李太白集注

Lǐ Tàibái jí zhù 李太白集注

Annotated Collected Works of Lǐ Tài-bái (Lǐ Bái), with Commentary by Wáng Qí by 李白 (撰), 王琦 (注)

About the work

Lǐ Tàibái jí zhù 李太白集注 in 36 juǎn (30 juǎn of text + 6 juǎn of fùlù 附錄) is the Qīng Qiánlóng 乾隆-era critical and annotated edition of Lǐ Bái by Wáng Qí 王琦 (zì Zhuóyái 琢崖, Qiántáng 錢塘 / Hángzhōu, fl. 1758). It is the standard reference edition of Lǐ Bái’s collection and the basis of all modern critical editions (including the Lǐ Bái jí jiàozhù 1977 of Hàn Wèi 韓威 et al.). Wáng’s editorial program was: (a) consolidate the text by collation across the known Sòng, Yuán, and Míng witnesses (including the Miào Yuēqí 1696 reprint = KR4c0012); (b) absorb the SòngYuán annotations of Yáng Qíxián 楊齊賢 and Xiāo Shìyún 蕭士贇 (= KR4c0013) and the Míng Lǐ shī tōng 李詩通 of Hú Zhènhēng 胡震亨 (1645); (c) supply substantial supplementary annotation, drawing especially on the Qīng kǎojù tradition; (d) restore the chronological 30-juǎn arrangement of Sòng Mǐnqiú / Zēng Gǒng; and (e) compile a 6-juǎn appendix collecting the prefaces, biographies, dedicatory verse, fāyǔ 發語 (LǐBái aphorisms), niánpǔ 年譜, and wàijì 外紀 (anecdotal materials).

Tiyao

Lǐ Tàibái jí zhù in 36 juǎn — by the present-dynasty Wáng Qí. Qí’s zì was Zhuóyái, a Qiántáng man. After Yáng Qíxián and Xiāo Shìyún, Lǐ Bái was annotated in the Míng by Lín Zhàokē 林兆珂, whose Lǐ shī chāo shùzhù 李詩鈔述註 in 16 juǎn is extremely thin; Hú Zhènhēng then refuted the older annotations and produced Lǐ shī tōng 李詩通 in 21 juǎn. Wáng Qí, judging Hú still too omissive, re-edited and annotated the corpus into the present text. The poems are collated against multiple witnesses, with recovered pieces inserted, in 30 juǎn — to match the figure given in Zēng Gǒng’s preface — supplemented by 6 juǎn of appendices (xù, zhì, bēizhuàn, zèngdá, tíyǒng, shīwén fāyǔ, niánpǔ, wàijì); the kǎoyì 考異 of Miào Yuēqí is dispersed beneath the relevant passages rather than carried as a separate juǎn. The annotations are intended to fill the gaps of the earlier three-school annotation tradition; their captures are wide, occasionally slipping into excess, but their gleaning of the discarded fragments often yields cùn yǒu suǒ cháng 寸有所長 (“an inch of value here and there”). SòngYuán annotations of Dù Fǔ are like a forest, but Lǐ Bái has only two or three; preserving this is therefore in line with the principle of valuing the rare. (Reverently collated and submitted in the eleventh month of Qiánlóng 46 = 1781.)

Abstract

Wáng Qí’s edition, completed in Qiánlóng 23 (1758) and printed in his lifetime, is the foundational modern critical edition of Lǐ Bái: every later scholarly edition (Hàn Wèi 1977; Yú Xiánhào 郁賢皓; the various Lǐ Bái quán jí jiàozhù projects) builds on it. The 30 juǎn of text follow SòngMǐnqiú / ZēngGǒng chronological arrangement; the 6 juǎn of appendix are unprecedented — Wáng was the first editor to gather the Sòng paratextual material (Lǐ Yángbīng’s preface, Wèi Hào’s preface, Sòng Mǐnqiú’s hòuxù, Lǐ Huā’s 李華 funerary inscription, the relevant Tángshū and Jiù Tángshū biographies, dedicatory verse by Dù Fǔ 杜甫, Hè Zhīzhāng 賀知章, and others) into a unified appendix.

Wáng Qí (CBDB cbdbId — none reliable; the catalog meta gives “fl. 1760” which is consistent) was a Qiántáng commercial-publishing scholar; in addition to the Lǐ Bái edition, he also produced standard annotated editions of Lǐ Hè 李賀 (the Lǐ Chángjí gēshī huìjiě 李長吉歌詩彙解, 1747) and contributed to several other Qīng kǎojù projects. He is sometimes confused with the slightly older Wáng Qí 王琦 of the late Míng Sān cái túhuì 三才圖會 — a different person.

The annotation drawn into the Sìkù version represents the standard Qiánlóng state of LǐBái scholarship: extensive gùshí 故實 references, careful disambiguation of allusions to yuèfǔ and Chǔcí, and a generally tactful disposition toward textual judgment (Wáng adopts Xiāo Shìyún’s deletion of the Guǎngwǔ huáigǔ but is otherwise reluctant to delete or rearrange).

Translations and research

• See KR4c0012 for general references on Lǐ Bái.
• Hàn Wèi 韓威 et al., eds. 1977. Lǐ Bái jí jiào-zhù 李白集校注. 4 vols. Shànghǎi gǔjí. Built directly on Wáng Qí’s edition with substantial modern kǎo-jù additions.
• Yú Xián-hào 郁賢皓. 1996. Lǐ Bái xuǎn jí 李白選集. Shànghǎi gǔjí.
• Stephen Owen. 2013. The Poetry of the High Tang. Library of Chinese Humanities — uses Wáng Qí’s text as base.

Other points of interest

The 6-juǎn appendix is itself a substantial scholarly resource: Wáng’s niánpǔ (revised from earlier YuánMíng niánpǔ by Xuē Tiānwéi 薛天緯 and others) is the most carefully argued pre-modern chronology of Lǐ Bái’s life, and the wàijì compendium of post-Tang anecdotal materials is the most comprehensive collection of the romantic LǐBái legend (the dolphin, the moon, the huājiān drinking, the death-by-drowning) up to its date.

Links

• See KR4c0012 and KR4c0013 for parallel editions.
• Li Bai (Wikipedia)
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §54 (Tang literature).