Táng mìshūshěng zhèngzì xiānbèi Xúgōng diàojī wénjí 唐秘書省正字先輩徐公釣磯文集
The Diào-jī (“Fishing-Rock”) Literary Collection of the Eminent Late-Táng Imperial-Library Rectifier-of-Texts, Master Xú by 徐夤 (撰), 張元濟 (撰校勘記)
About the work
The Sìbù cóngkān SBCK reprint of the prose-and-poetry collection of Xú Yín 徐夤 (also written 徐寅; zì Zhāomèng 昭夢, fl. ca. 880s–910s), the late-Táng / Mǐn-period poet of Pǔtián 莆田 (Fújiàn). The compilation is itself a Sòng-era family recovery, edited by Xú’s twelfth-generation descendant Xú Shīrén 徐師仁 (a zhe-zuò zuǒláng in the imperial library, with the Chóngwén zǒngmù 崇文總目 oversight) and prefaced by him in Jiànyán 3 (1129). The text divides into ten juǎn: five juǎn of fù (rhapsodies, the genre on which Xú’s reputation rested) followed by five juǎn of poetry — long-律 lǜ, five-character lǜ, seven-character juéjù, seven-character lǜ, etc. A further preface by the Yuán-period descendant Xú Wánkě 徐玩可 (referencing Yányòu 4 = 1317 and 1319) records that the assembled corpus drew on (a) Xú Shīrén’s earlier reconstruction of five juǎn of fù and the Tànlóng jí 探龍集 plus a Yǎdào jīyào 雅道機要 (one juǎn) recovered from the Cài Jūnmó 蔡君謨 (Cài Xiāng) household, and (b) some 260 further poems found in the Lín family of Jīnqiáo and forty fù recovered from Xú’s collateral kinsman Xú Dàozhēn 徐道真. Zhāng Yuánjì 張元濟 supplied the modern textual-collation notes for SBCK in the early Republican period.
Prefaces
The base text opens with the 古序 of Xú Shīrén dated Jiànyán 3 (1129), giving Xú Yín’s biographical outline (passing jìnshì in Qiánníng 初 [894] with the fù “止戈為武” celebrated by examiner Lǐ Zé 李擇; appointment to the imperial library; refusal of office under Wáng Shěnzhī of Mǐn; retirement to Yánshòu xī 延壽溪) and accounts of the Hǎizhōu and Liáojīn appearances of Xú’s fù. A second preface by Xú Wánkě records the family’s later additions; he cites the mùzhìmíng by Liú Shānfǔ 劉山甫 (the Wēiwǔjūn Hall-Censor) which characterized Xú’s fù as “moving ghosts and gods, scouring creation.”
Abstract
Xú Yín is one of the most distinctive late-Táng fù writers and a literary contemporary of Hán Wò 韓偓, Wú Róng 吳融, and Luó Yǐn 羅隱. Three of his fù — Rénshēng jǐhé 人生幾何, Zhǎnshé jiàn 斬蛇劍, and Yùgōu shuǐ 御溝水 — were so admired in his own day that, according to his own preface, the Bóhǎi 渤海 (Parhae) Korean envoy Gāo Yuángù 高元固 reported on visiting Mǐn that copies “in gold ink were displayed as folding-screens in every household” of his country. After failing to advance at the late-Táng court (he had presented fù to Zhū Quánzhōng but, having committed a tabu violation in drink, fled south fearing punishment), he attached himself to Wáng Shěnzhī 王審知 of Mǐn but found the Mǐn court constraining (“a foot or so of water with weirs in front and dams behind — how could it hold a ten-thousand-bushel ship?”); he retired to Yánshòu xī 延壽溪 in central Pǔtián and died there.
The textual situation is layered. The Chóngwén zǒngmù recorded a Xú Yín fù in five juǎn and a Tànlóng jí in one juǎn (mistakenly attributed to the puppet “WěiTáng”). Xú Shīrén’s 1129 reconstitution combined these family-preserved materials with a further Yǎdào jīyào in one juǎn obtained from the Cài Xiāng family, plus 250-odd poems gathered “from kinsmen and lovers of curiosities,” and grouped them by genre into eight juǎn. Xú Wánkě then added 260 further poems and 40 fù in the early-Yuán. The present SBCK ten-juǎn form is the cumulative result. Note that this work is closely related to but textually distinct from KR4c0107 Xú zhèngzì shī fù (the WYG two-juǎn edition compiled from Tángyīn tǒngqiān 唐音統籤 and Wényuàn yīnghuá 文苑英華 by later descendants); the SBCK ten-juǎn preserves Xú Shīrén’s Sòng-era family recension and is the principal witness.
CBDB id 447201 confirms 徐夤 as Táng (no precise dates given). The catalog meta gives no birth/death years; the jìnshì date 894 (Qiánníng 1 / Qiánníng 初) is the firmest external anchor.
Translations and research
- 吳在慶 Wú Zài-qìng. 2006. Xú Yín shī xì-nián 徐夤詩繫年. Articles in Wén-xiàn and elsewhere on the chronological reconstruction of Xú’s poetry.
- 林家驪 Lín Jiā-lí, Xú Yín jí jiào-zhù 徐寅集校注. Critical edition.
- 闊永華. 2010s articles on Xú Yín’s fù and the Bó-hǎi-Korean reception of his works.
- No substantial Western-language scholarship located.
Other points of interest
The preface’s reference to Xú’s Rénshēng jǐhé fù and Zhǎnshé jiàn fù circulating in Bóhǎi (Parhae) “in gold ink as folding-screens in every household” is the most-cited single piece of evidence for Táng-period Mǐn literary export to the northeast Asian peninsular states. The detail that Xú himself wrote a huíwén (palindrome) eight-style poem with eight readings per stanza, displayed on a screen at Wēnlíng (now in Quánzhōu), is also recorded — though the poem itself is not preserved.