Wēn Tíngyún shī jí 溫庭筠詩集
The Verse Collection of Wēn Tíng-yún by 溫庭筠 (撰)
About the work
The Sìbù cóngkān SBCK reprint of Wēn Tíngyún’s 溫庭筠 溫庭筠 (fl. 859–866, zì Fēiqīng 飛卿) verse collection in 7 juǎn — the Sòng-print form descending from a Lù Yóu-witnessed line. Wēn is, with Lǐ Shāngyǐn 李商隱 (= KR4c0074), the WēnLǐ paired master of WǎnTáng ornate verse; he is also the foundational poet of the cí 詞 form — his Huājiān jí contributions are the canonical cí of the late-Tang. The 7-juǎn count agrees with Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí (which gives Fēiqīng jí in 7 juǎn) and with one of the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo witnesses (Wēn Tíngyún Jīnquán jí 7 + biéjí 1).
The SBCK base reproduces a Sòng print line independent from the WYG commentary edition (= KR4c0078, the Zēng Yì + Gù brothers commentary). For the tíyào-level discussion see KR4c0078.
Prefaces
The base text opens directly with juǎn 1 (no separate preface in the surviving SBCK copy). The collection opens with the Jīmíng dài qū 雞鳴埭曲 (“Cock-Crow Embankment Song”) — a long yuèfǔ on the fall of the Southern Liáng dynasty — and the Zhījǐn cí 織錦詞 (“Weaving-Brocade Lyric”). Both pieces exemplify Wēn’s characteristic mode: dense ornament, mythological surface, palace-female perspective, WǎnTáng melancholy.
Abstract
The SBCK edition preserves Wēn’s verse in the form independent of the late-Míng commentary tradition (Zēng Yì → Gù Yúxián → Gù Sìlì, treated at KR4c0078). Wēn was a notorious jǐnshì-failure (“bāchā 八叉” — finished his policy essays so quickly with his arms folded that the eight crossings of his arms could time his composition rate, hence the nickname Wēn Bāchā) but a star of late-Táng verse. His cí — half a hundred or so Huā-jiān-stage compositions — established the cí’s small-verse erotic-introspective vocabulary and made him the canonical “Huājiān bǐzǔ” (founding ancestor of the Huājiān style). The tíyào of KR4c0078 reviews the bibliographic record: Táng yìwénzhì records Wòlán jí 3 + Jīnquán jí 10 + shījí 5 + Hànnán zhēngǎo 10; Sòng zhì same; Chén Zhènsūn gives Fēiqīng jí 7 juǎn; Lù Yóu’s Wèinán jí colophon describes a transmitted-from-his-father copy with Huáqīng gōng poem opening, and a Shǔ-print without the Zǎo xíng poem. SBCK’s 7 juǎn preserves one of these lineages.
Translations and research
- See KR4c0078 for the WYG commentary edition.
- Birch, Cyril. 1965. Anthology of Chinese Literature. Includes Wēn translations.
- 劉學鍇 Liú Xué-kǎi. 2007. Wēn Tíng-yún quán jí jiào-zhù 溫庭筠全集校注. 3 vols. Zhōng-huá. The standard modern critical edition.
- 黃進德 Huáng Jìn-dé. 1990. Wēn Tíng-yún xuǎn jí 溫庭筠選集.
- Yates, Robin. 1977. Washing Silk: The Life and Selected Poetry of Wei Chuang (834?–910) — discusses Wēn-Wéi Huā-jiān relationships.
Other points of interest
The SBCK Sòng-print line — independent of the late-Míng / Qīng commentary stratum — is textually significant as a control on the more reorganized WYG edition (KR4c0078). Wēn’s Huājiān contributions are not in the present shījí but in the separate Huājiān jí anthology compiled by Zhào Chóngzuò in 940 — they would not appear here in any case.