Wǔbǎijiā zhù Liǔ xiānshēng jí 五百家註柳先生集
Master Liǔ’s Collection with the Annotations of Five Hundred Commentators by 柳宗元 (撰), 魏仲擧 (編)
About the work
Wǔbǎijiā zhù Liǔ xiānshēng jí 五百家註柳先生集 in 21 juǎn is the matching anthology to the Wǔbǎijiā zhù Chānglí wénjí (= KR4c0045) — produced by the same editor Wèi Zhòngjǔ 魏仲擧 魏仲擧 at his Jiànān 建安 jiāshú 家塾 (private printing operation) in the Qìngyuán period (1195–1200). The two collections together — Hán Yù and Liǔ Zōngyuán — represent the consummation of the Sòng jízhù enterprise’s program for the Tang gǔwén foundational figures.
The transmitted WYG copy is incomplete: the zhèngjí (main collection) extends only through juǎn 22 (out of an originally larger figure); the table of contents has been doctored to make the truncation appear seamless. The Qiánlóng yùzhì 御製 colophon at the head of the file — printed before the Sìkù tíyào — explicitly notes the lacunae: “the Hán Yù Wǔbǎijiā zhù (= KR4c0045) is a fine Sòng print; the Liǔ Zǐhòu collection, while also a Wǔbǎijiā edition with matching format and headings, is on inferior paper and ink, and its main juǎn 22 onward is all missing, with the table of contents doctored to disguise the loss — clearly not as complete. But surviving Liǔ-collection commentaries are now rare, so even a fragment is to be valued; it must come second after the Hán.”
Tiyao
Wǔbǎijiā zhù Liǔ xiānshēng jí in 21 juǎn — by Liǔ Zōngyuán of the Táng. Zōngyuán’s collection was edited by Liú Yǔxī into 32 tōng; Mù Xiū 穆脩 of the early Sòng admired Liǔ’s prose and printed it; subsequently Fāng Sōngqīng 方崧卿, Zhèng Dìng 鄭定, and Zhāng Dūnyí 張敦頤 each produced xùnshì (gloss-and-explanation) editions, with the juǎnmù additions and deletions varying by recension. The present text is the Qìngyuán (1195–1200) Jiànān Wèi Zhòngjǔ collection, printed at his jiāshú alongside the Chánglí (Hán Yù) Wǔbǎijiā edition.
[Continued tíyào: discussion of the editorial provenance of the various Sòng commentaries Wèi Zhòngjǔ consolidated.]
Abstract
The Wǔbǎijiā anthology represents the consolidation of the Sòng commentary tradition for Liǔ Zōngyuán, parallel to the same editor’s Hán Yù Wǔbǎijiā (= KR4c0045). Like that collection, the actual xìngshì (annotator-list) holds about 150 named commentators rather than the conventional 500. The base critical apparatus draws on Fāng Sōngqīng’s Jǔzhèng (= KR4c0042; Fāng’s parallel LiǔZōngyuán Jǔzhèng mentioned in Sòng catalogs but not surviving), Zhèng Dìng 鄭定’s lost xùnshì, Hán Chún’s 韓醇 commentary (= KR4c0048), and the TóngZhāngPān edition (= KR4c0049).
The WYG copy is incomplete (extending only through juǎn 22 of the original), but as the Qiánlóng yùzhì notes, surviving Liǔ-collection commentary editions had become rare enough by the late 18th century that even a damaged copy was preserved. The Sìkù compilers printed it for completeness in the HánLiǔ pairing.
Translations and research
- See KR4c0048, KR4c0049 for parallel Liǔ Zōng-yuán editions.
- See KR4c0045 for the matching Hán Yù Wǔ-bǎi-jiā edition.
- Jo-shui Chen. 1992. Liu Tsung-yuan and Intellectual Change in T’ang China. CUP.
- Sūn Jiāng-níng 孫江寧, ed. 1979. Liǔ Zōng-yuán jí 柳宗元集. 4 vols. Zhōnghuá.
Other points of interest
The Qiánlóng yùzhì colophon’s frank acknowledgment of the WYG copy’s defects — combined with its insistence on preservation despite them — is one of the more candid examples of Qiánlóng engagement with damaged Sòng manuscript material; the imperial decision to prioritize bibliographic completeness over textual perfection became a distinguishing feature of the Sìkù program.
Links
- See KR4c0048, KR4c0049 for parallel Liǔ Zōngyuán editions.
- See KR4c0045 for the matching Hán Yù Wǔbǎijiā edition.
- Liu Zongyuan (Wikipedia)