權文公集

Quán Wéngōng jí 權文公集

Collected Works of Quán Wén-gōng (Quán Dé-yú) by 權德輿 (撰)

About the work

Quán Wéngōng wénjí 權文公文集 in 10 juǎn is the surviving — in fact only fragmentarily surviving — collection of Quán Déyú 權德輿 (759–818; zì Zàizhī 載之; posthumous shì Wén 文, whence Wéngōng), the principal YuánHé 元和-period prose stylist before the rise of Hán Yù 韓愈 and a key transition figure between the Tiānbǎo / Dàlì fùgǔ generation (Xiāo Yǐngshì 蕭穎士, Lǐ Huá 李華, Dúgū Jí 獨孤及, Yuán Jié 元結) and the HánLiǔ gǔwén movement that followed him. The transmitted text is severely truncated — Quán’s original corpus, edited by his grandson Quán Xiàn 權憲, ran to 50 juǎn; what survives is a 10-juǎn fragment recovered by Yáng Shèn 楊慎 in Yúnnán in 1541 (Jiājìng 20), printed by Liú Dàmó 劉大謨, and absorbed thence into the Sìkù.

Tiyao

Quán Wéngōng wénjí in 10 juǎn — by Quán Déyú of the Táng. Déyú’s zì was Zàizhī, a Tiānshuǐ man, who rose to tóng píngzhāngshì 同平章事 (= zǎixiàng); his career is in the Tángshū biography. Déyú had himself compiled a Zhì jí 制集 (drafting collection) in 50 juǎn, with a preface by Yáng Píng 楊憑; his grandson [Quán] Xiàn further compiled his poems and prose in 50 juǎn, with a preface by Yáng Sìfù 楊嗣復. The Zhì jí is now lost; the wénjí has likewise long lacked a circulating witness.

The present text is what Yáng Shèn 楊慎 obtained in Yúnnán in Jiājìng 20 (1541) — only the mùlù (table of contents) and 10 juǎn of shī fù. Liú Dàmó 劉大謨 wrote a preface and printed it; he also deleted from the mùlù those entries for which no surviving piece existed. Quán Déyú’s old wénjí table-of-contents is therefore no longer recoverable. Only in Wén yuàn yīng huá and Táng wéncuì are pieces by him scattered, sometimes preserving works not in this text.

Wáng Shìzhēn’s Jūyì lù 居易録 records Quán Wéngōng jí in 50 juǎn, noting: shī fù 10 juǎn, wén 40 juǎn, bēimíng 8 juǎn, yìlùn 2 juǎn, jì 2 juǎn, jí xù 3 juǎn, zèngsòng xù 4 juǎn, cè wèn 1 juǎn, shū 2 juǎn, shūbiǎo zhuàng 5 juǎn, jì wén 3 juǎn — saying it was the manuscript of Gù Chén 顧宸 of Wúxī, copied for him by Liú Tǐrén’s 劉體仁 son. So Quán’s complete corpus still existed in Kāngxī (1662–1722). Why only Yáng Shèn’s truncated text now circulates is unclear. But Wáng Shìzhēn’s note adds up to 80 juǎn, not 50 — also unexplained. Without further reference we have no choice but to print Yáng Shèn’s text.

(Reverently collated and submitted in [missing date].)

Abstract

The transmitted 10-juǎn form is a fraction of the original 50-juǎn collection. The transmitted text contains only shī and fù; all the prose for which Quán was contemporary famous — the zhìgào drafting from his Hànlínyuàn days, the bēimíng and mùzhì he produced in massive quantity, the xù prefaces for nearly every major contemporary literary figure (Wú Yún 吳筠 吳筠 in KR4c0030, Hán Yù 韓愈, Bái Jūyì 白居易, etc.) — is preserved only patchily through Wén yuàn yīng huá recovery. The Yáng Shèn — Liú Dàmó 1541 print is the basis of the WYG version.

Quán Déyú (759–818 per CBDB cbdbId 13624; the catalog meta gives 759–818) was a Tiānshuǐ 天水 (modern southeast Gānsù) native by family origin, but resident long at Chángān. Jìnshì (or actually xiánliángfāngzhèng) by Dàlì’s end. Successively Tàicháng bóshì 太常博士, zuǒ bǔquē 左補闕, Hànlín xuéshì 翰林學士, zhī lǐbù gòngjǔ 知禮部貢舉 (in Zhēnyuán 17 = 801, a critical posting since this controlled the jìnshì examination), bīngbù shìláng 兵部侍郎, and finally zhōngshū shìláng tóngzhōngshūménxiàpíngzhāngshì 中書侍郎同中書門下平章事 (= zǎixiàng) in Yuánhé 5–10 (810–815). Demoted in 815 in factional intrigues; died en route to a southern post in 818 aged 60.

His role as the principal mid-Tang literary patron is unmatched: through his Hànlínyuàn and Lǐbù postings he systematically promoted the rising YuánHé generation, including Hán Yù, Liǔ Zōngyuán, Bái Jūyì, and Yuán Zhěn 元稹. His own prose is conventionally counted as the last great example of the pre-Hán-Yù Tiānbǎo / Dàlì fùgǔ tradition.

Translations and research

• David L. McMullen. 1988. State and Scholars in T’ang China. CUP. Substantial discussion of Quán’s role in mid-Tang court politics.
• Anthony DeBlasi. 2002. Reform in the Balance. SUNY. Important treatment of Quán’s place in the fù-gǔ lineage.
• Charles Hartman. 1986. Han Yu and the T’ang Search for Unity. Princeton UP.
• Yáng Lì-míng 楊立明, ed. 2005. Quán Dé-yú jí jiào-zhù 權德輿集校注. Modern variorum (incorporating the Wén yuàn yīng huá recoveries).

Other points of interest

The discrepancy between the Sìkù-printed 10-juǎn version and Wáng Shìzhēn’s Jūyì lù report of a Kāngxī-period 50-juǎn (or 80-juǎn) MS is one of the more frustrating losses in Tang biéjí history; the complete Quán Déyú corpus seems to have circulated as recently as the early 18th century but to have vanished thereafter.

Links

• Quan Deyu (Wikipedia)
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §54 (Tang literature); §28.7.4 (YuánHé court).