Wáng Sīmǎ jí 王司馬集
The Collection of Wáng [Jiàn], the Marshal by 王建 (撰)
About the work
Verse collection in 8 juǎn of Wáng Jiàn 王建 王建 (ca. 766–ca. 830, zì Zhònghé 仲和), a Yǐngchuān 潁川 native, jìnshì of Dàlì 10 (775; the tíyào gives this date but it conflicts with Wáng’s verse references — see below), Tàihé (827–835) period Sīmǎ of Shǎnzhōu 陝州 — hence the title. Wáng is, with Zhāng Jí 張籍 (= KR4c0053), the canonical ZhāngWáng 張王 yuèfǔ pairing, sharing the same socially-committed, plain-diction style. His most famous work is the Gōng cí 宮詞 (Palace Songs) — 100 quatrains on imperial-palace life, modeled after Hé Zhīzhāng but elaborated into a separate canonical genre. The collection is in the present 8-juǎn form (古體 2 + 近體 6) edited by Hú Jièzhǐ 胡介祉 (Yúshān 虞山, late 17th c.) — a Qīng combination derived from Máo Jìn’s Jígǔ gé edition (which the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo records at 10 juǎn).
The catalog meta gives Wáng a date of 775 (presumably the jìnshì date taken from the tíyào), no specific lifedates. CBDB (id 92047) gives Wáng’s birth as 766. Standard reference works give “ca. 766 – after 830” or sometimes 767–831. Followed here.
Tiyao
Wáng Sīmǎ jí in 8 juǎn — by Wáng Jiàn of the Táng. Jiàn, zì Zhònghé, of Yǐngchuān; Dàlì 10 (775) jìnshì; Tàihé period cìshǐ of Shǎnzhōu sīmǎ. The Wénxiàn tōngkǎo records the collection at 10 juǎn. The present text is the recent collation by Hú Jièzhǐ — gǔtǐ 2 + jìntǐ 6 juǎn — a later reorganization. Hú’s preface says: Yúshān Máo (Jìn) had a circulating edition; the collation was imperfect. The Gōng cí lost 7 pieces after the Sòng’s southern crossing (1127); admirers fabricated replacements. The “Lèi jìn luójīn” piece is in fact Bái Lètiān’s; “Yuānyāng wǎ shàng” is Lady Huāruǐ’s; “Bǎozhàng píngmíng” is Wáng Shàobó’s; “Rì wǎn chángqiū” and “Rì yìng xīlíng” are yuèfǔ Tóngjuétái shī; “Yínzhú qiūguāng lěng huàpíng” and “Xián chuī yùdiàn Zhāohuá guǎn” are both Dù Mù’s. Yáng Shèn’s collection alone listed 7 pieces “from the old edition,” now appended at the end. — Hú’s discussion follows Hú Zǐ’s Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà; the kǎozhèng is precise. But Yáng Shèn (Yáng Shēngyān)‘s evidence is unreliable: he could fabricate a Shígǔ wén — what would stop him with Wáng Jiàn’s Gōng cí? Hú’s incorporating them straightaway is too credulous. Also “shāng jìn ér bù jiàn” is the Yùtái xīnyǒng old title — this text mistakenly reads “shāng jìnzhě bù jiàn”; “Jiāngnán sāntái” appears in Yuèfǔ shījí and Cáidiào jí — this text mistakenly drops sān, reading “Jiāngnán tái.” Small errors; but in net, this edition is preferable to Máo Jìn’s.
Abstract
Wáng Jiàn — alongside Zhāng Jí 張籍 — is the leading yuèfǔ social-realist of the early ninth century, formative for Bái Jūyì’s xīn yuèfǔ program. The 100-quatrain Gōng cí is his single most influential work, founding a sub-genre that ran through the Sòng (Wáng Guī, Huāruǐ Fūrén) into the MíngQīng (the Gōngcí of Wáng Yán, Cuī Shūpī, Zhū Yǒudūn). Wáng’s regular yuèfǔ verse — Wáng Jiàn shī on conscript soldiers, peasant suffering, war widows — is the canonical mid-Táng counterpart to Bái’s Mài tàn wēng and Xīn fēng zhé bì wēng. CBDB id 92047. The collection’s transmission is comparatively damaged: the original 10 juǎn recorded in the Tōngkǎo was reduced to 8 juǎn by the late Míng / early Qīng (Hú Jièzhǐ’s edition, descendant of Máo Jìn’s Jígǔ gé line); the Gōng cí lost 7 pieces in the Sòng’s Jìngkāng refugee crisis (1127), and Yáng Shèn’s “recovered” 7 in the late Míng are likely his own forgeries.
Translations and research
- See KR4c0053 for the parallel Zhāng Jí collection (the Zhāng-Wáng pairing).
- Larsen, Jeanne. 1987. Brocade River Poems: Selected Works of the Tang Dynasty Courtesan Xue Tao — discusses Wáng Jiàn’s literary friendship with Xuē Táo (whose verse has been preserved partly via Wáng).
- 龍榆生 Lóng Yú-shēng. 1956. Wáng Jiàn shī jí 王建詩集 (annotated). Zhōng-huá.
- 王宗堂 Wáng Zōng-táng. 1990. Wáng Jiàn yánjiū 王建研究. Zhōng-zhōu.
Other points of interest
The 7-piece Gōng cí loss in the Jìngkāng refugee crisis — the moment when the Northern-Sòng court fled and innumerable manuscripts perished — left a gap quickly filled with forgeries by Sòng cataloguers and later Yáng Shèn. The tíyào’s patient demolition of these forgeries (each “recovered” piece traced back to its actual author: Bái Jūyì, Lady Huāruǐ, Wáng Chānglíng, Dù Mù) is a neat case study in Qīng kǎojù method applied to anthological recovery.