Fánchuān jí 樊川集
The Fán-chuān Collection by 杜牧 (撰)
About the work
The collected works of Dù Mù 杜牧 杜牧 (803–852, zì Mùzhī 牧之), a Jīngzhào Wànnián native, jìnshì of Dàhé 2 (828), grandson of the great Tang historian Dù Yòu 杜佑. The collection is named for Dù’s Chángān villa at Fánchuān and was compiled by his nephew Péi Yánhàn 裴延翰. The structure: wénjí 20 juǎn (per Táng yìwénzhì); plus wàijí 1 juǎn (per Cháo Gōngwǔ); plus biéjí 1 juǎn (mostly Xǔ Hún 許渾 misattributions, per Liú Kèzhuāng). The KR4c0072 catalog meta gives 17 juǎn — apparently a compressed selection. The present text has Péi Yánhàn’s preface and Tián Gài’s 田概 Sòng Xīníng 6 (1073) reprint preface. The full 20+1+1+3 (continued biéjí) form was already breaking up by the Sòng, with Liú Kèzhuāng noting that 18–19 of the supplementary 3 juǎn were actually Xǔ Hún’s verse.
Dù Mù is one of the two great WǎnTáng poets (with Lǐ Shāngyǐn 李商隱), the LǐDù pairing parallel to the earlier YuánBái. CBDB id 21194 confirms 803–853 (one year off catalog 803–852); standard reference works give 803–852 (he died in winter of Dàzhōng 6, traditional calendar still 852); used here.
Tiyao
Fánchuān wénjí in 20 juǎn, wàijí 1, biéjí 1 — by Dù Mù of the Táng. Mù, zì Mùzhī, of Jīngzhào Wànnián; Dàhé 2 jìnshì; rose to zhōngshū shèrén. Biography appended in Xīn Tángshū Dù Yòu zhuàn. Edited by his nephew Péi Yánhàn. Táng yìwénzhì gives 20 juǎn. Cháo Gōngwǔ adds wàijí 1 juǎn. Wáng Shìzhēn’s Jūyì lù: “old Dùjí copy was 20 juǎn; later saw a Sòng print, very finely cut, with several extra juǎn.” Liú Kèzhuāng’s Hòucūn shīhuà: “Fánchuān has xù biéjí 3 juǎn; 18–19 of them are Xǔ Hún’s verse. Mù’s career did not reach Nánhǎi; yet biéjí has Nánhǎi fǔbà poems.” So beyond the Sòng wàijí, there is a xùbiéjí 3 juǎn. Present text: only wàijí and biéjí 1 each — Péi Yánhàn’s preface, Tián Gài’s Xīníng 6 (1073) preface — 2 fewer than Liú’s holding, without the Nánhǎi fǔbà — further redacted by later editors.
Fàn Shū’s Yúnxī yǒuyì: “Lǐ Línzōng (Lǐ Kān) and Dù Mù attacked YuánBái’s verse-form as confused-and-mixed; the qīngkǔ (austere-bitter) school suffered scorn — they bore a grudge. Mù wrote a lùn: recently there are Yuán and Bái, fond of lewd phrasing, fanning the frivolous and stirring the empty. I regret being in low office, unable to use the law to govern them.” Liú Kèzhuāng concluded Mù’s fēngqíng was hardly less than YuánBái’s — Dù Qiūniáng, Zhāng Hǎohǎo, Qīnglóu bóxìng, Jiēlì píngān — comparing Mù’s attack on YuánBái to “burning Yān to put out Yān.” His point holds. Xīn Tángshū uses this against Bái Jūyì’s biography. Yet in Mù’s collection the relevant passage is not in his name; it appears in his Pínglú jūn jiédù xúnguān Lǐ Kān mùzhì, recording Lǐ Kān’s words: “since Yuánhé, YuánBái’s slim-pretty unrestrained verse, not the work of dignified men, has corrupted the wide public, posted on screens and walls, parents and children mouthing it together; lewd words like winter cold and summer heat, entering bone and marrow, cannot be removed.” So the passage is Kān’s, not Mù’s. Or perhaps Mù said it once, and on writing Kān’s epitaph borrowed it; hence Fàn’s confusion.
In balanced judgment, Mù’s verse is more yědàng (wandering-loose) than YuánBái’s; but his fēnggǔ (spirit-bone) actually exceeds them. His gǔwén ranges-and-deepens, often to-the-purpose for jīngshì zhī wù (statecraft). The Zuì yán 罪言 (one piān) — Sòng Qí copied it whole into the Xīn Tángshū fānzhèn zhuàn xù. Fèi Gǔn’s Liángxī mànzhì: Ōuyáng Xiū had his son Fěi read aloud the Xīn Tángshū biographies; he listened lying down; at the fānzhèn preface he sighed, “all biographies as good as this — even a brush-stroke beyond me.” Just judgment of merit. Beyond zátǐ, even in sàntǐ (prose) far above YuánBái. Reading his Dú HánDù jí shī; his Dōngzhì rì jì xiǎozhí āyí shī: “the Classics carve the root, the Histories chant rise-and-fall / pluck Qū and Sòng’s color, perfume of Bān and Mǎ / LǐDù are oceans, HánLiǔ are skies / four near-masters wrestle with antiquity” — Mù’s literature has both root and crown: well he might disdain the Chángqìng style.
Abstract
Dù Mù’s collection is one of the principal WǎnTáng corpora, prized for both verse (the famous quatrains Qīngmíng, Bó Qínhuái, Chìbì, Zhāng Hǎohǎo shī) and gǔwén prose (A-fáng gōng fù, Zuì yán, Sūnzǐ zhù xù — Dù was the principal Tang commentator on the Sūnzǐ). The 20+1+1 juǎn form derives from Péi Yánhàn’s compilation; the standard text was reprinted by Tián Gài in Xīníng 6 (1073) at the start of the Northern-Sòng WǎnTáng revival. The Liú Kè-zhuāng-noted bibliographic problem (Xǔ Hún misattributions in the biéjí) is one of the touchstone cases in Sòng biéjí philology. Dù’s literary friendship with Lǐ Shāngyǐn was canonical; his Lǐ Hè preface (in KR4c0061) is foundational; his polemics against the YuánBái style — partly genuinely his, partly attributed via the Lǐ Kān epitaph — defined his polemical position in the WǎnTáng literary scene.
Translations and research
- Owen, Stephen. 2006. The Late Tang. Harvard. Substantial chapter on Dù Mù.
- Wong, Wai-leung. 1972. “The Quatrains (chüeh-chü) of Tu Mu (803–853).” Monumenta Serica 30. Translation and study.
- Egan, Charles, trans. 1979. “Selected Poems of Tu Mu.”
- 馮集梧 Féng Jí-wú. Fán-chuān shī jí zhù 樊川詩集注. The standard Qīng commentary; reprint Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí.
- 吳在慶 Wú Zài-qìng. 2008. Dù Mù jí xì-nián jiào-zhù 杜牧集系年校注. Zhōng-huá. The standard modern critical edition.
Other points of interest
The Zuì yán 罪言 (“Words of Self-Indictment”) — a long policy memorial on the fānzhèn (regional militarism) crisis — was so closely identical to Sòng Qí’s Xīn Tángshū fānzhèn zhuàn xù (the editorial preface to the Tang regional-militarism biographies) that the latter is essentially Dù’s piece reframed. Ōuyáng Xiū’s exclamation on hearing it read — “if the whole Xīn Tángshū were like this, my brushwork could not match it” — is one of the most-quoted moments in the Sòng aesthetic reception of Tang prose.