Bái Xiāngshān shī jí 白香山詩集
The Verse Collection of Bái Xiāng-shān [Bái Jū-yì] by 白居易 (撰), 汪立名 (編注)
About the work
A Qīng critical re-edition of Bái Jūyì’s verse only (separated from the prose), in 40 juǎn + appended niánpǔ (year-by-year chronology) 2 juǎn, edited by Wāng Lìmíng 汪立名 汪立名 (fl. 1702, the editor of Zhōngdǐng zìyuán and other reference works) and completed in Kāngxī rénwǔ (1702). The edition is built on Wāng’s argument — already developed in his preface to the Chángqìng jí (= KR4c0069) — that Bái’s verse and prose should be separated, that the Chángqìng title should not subsume post-Bǎolì (825) work, and that the editorial pickup should be from the late-life Xiāngshān jūshì identification rather than the Chángqìng official-tenure period.
The structure: Chángqìng jí 20 juǎn (pre-825 verse), Hòují 17 juǎn (825 onward), Biéjí 1 juǎn, Bǔyí 2 juǎn (Wāng’s gathering from external sources). The pre-text matter includes Wāng’s new niánpǔ (1 juǎn), Chén Zhènsūn’s old niánpǔ (1 juǎn), Yuán Zhěn’s Chángqìng jí xù (the original 824 preface), and the Jiù Tángshū Bái Jūyì zhuàn. Wāng’s annotations — citation of source-texts and identification of references — are confined to verse-by-verse notes.
Tiyao
Bái Xiāngshān shī jí in 40 juǎn, fùlù niánpǔ 2 juǎn — present-dynasty Wāng Lìmíng compilation. Lìmíng has the Zhōngdǐng zìyuán, separately catalogued. Bái Jūyì’s Chángqìng jí mixes prose and verse equally; Lìmíng cites Sòng Qí (in Xīn Tángshū): “Jūyì excelled at verse; his other writings did not match” — and so separately printed the verse alone as the present collection. Per Yuán Zhěn’s preface: only the pre-50-juǎn is the Chángqìng corpus; post-Bǎolì verse should not bear the Chángqìng label (the case Wāng argues at length under Chángqìng jí; here in error). Wāng titles the collection from Bái’s late-life retreat — Xiāngshān jūshì. Cross-checking variant editions, re-editing into: Chángqìng jí 20, Hòují 17, Biéjí 1, Bǔyí 2 (gathered from sources). Headed by Wāng’s new niánpǔ 1, Chén Zhènsūn’s old niánpǔ 1, Yuán Zhěn’s Chángqìng jí xù, and the Jiù Tángshū biography. Each verse annotated below.
The Dōnglín sì deposit — per Lù Yóu’s RùShǔ jì, lost by Sòng; Zhēnzōng commanded the Chóngwén yuàn to write-and-collate, in spotted-bamboo wraps, sent to the temple — destroyed by Jìn armies in Jiànyán. Among transmitted versions: the Qián Zēng Sòng-print, fate unknown. There is the Míng Wǔdìng hóu family print, now rare. Currently circulating: Sūzhōu Qiánshì and Sōngjiāng Mǎshì — both with errors and reorderings. Hú Zhènhēng’s Tángyīn dīngqiān divisions are scattered; one title sometimes split between two juǎn, very fragmented. Wāng’s text — collation and edit — is especially precise; the annotations, though not exhaustive, are yǐnjù diǎnhé (citation accurate and apt), well above many zhùshū scholars’ wandering verbiage. Among the various prints, this is the best edition. Completed Kāngxī rénwǔ (1702); Zhū Yízūn and Sòng Lào wrote prefaces.
Abstract
This is the principal Qīng critical edition of Bái Jūyì’s verse, distinguishing his late-life retreat-poet identity (Xiāngshān jūshì) from the Chángqìng official-period framing of the original collection. Wāng Lìmíng — best known as the compiler of the Zhōngdǐng zìyuán — produced the work over a long period and finished it in 1702 with prefaces by Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊 and Sòng Lào 宋犖 (both major late-Kāng-xī literary figures). The edition’s strengths: (1) careful collation against the Mǎ Yuántiáo (Sōngjiāng) and Qián (Sūzhōu) Míng prints; (2) systematic philological notes; (3) a new niánpǔ alongside Chén Zhènsūn’s old one. The edition’s main weakness: the Chángqìng / Xiāngshān re-titling — argued at length in Wāng’s preface — is a defensible critical position but not unambiguously preferable to the conventional Báishì wénjí form retained at KR4c0069. The two collections (KR4c0069 = full prose+verse Chángqìng jí; KR4c0070 = verse-only Xiāngshān shī jí) are textual cousins, not redundant: each preserves a distinct scholarly framing of the corpus.
Translations and research
- See KR4c0069 for full Bái Jū-yì primary scholarship.
- 汪立名 Wāng Lì-míng. 1702. Bái Xiāng-shān shī jí — the present work itself, foundational for Qīng-era Bái studies.
- Sòng Lào 宋犖, ed. 1697. Sān-jiā píng-zhù Lǐ Cháng-jí gē-shī — companion late-Kāng-xī Tang-poet edition project (Lǐ Hè by Sòng Lào and others).
- Owen, Stephen. 2018. The Poetry of Bai Juyi. Cites Wāng Lì-míng systematically.
Other points of interest
Wāng Lìmíng’s separate-verse re-edition of Bái — and his contemporaneous prefatorial polemic that Sòng Qí’s xīnshū judgment of Bái’s prose was undeserved disparagement — is one of the most considered late-Kāng-xī interventions on the question of how to canonically edit a major Táng poet. The combination of new niánpǔ + retained old niánpǔ + reorganized text + bibliographic prefaces became a model for subsequent biéjí critical editions in the Qiánlóng / Jiāqìng period.