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 WǎnTáng second-tier collection — Xǔ’s verse is more conservative than WēnLǐ’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
- 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 WǎnTáng 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.