Dīngmǎo shī jí 丁卯詩集
The Dīng-mǎo Verse Collection by 許渾 (撰)
About the work
Verse collection of Xǔ Hún 許渾 許渾 (fl. Dàhé–Xiántōng; zì Yònghuì 用晦; b. 791?, d. after 858), descendant of the early-Tang chief minister Xǔ Yǔshī 許圉師 (Ānlù). Chén Zhènsūn calls him a Dānyáng 丹陽 native — confirmed by his poem Sòng Wáng Zǒng guī Dānyáng, “sending family letters home for response: at the old residence still are old friends in the know” — so although his ancestral seat was Ānlù, his actual home was at Dānyáng. Jìnshì of Dàhé 6 (832); served as Dāngtú and Tàipíng county magistrate; sick-leave; resumed as Rùnzhōu sīmǎ; Dàzhōng 3 (849) Jiānchá yùshǐ; later Yúbù yuánwàiláng, Mù- and Yǐng-2 prefectships. The title Dīngmǎo is from Dīngmǎo qiáo 丁卯橋 in Rùnzhōu (modern Zhènjiāng), where Xǔ had a country villa — confirmed by his own Yè guī Dīngmǎo qiáo cūnshè shī.
The catalog meta gives the present extent as 2 juǎn — but the actual transmitted text is normally seen as Dīngmǎo jí 2 + xùjí 2 + xùbǔ 1 + jíwài yíshī 1 = ~5–6 juǎn. The catalog’s “2 卷” is the original zhǔjí count (matching Xīn Tángshū yìwénzhì and Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì); the xùjí 2 juǎn corresponds to Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí note “Shǔběn yǒu shíyí 2 juǎn”; xùbǔ and jíwài yíshī are later additions. Cháo Gōngwǔ’s reported “complete 5-juǎn, 500 pieces” appears to be a transmission error (5 for 2). Máo Jìn’s Jígǔ gé 2-juǎn / 300+-poem version is probably the same line as Cháo’s.
Tiyao
Dīngmǎo jí 2, xùjí 2, xùbǔ 1, jíwài yíshī 1 — by Xǔ Hún of the Táng. Hún zì Yònghuì, Wǔ-zé-tiān-period chief minister Xǔ Yǔshī’s descendant — checking Xīn Tángshū zǎixiàng shìxì biǎo: Yǔshī was Ānlù Xǔshì; Hún his descendant; should be of Ānlù. Chén Zhènsūn says of Dānyáng — checking the Sòng Wáng Zǒng guī Dānyáng shī line “píng jì jiā shū wèi huí bào / jiùjū hái yǒu gùrén zhī” — his home was at Dānyáng, much as Lǐ Bái was Lǒngxī descent but a Shǔ man.
Hún Dàhé 6 jìnshì; Dāngtú and Tàipíng 2-county magistrate; sick-leave; resumed Rùnzhōu sīmǎ; Dàzhōng 3: Jiānchá yùshǐ; held Yúbù yuánwàiláng, Mù- and Yǐngzhōu cìshǐ. Title Dīngmǎo: Rùnzhōu has Dīngmǎo qiáo with Hún’s villa, hence the title — confirmed in his Yè guī Dīngmǎo qiáo cūnshè shī.
Xīn Tángshū yìwénzhì: 2 juǎn; Cháo Gōngwǔ same; Chén Zhènsūn note: “Shǔběn yǒu shíyí 2 juǎn” — present xùjí matches Chén’s shíyí, retitled. The xùbǔ and jíwài yíshī are further later gleanings. Only Cháo records: “recently obtained complete Hún collection 500 piān, only 2 juǎn” — present text piān count matches but juǎn count differs. Total no longer the Sòng print original.
Máo Jìn’s Jígǔ gé print also 2 juǎn, only 300+ poems — may be Cháo’s holding; Dúshū zhì may have mis-transcribed 3 as 5. This text more complete than Máo’s; we publish this and not Máo’s.
Abstract
Xǔ Hún’s collection is the principal Wǎn Táng second-tier collection — Xǔ’s verse is more conservative than Wēn-Lǐ’s, focused on huáigǔ (historical reflection), landscape, and bureaucratic-life lyric, and is structurally important as the model for the Yǒngjiā sìlíng and certain Sòng landscape juéjù lines. The collection’s transmission is comparatively well-documented: zhǔjí 2 juǎn (Tang original) → Sòng shíyí (= present xùjí) 2 juǎn → Qīng xùbǔ and jíwài yíshī 1 juǎn each. Liú Kèzhuāng noted that the Dù Mù Fánchuān biéjí (= KR4c0072) misattributed pieces are mostly Xǔ Hún’s verse — making Xǔ a small but textual-bibliographically significant figure in the larger transmission of Tang verse. CBDB id 92743 gives 791– (no death year recorded).
Translations and research
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
- 江聰平 Jiāng Cōng-píng. 1973. Xǔ Yòng-huì shī jí jiào-zhù 許用晦詩集校注. Tái-běi.
- 羅時進 Luó Shí-jìn. 1994. Dīng-mǎo jí jiān-zhèng 丁卯集箋證. Zhōng-huá.
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The Xiányáng chéng dōng lóu 咸陽城東樓 — with the canonically-quoted couplet xī fēng chuī zǐ ěr / shān yǔ yù lái fēng mǎn lóu (“the wind sweeping the willow-fringe and the rain about to come fill the building”) — is one of the most-anthologized Wǎn Táng poems and is said to have been the line from which Sòng Wáng Ānshí’s celebrated yù lái fēng mǎn lóu phrasing descends. The Dīngmǎo qiáo villa at Rùnzhōu — actual setting of much of Xǔ’s verse — became, by the Sòng, a literary place-name to be referenced.