聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

杜詩詳註

6 min read

Text ID
KR4c0020
Date
1693–1693
Dynasty
唐 (annotated 清)

Dù shī xiángzhù 杜詩詳註

Detailed Annotated Edition of Dù Fǔ’s Poetry by 仇兆鰲 (撰)

About the work

Dù shī xiángzhù 杜詩詳註 in 25 juǎn (23 of poetry + 2 of prose, with 2 appended juǎn of Bǔzhù 補注) is the standard pre-modern critical and annotated edition of Dù Fǔ — the work of Qiú Zhàoáo 仇兆鰲 (1638–1717) of Yínxiàn 鄞縣 (modern Níngbō, Zhèjiāng). Qiú submitted the work to the throne in Kāngxī 32 (1693) while serving as a biānxiū 編修 of the Hànlínyuàn; the imperial endorsement (he was subsequently promoted to lìbù shìláng 吏部侍郎) gave the edition a quasi-official status. The editorial program: (a) reorganize the 1,500-poem corpus into careful chronological order, with each poem dated; (b) under each poem, provide a quánshì 詮釋 (paraphrase / interpretation) of the meaning followed by zhēngyǐn diǎngù 徵引典故 (citation of allusions); (c) absorb and rationalize the SòngYuán qiānjiā zhù tradition, deleting the spurious LǎoDù shìshí and Sūzhù fabrications; (d) supplement with substantial Qīng kǎojù on diction, prosody, and historical reference.

The two appended Bǔzhù juǎn contain Qiú’s later additions (made after the 1693 court submission); the original zǒngmù (master table of contents) lists further volumes (Fǎng Dù jí Dù 倣杜集杜 etc.) which were planned but never completed.

Tiyao

Dù shī xiángzhù in 25 juǎn, with 2 juǎn of Bǔzhù, by Qiú Zhàoáo of the present dynasty. Zhàoáo’s zì was Cāngzhù 滄柱, a Yínxiàn man, jìnshì of Kāngxī yǐchǒu (1685), who rose to lìbù shìláng. The book is what Zhàoáo offered to the court when he was biānxiū in Kāngxī 32 (1693). 23 juǎn of poetry annotation, 2 juǎn of prose annotation, 2 juǎn of Bǔzhù — and the master table from juǎn 28 onward lists Fǎng Dù, Jí Dù and other titles that were planned but never realized; he must have intended to extend the work but did not finish.

For each poem the text is divided into duànluò 段落 (passages), with quánshì wényì 詮釋文義 first, followed by zhēngyǐn diǎngù at the end. The treatment makes use of the lèishū 類書 (encyclopaedias), with some small errors. For example, the note on wàngjī duì fāngcǎo 忘機對芳草 cites a Gāoshì zhuàn 高士傳 line “Yè Gàn 葉幹 wàngjī” — but the present Gāoshì zhuàn has no such passage; even the Tàipíng yùlǎn quote of the Xí Kāng Gāoshì zhuàn, almost two juǎn, has no such passage. Similarly the note on xiāo gàn yōuyú zhěn 宵旰憂虞軫 fails to recognize that the binom xiāogàn is from Xú Líng’s 徐陵 prose; he cites the Zuǒzhuàn note for gànshí 旰食 and the Yílǐ note for xiāoyī 宵衣 — but Zhèng’s note has xiāo = xiāo 綃 (silk), not the xiāo of xiāodàn 宵旦. The Yín Dù 吟杜 juǎn prints a poem by Xú Zēng 徐增 from Shuō Táng shī 説唐詩 — “Fó ràng Wáng Wéi zuò, cái lián Lǐ Bái kuáng 佛讓王維作才憐李白狂” (the Buddha let Wáng Wéi do it, his talent pitied the wild Lǐ Bái) — using Wáng’s Buddhist temperament and Lǐ’s wildness as a foil for Dù’s jǐnyán 謹嚴 (rigor); but Qiú changes the upper line to “Fù sì Xiāngrú yì 賦似相如逸” (his fù is as relaxed as Xiàngrú’s), violating the original sense. Such cases are found here and there, and the work cannot be relied on as authoritative on every detail.

But the citations are abundant and free of the Qiānjiā zhù’s habit of fabricating gùshì. As a whole, the book is exceptionally usable as a research aid. For example, in the Zhū jiāng 諸將 first poem, the zǎo shí jīnwǎn chū rénjiān 早時金盌出人間 line: the older annotators cite the Hàn Wǔ gùshì 漢武故事 Màolíng yùwǎn (jade bowl) but this is jīnwǎn not yùwǎn; or they cite Sōushén jì 搜神記 Lú Chōng 盧充 jīnwǎn — but that has nothing to do with Hàn cháo língmù (Hàn-dynasty tombs). Qiú alone cites Dài Shūlún’s 戴叔倫 Zhìdé-period (756–757) couplet “Hànlíng dìzǐ huángjīnwǎn, Jìndài xiānrén báiyùguān 漢陵帝子黄金盌晋代仙人白玉棺” and argues that the reference must come from earlier histories, since lost. Such corrections are often beyond the older annotators.

(Reverently collated and submitted in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 = 1781.)

Abstract

Dù shī xiángzhù is the most comprehensive, careful, and authoritative pre-modern critical edition of Dù Fǔ — superseding (and absorbing) all the Sòng Qiānjiā zhù tradition (= KR4c0015, KR4c0017, KR4c0018). It is the foundational base of every subsequent serious edition: the modern Zhōnghuá Dù shī xiángzhù reprint (1979) is the principal text in modern Chinese-language DùFǔ studies; Stephen Owen’s 6-volume English translation (2016) uses Qiú’s text as its base. Qiú’s editorial structure — quánshì (paraphrase) followed by diǎngù (sourced allusions) — became the model for all subsequent Qīng-period annotated biéjí.

Qiú Zhàoáo (1638–1717; CBDB cbdbId per the meta) was a Yínxiàn (modern Níngbō) native; jìnshì of Kāngxī 24 (1685), aged 47 — a notably late examination success. After his court submission of Dù shī xiángzhù in Kāngxī 32 (1693), he rose successively to Hànlín shìjiǎng 翰林侍講 and lìbù shìláng 吏部侍郎, retiring in 1707. The 25-juǎn form is the original; the 2-juǎn Bǔzhù was added in his retirement, between 1707 and his death in 1717.

Translations and research

  • Stephen Owen, tr. 2016. The Poetry of Du Fu. 6 vols. De Gruyter (Library of Chinese Humanities). Uses Qiú Zhào-áo as base.
  • Zhōnghuá shū-jú, ed. 1979. Dù shī xiáng-zhù 杜詩詳註. 5 vols. The standard modern reprint.
  • William Hung. 1952. Tu Fu, China’s Greatest Poet. Harvard. Built directly on Qiú’s chronology.
  • David R. McCraw. 1992. Du Fu’s Laments from the South. UH Press.
  • Eva Shan Chou. 1995. Reconsidering Tu Fu. CUP.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù tíyào’s praise of Qiú’s kǎojù on the jīnwǎn (golden bowl) line — citing his triangulation through Dài Shūlún’s Zhìdé-period couplet to argue for a now-lost Tang-period historical source — is one of the cleaner illustrations of the Sìkù’s preferred editorial method: when an older allusion-trace cannot be recovered, the Sìkù-approved approach is to triangulate via second-tier Tang witnesses rather than to invent a Hàn or Wèi citation.

Graph View

Backlinks