杼山集

Zhùshān jí 杼山集

Collected Works of Mt. Zhù (Shì Jiǎo-rán) by 釋皎然 (撰)

About the work

Zhùshān jí 杼山集 in 10 juǎn — also widely transmitted as Wúxìng zhòu shàngrén jí 吳興晝上人集 (the SBCK title) and Jiǎorán jí 皎然集 — is the surviving collection of the Daoist-Buddhist hermit-poet Shì Jiǎorán 釋皎然 (ca. 720–798), zì Qīngzhòu 清晝, abbot of the Wúxìng 吳興 Miàoxǐ sì 妙喜寺 and the principal shīsēng 詩僧 (“monk-poet”) of the Dàlì and early Zhēnyuán periods. The title comes from his retreat at Zhùshān 杼山 in Wúxìng. Jiǎorán claimed direct descent from the LiúSòng poet Xiè Língyùn 謝靈運 (385–433) — the foundational figure of the shānshuǐ tradition — and his poetry is conventionally read as the inheritor of the Xiè lineage in the Tiāntāi / Wúyuè monastic context.

The collection is unusually well-documented at the head: it preserves an imperial-edict-mandated transmission (the Chì Zhèxī guāncháshǐ dié Húzhōu 敕浙西觀察使牒湖州 dated Zhēnyuán 8 / zhèng yuè 10 = January 1, 792) requesting that a copy be sent to the Jíxián diàn yùshūyuàn 集賢殿御書院 — making this one of the very few Tang collections with documentary evidence of direct imperial-archive deposit. The substantial preface by Yú Dí 于頔 (Húzhōu cìshǐ and a leading literary patron of the late-Zhēnyuán period) is itself a major piece of late-Tang literary criticism, surveying the post-HànWèi lineage of gǔshī and locating Jiǎorán explicitly in the Xiè Língyùn family-tradition.

Tiyao

No tíyào in source. The KR4c0031 file is the SBCK base, which preserves the imperial dié and Yú Dí’s preface but no Sìkù tíyào. The Sìkù WYG 10-juǎn tíyào (V1071.9) survives in the Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào.

Abstract

The 10-juǎn form descends from the Zhēnyuán 8 (792) imperial-archive deposit, which was an authoritative editorial close at Jiǎorán’s lifetime. Yú Dí’s preface — composed in Zhēnyuán 9 (793) — describes Jiǎorán as a tenth-generation descendant of Xiè Língyùn, master of the deep teaching of yuánqíng qǐmǐ 緣情綺靡 (Lù Jī’s 陸機 Wénfù phrase, “verse arises from feeling and is finely-woven”); the preface frames the entire post-Hàn lineage of gǔshī as a historical sequence — Lǐ Líng / Sū Wǔ → Cáo Zhí / Wáng Càn → Lù Jī / Pān Yuè → Xiè Língyùn → Xiè Tiǎo → and finally to Jiǎorán himself.

Shì Jiǎorán (ca. 720–798; CBDB has cbdbId 94595, 94596 with no fixed dates) was a Wúxìng 吳興 (modern Húzhōu, Zhèjiāng) native; zì Qīngzhòu 清晝, lay surname Xiè 謝, fǎmíng (dharma-name) Jiǎorán 皎然. Abbot of the Miàoxǐ sì 妙喜寺 at Zhùshān, a senior figure of the late-Tang Niútóu 牛頭 Chán lineage, and the principal Wúyuè literary patron of his generation. Closely associated with Yán Zhēnqīng 顏真卿 (during Yán’s Wúxìng governorship, 768–771, which produced the famous Yùnhǎi jìngyuán 韻海鏡源 collaborative philological project — Jiǎorán was a participant), with Wéi Yìngwù 韋應物 (during Wéi’s Sūzhōu governorship), and through them with the broader Dàlì literary world.

His critical theory — set out in the Shī shì 詩式 (preserved separately) — is foundational for late-Tang shīhuà 詩話: the theory of jìng 境 (“scene-realm”), of fēnggé 風骨, and of poetic transcendence (chū yán wài, wàng yán nèi 出言外忘言內) all begin in his criticism. Jiǎorán is therefore one of the principal mediating figures between High-Tang practice and late-Tang theory.

Translations and research

• Stephen Owen. 1992. Readings in Chinese Literary Thought. Harvard. Substantial discussion of Jiǎo-rán’s Shī shì in the late-Tang critical tradition.
• Charles Hartman. 2009. “Han Yu and the T’ang Search for Unity.” Journal of Asian Studies. Important context.
• Edward Schafer. 1980. Mao Shan in T’ang Times. Society for the Study of Chinese Religions. Includes discussion of the Wú-xìng / Zhù-shān monastic milieu.
• Pi Chao-mín 皮朝民, ed. 1989. Jiǎo-rán nián-pǔ 皎然年譜.
• Lǐ Zhuàng-yīng 李壯鷹, ed. 2003. Shī shì jiào-zhù 詩式校注. Rénmín wén-xué. The standard modern annotated edition of his critical treatise (separate from the Zhù-shān jí).

Other points of interest

The imperial dié preserved at the head of the SBCK file — the order from the Jíxián diàn yùshūyuàn through the Zhèxī guāncháshǐ to Húzhōu prefecture for transmission of the collection in Zhēnyuán 8 (792) — is a rare documentary survival; together with the Bái shì Chángqìng jí (Bái Jūyì) and a small number of others, it is one of the few Tang biéjí with explicit imperial-archive provenance. The deposit was made during Jiǎorán’s lifetime — making this a contemporary editorial close.

Links

• Jiaoran (Wikipedia)
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §54 (Tang literature); §44.4 (Tang Buddhist literary culture).