Wáng Yòuchéng jí jiānzhù 王右丞集箋注
Annotated Collected Works of Wáng Yòu-chéng (Wáng Wéi) by 王維 (撰), 趙殿成 (箋注)
About the work
Wáng Yòuchéng jí jiānzhù 王右丞集箋注 in 28 juǎn (with 1 juǎn of fùlù 附錄) is the standard pre-modern critical and annotated edition of Wáng Wéi 王維 — the work of Zhào Diànchéng 趙殿成 (zì Sōnggǔ 松谷, Rénhé 仁和 / Hángzhōu), prepared in the Yōngzhèng 雍正 reign (initial draft Yōngzhèng 6 = 1728) and completed in Qiánlóng 1 (1736). The book superseded the Míng-period Wáng Yòuchéng jí fēnlèi zhù 王右丞集分類注 by Gù Qǐjīng 顧起經 — which had annotated only the poetry and not the prose, and even there with errors — and remains the principal pre-modern reference for Wáng Wéi.
The arrangement: 6 juǎn of gǔtǐ shī (archaic-style poetry); 8 juǎn of jìntǐ shī (regulated poetry), both based on the Liú Chénwēng píngběn 評本 (KR4c0021); 1 juǎn of wàibiān 外編 (poetry preserved outside the standard collection); 13 juǎn of prose (biǎo, zhuàng, qǐ, xù, bēi, jì, zàn, jìwén); 1 juǎn of front matter (Wáng Jìn 王縉’s jìnbiǎo presenting the collection to Dàizōng, Dàizōng’s pīdá response, the Tángshū biography, shìxì genealogy, yíshì anecdotes, and contemporary harmonizing verse); and 1 juǎn of back matter (shī píng critical evaluations, huà lù painting catalogs, and niánpǔ).
Tiyao
Wáng Yòuchéng jí jiānzhù in 28 juǎn, with 1 juǎn appendix, by Zhào Diànchéng of the present dynasty. Diànchéng’s zì was Sōnggǔ, a Rénhé man. The WángWéi collection had earlier been annotated by Gù Qǐjīng’s fēnlèi zhù — but only the poetry, not the prose, and the poetry annotation has scattered errors and lacunae. Diànchéng began this work in Yōngzhèng wùshēn (1728) and completed it in Qiánlóng bǐngchén (1736). The arrangement: 6 juǎn of gǔtǐ shī, 8 juǎn of jìntǐ shī, all following the Yuán Liú Chénwēng píngběn; 1 juǎn of wàibiān for poems found outside the standard text or appearing in other works; 13 juǎn of prose, jointly annotated; 1 juǎn of front matter combining Wáng Jìn’s jìnbiǎo, Dàizōng’s pīdá, the Tángshū biography, shìxì, yíshì, and contemporary harmonization-poems; 1 juǎn of back matter combining shī píng, huà lù, and niánpǔ.
The niánpǔ belongs with the běnzhuàn and shìxì type, and the contemporary harmonization-poems belong with the shī píng / huà lù type — yet one is placed at the back and the other at the front, which is editorially incoherent. Also, since jíwài poems are placed in the wàibiān, the lùn huà 論畫 prose pieces (which are also jíwài, having been transmitted only through later sources) ought to be similarly separated, but they are mixed in with the main prose collection — the editorial uniformity is imperfect. But the overall arrangement has structure, and the work is far more careful than its predecessors. Its jiānzhù often gathers from lèishū without checking original sources: e.g. chānghé 閶闔 (a Chǔcí gate-name) is glossed via Sānfǔ huáng tú rather than the original Chǔcí; bā huāng 八荒 from Huáinánzǐ glossed through Lǐ Xián’s note to HòuHàn shū; húchuáng 胡牀 from Shì shuō (Huán Yī, Dài Yuān) glossed through Zhāng Duānyì’s Guìěr jí; zhūmén 朱門 from Shì shuō (Zhī Dùn) glossed through Chéng Dàchāng’s Yǎn fánlù; shuānghú 雙鵠 from the ancient line “yuàn wéi shuāng huánghú 願為雙黃鵠” glossed through Xiè Wéixīn’s Hébì shìlèi; juéjì 絕跡 from Zhuāngzǐ glossed through Cáo Zhí’s letter to Yáng Xiū — all of these are “raising the branch and dropping the root.”
But on Gù [Qǐ-jīng]‘s annotations there are many corrections. And Wáng was deeply versed in Buddhist scripture, which Gù’s notes had not adequately covered; Diàn-chéng enlisted Wáng Qí 王琦 王琦 [the same Qīng scholar who annotated Lǐ Bái, see KR4c0014 — Wáng was learned in the Tripiṭaka — to assist on these passages, considerably filling out the previous deficiency.
(Reverently collated and submitted in [missing date]. Chief compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì.)
Abstract
Zhào Diànchéng’s edition is the foundational modern annotated biéjí of Wáng Wéi: every modern Chinese-language edition (most recently Chén Tiěmín 陳鐵民 Wáng Wéi jí jiàozhù, Zhōnghuá 1997) is built on it. The 28-juǎn form is more comprehensive than the Liú Chénwēng jiàoběn (= KR4c0021, 6 juǎn) and includes prose absent from the Liú recension. The collaboration with Wáng Qí — the same Qīng scholar who annotated Lǐ Bái’s collection KR4c0014 — on the heavy Buddhist allusions (Wáng Wéi’s poetry contains the densest Buddhist diction of any major Tang poet) is one of the cleanest cases of expert sub-contracting in Qīng biéjí annotation.
The Sìkù tíyào is unusually willing to mark editorial criticisms — the inconsistent placement of the niánpǔ and contemporary-harmony pieces, the incomplete separation of jíwài prose from the main corpus, and the systematic over-reliance on lèishū — while still endorsing the work’s overall value. This balance reflects a genuine editorial assessment, not the conventional dismissive boilerplate.
Translations and research
- Pauline Yu. 1980. The Poetry of Wang Wei. Indiana UP. Standard English-language scholarly study with substantial translation.
- Marsha Wagner. 1981. Wang Wei. Twayne.
- G. W. Robinson, tr. 1973. Wang Wei: Poems. Penguin.
- David Hinton, tr. 2006. The Selected Poems of Wang Wei. New Directions.
- Chen Tiemin 陳鐵民, ed. 1997. Wáng Wéi jí jiào-zhù 王維集校注. 4 vols. Zhōnghuá. Built directly on Zhào Diàn-chéng.
- Wagner, Lewis Calvin. 1975. “Wang Wei.” Doctoral dissertation, Stanford.
Other points of interest
The collaboration with Wáng Qí on the Buddhist allusions makes this collection an underappreciated witness to early-Qīng Buddhist scholarship — Wáng Qí’s notes preserve Tripiṭaka references (especially to Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra, Lankāvatāra, and the Heze-zōng 荷澤宗 Chán texts that were Wáng Wéi’s lineage) that are not in earlier or contemporary annotated editions of Tang poets. The bipartite organization (Liú Chén-wēng for the verse, Wáng Qí for the Buddhist sub-text, Zhào Diàn-chéng for the prose annotation) is a peculiarly Qīng editorial division of labor.
Links
- See KR4c0021 for the parallel SòngYuán Liú Chénwēng recension.
- Wang Wei (Wikipedia)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §54 (Tang literature).