Táng Huángfǔ Rǎn shī jí 唐皇甫冉詩集
Collected Poetry of Huáng-fǔ Rǎn of the Táng (with Huáng-fǔ Zēng appended) by 皇甫冉 (撰), 皇甫曾 (撰), 張元濟 (撰校勘記)
About the work
Táng Huángfǔ Rǎn shī jí 唐皇甫冉詩集 in 7 juǎn — with appended Huángfǔ Zēng shī jí 皇甫曾詩集 — is the surviving collection of the brothers Huángfǔ Rǎn 皇甫冉 (ca. 716/719–770) and Huángfǔ Zēng 皇甫曾 (fl. ca. 760), two of the conventional ten Dàlì shí cáizǐ 大曆十才子 (“Ten Talented Men of the Dàlì period”). The transmitted text is the SBCK reproduction of a SòngYuán print descent, with critical-edition apparatus by Zhāng Yuánjì 張元濟 (1867–1959), the Mínguó 民國 editor of the SBCK series. The introductory xù by Dúgū Jí 獨孤及 獨孤及 (a contemporary of Rǎn’s; the zuǒ shíyí 左拾遺 mentioned in the title) is the principal biographical source for both brothers.
Tiyao
No tíyào in source. The KR4c0016 file is the SBCK base, which preserves Dúgū Jí’s preface and Zhāng Yuánjì’s jiàokān jì 校勘記. The Sìkù catalog records no separate WYG version of this bié jí; the brothers’ poetry is gathered into the Quán Táng shī 全唐詩 collation. The SBCK reproduction is therefore a peculiarly important witness for the Sòng biéjí state of these poets.
Abstract
The Sòng Tángshū yìwén zhì records Huángfǔ Rǎn shī jí in 3 juǎn; the Sòngshǐ yìwén zhì records 7 juǎn. The transmitted SBCK text in 7 juǎn of Rǎn + 8 juǎn of Zēng descends from a Sòng family-print line preserved through Wén yuàn yīng huá and the late-Yuán anthologies. The Dúgū Jí preface, dated implicitly to Dàlì 5 (770) just after Rǎn’s death, says the surviving collection at that point comprised 350 pieces (piān); the present text holds rather fewer, suggesting attrition.
Huángfǔ Rǎn (zì Màozhèng 茂政) was a Āndìng 安定 native (modern Jīngyuán 涇原, Gānsù), but long-resident at Wúxī 無錫 and Dānyáng 丹陽 in Jiāngnán. The grandson of an Āndìng magistrate Huángfǔ Jià 皇甫价 (the Lèpíng xiàn lìng 樂平縣令), nephew of the Mìshū shǎojiàn 秘書少監 Huángfǔ Bīn 皇甫彬, son of the Tánzhōu chángshǐ 潭州長史 Huángfǔ Yǐ 皇甫顗. Jìnshì zhuàngyuán (top jìnshì) of Tiānbǎo 15 (756). Successively Wúxī wèi 無錫尉, zuǒ jīnwú bīngcáo 左金吾兵曹, Hénánfǔ shūjì 河南府書記 (under the Hénán military governor); promoted zuǒ shíyí 左拾遺 in Dàlì 2 (767), zuǒ bǔquē 左補闕 thereafter. Died in office at Dānyáng in Dàlì 5 (770), aged about 54 by Dúgū Jí’s preface; CBDB and standard reference works conventionally give 716 or 719 as birth year.
Huángfǔ Zēng (zì Xiàocháng 孝常) was Rǎn’s younger brother. Jìnshì of Tiānbǎo 12 (753); successively jiānchá yùshǐ 監察御史 and Yángzhōu sīmǎ 陽州司馬. CBDB has no fixed dates.
The brothers’ poetry — concentrated in five-character lǜshī and juéjù on landscape and parting themes — is in the Wáng Wéi / Mèng Hàorán school of contemplative shānshuǐ verse, recognized in the Tángshū lièzhuàn and Stephen Owen’s Late Tang monograph as a key intermediate node between High-Tang nature poetry and the Yuán Hé 元和 generation.
Translations and research
- Stephen Owen. 2006. The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century. Harvard. Substantial discussion of the Dà-lì shí cái-zǐ generation as background.
- Pauline Yu. 1980. The Poetry of Wang Wei. Indiana UP. Contextualizes Huáng-fǔ Rǎn within the meditative shān-shuǐ tradition.
- Lin Wenyue 林文月. 1989. Dà-lì shí cái-zǐ 大歷十才子. Wén-jīn. Comprehensive monograph on the group.
- Jiang Yin 蔣寅. 1995. Dà-lì shī rén yán-jiū 大歷詩人研究. Bei-jing dáxué. Standard modern study.
Other points of interest
The Dúgū Jí preface explicitly grafts the Huángfǔ brothers onto the genealogy of fifth-character verse: from Guófēng through Lísāo, Sū / Lǐ, Cáo / Liú, the Six-dynasties decline, Shěn Quánqí 沈佺期 and Sòng Zhīwèn 宋之問 at the dawn of the Táng lǜshī, Cuī Hào 崔顥 and Wáng Wéi 王維 at the Kāiyuán, and the Dàlì poets of which Huángfǔ Rǎn is one of the inheritors — a useful early statement of the standard High-Táng poetic genealogy.
Links
- Huangfu Ran (Wikipedia)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §54 (Tang literature).