州, the first major literary figure of the Lǐngnán region and the Tángshū exemplar of the southerner who rose to high office at the Chángān court. Jìnshì of Chángān 2 (702); successively Mìshūshěng drafter, Zhōngshūshèng rén 中書舍人, Hénán fǔ wényán 河南府文掾, and (under Xuánzōng’s patronage) gōngbù shìláng 工部侍郎. Zhōngshū lìng 中書令 (Director of the Chancellery, effectively senior chief minister) from Kāiyuán 21 (733) until his fall from favor in Kāiyuán 24 (736), when he was banished to Jīngzhōu cìshǐ 荊州刺史 over Lǐ Línfǔ’s manipulations of the imperial succession debate (Zhāng had famously argued against An Lùshān’s 安祿山 promotion at his first audience). He died in office at Jīngzhōu in Kāiyuán 28 (740), aged 63.

His Gǎnyù 感遇 cycle of 12 archaic-style pentasyllabic poems — programmatically continuing the Gǎn yù tradition that Chén Zǐáng 陳子昂 had established a generation earlier — is the centerpiece of his poetry; Stephen Owen’s Great Age identifies the cycle as the principal direct model for Lǐ Bái’s 李白 Gǔ fēng 古風 series. His zhìgào drafting at the early-Kāiyuán court — in particular the famous Wáng Xúnyáng zé Sā xiá 王巡場責薩遐 (“Reproof of Sà Xiá”) and his memorials against An Lùshān’s preferment — became standard models of zhìgào prose. He is also credited with the foundational political memorial that recommended the Méiguān 梅關 (“Plum Pass”) road through the Dàyú lǐng 大庾嶺 — a route opened during his cìshǐ of Hóngzhōu 洪州 — which became the principal TángSòng land route from Lǐngnán to Jiāngnán.

Translations and research

• Stephen Owen. 2013. The Poetry of the High Tang: An Anthology with Annotated Translations. Library of Chinese Humanities. Substantial section on Zhāng’s Gǎn-yù cycle.
• Xióng Fēi 熊飛, ed. 2008. Zhāng Jiǔ-líng jí jiào-zhù 張九齡集校注. 3 vols. Zhōnghuá. The principal modern critical edition.
• Hé Gé-ēn 何格恩. 1965. Zhāng Jiǔ-líng nián-pǔ 張九齡年譜. Hong Kong: Lóng-mén. The standard chronological study.
• Pauline Yu. 1980. The Poetry of Wang Wei. Indiana UP. Important parallel discussion of Zhāng and his Kāi-yuán contemporaries.
• David L. McMullen. 1988. State and Scholars in T’ang China. CUP.

Other points of interest

The Jīnjiàn lù 金鑑錄 — a popular SòngYuánMíng didactic anthology attributed to Zhāng — is a known apocryphon; the SBCK preface explicitly notes that the editor read the Sháojùn 韶郡 print of it and recognized it as forged (“zhuózhī qí wěi 灼知其偽”). The genuine prose corpus preserved here is, by the standards of High-Táng biéjí, unusually intact.

Links

• Zhang Jiuling (Wikipedia)
• Zhang Jiuling (Wikidata Q713073)
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §54 (Tang literature); §28.7.4 (early-Kāi-yuán politics).