Táng Huáng xiānshēng wénjí 唐黃先生文集
The Literary Collection of Master Huáng of the Táng by 黃滔 (撰)
About the work
The Sìbù cóngkān SBCK reprint of the prose-and-poetry collection of Huáng Tāo 黃滔 (zì Wénjiāng 文江, of Pǔtián 莆田, jìnshì 895), late-Táng / Mǐn 閩 poet, Sìmén bóshì 四門博士, Jiānchá yùshǐ lǐxíng 監察御史裏行, and Wēiwǔjūn jiédù tuīguān 威武軍節度推官 under Wáng Shěnzhī 王審知. The collection is in eight juǎn (the SBCK reprint follows the Wànlì Cáo Xuéquán 曹學佺 1606 cutting that paired Huáng’s collection with Ōuyáng Zhān 歐陽詹’s): fù in juǎn 1; pentasyllabic gǔshī and lǜshī in 2; heptasyllabic lǜshī in 3; pentasyllabic and heptasyllabic páilǜ and juéjù in 4; bēijì and míng (stele inscriptions and inscribed-objects) in 5; mùzhìmíng and jìwén in 6; correspondence and qǐ (epistolary openings) in 7; xù, zàn, záwén, plus an appendix in 8. The collection’s existence depends on a Sòng-period family rescue: Huáng Tāo’s descendant Huáng Wò 黃沃 (Yǒngfēng prefect, son of the Kǎogōng officer Huáng Bū 黃補, Shào-xīng-period zhuàngyuán of 1138) recovered four juǎn from his father’s hand, then five more from the Lǚ Xiàqīng 呂夏卿 family at Mǐn, plus yìshī from the Wēng Chéngzàn 翁承贊 family and stele-texts from Buddhist and Daoist temples; the consolidated ten-juǎn (later eight) was first printed by him in Chúnxī 3 (1176).
Prefaces
The base text opens with the 唐黃御史集序 of Cáo Xuéquán 曹學佺 (jìnshì 1595, then Hùbù lángzhōng in Nánjīng), dated mid-summer of Wànlì bǐngwǔ (1606), explaining how he came to print Huáng Tāo’s collection alongside Ōuyáng Zhān’s. A second 唐黃御史公集序 is by Hóng Mài 洪邁 (Póyáng), dated Qìngyuán 2 / 10 / 14 (= 1196.11.13), characterizing Huáng Tāo’s prose as “abundant and well-developed, with steady patterning” and his poetry as “pure and tender, like a kind voice in conversation,” locating him in the lineage of Zhēnyuán–Chángqìng (785–824) styles and contrasting him favourably with the late-Táng Zhèng Gǔ 鄭谷, Luó Yǐn 羅隱, and Dù Xúnhè 杜荀鶴. (The same pair of prefaces is reproduced in KR4c0105 Huáng yùshǐ jí, the WYG variant of the same author’s collection.)
Abstract
Huáng Tāo (CBDB id 11102, dataset 840? – ?, conventionally fl. 880s–910s) is the most important Mǐn-resident late-Táng jìnshì poet after Xú Yín 徐夤. He passed jìnshì in Qiánníng 2 (895), late in life — by his own account he had spent ten years on Fúpíngshān 福平山 of Pǔtián studying for the examinations and altogether twenty-four years pursuing them. Appointed Sìmén bóshì under Zhāozōng’s restoration; rose to Jiānchá yùshǐ lǐxíng and was assigned to the staff of Wáng Shěnzhī (the founding ruler of Mǐn) at Wēiwǔjūn (Fúzhōu) as jiédù tuīguān. With the fall of the Táng to Liáng in 907 he refused to follow Zhū Wēn and remained in Fújiàn for the rest of his life.
The collection’s literary importance rests on three things: (a) Huáng’s role as Wáng Shěnzhī’s principal literary remonstrator — he is credited (per the Sìkù tiyao) with the moral instruction that kept Wáng Shěnzhī loyal in name to the TángLiáng court despite the de facto independence of Mǐn; (b) the collection’s stele-and-inscription material on Mǐn-period Buddhism (the Quánzhōu Kāiyuánsì, Fúzhōu Bàoēn dìngguāng tǎ, Fúzhōu Xuěfēng zhēnjué dàshī steles) which is a major primary source for the institutional history of Fújiàn Chán; (c) Huáng’s Yǐngchuān Chén xiānshēng jí xù (postface to a now-lost collection of Chén Póyǐn) which is the principal Mǐn-period statement on local literary culture.
The Sòng catalog Yìwénzhì of the Xīn Tángshū gives Huáng Tāo’s collection as fifteen juǎn plus a Quánshān xiùjù 泉山秀句 of three juǎn — both lost. The text known to SòngYuánMíng booksellers and to the Mǐn family-line was the eight-juǎn recension consolidated by Huáng Wò and printed in 1176 (Chúnxī 3), with re-cuttings in Zhèngdé (Míng), Wànlì (1606, Cáo Xuéquán), and Chóngzhēn periods; the last is the basis of the SBCK reprint. The companion WYG ten-juǎn edition (KR4c0105) has identical prefaces but follows a different last-stage Míng cutting.
The catalog meta gives no specific dates for Huáng Tāo. CBDB gives 840? as a conventional birth year; jìnshì in 895 implies ca. 855–840 birth — the 840 figure (CBDB / Tángrénwù zhī-shi bēisù) is followed here. Death is conventionally placed in the 910s after the Mǐn court establishment.
Translations and research
- 林家驪 Lín Jiā-lí. Huáng Tāo jí jiào-zhù 黃滔集校注. Critical edition.
- 田耕宇 Tián Gēng-yǔ. Articles in Wén-shǐ-zhé and Táng-yán-jiū on Huáng Tāo’s role in the Mǐn-Wáng Shěn-zhī court.
- No substantial Western-language scholarship located.
Other points of interest
The Liángshūxī chí of Huáng Tāo’s collection includes the Jì Nánhǎi Nánpíng wáng — the funerary memorial composed for Liú Yǐn 劉隱 of Nánhǎi (Southern Hàn) on Wáng Shěnzhī’s behalf in 911, an important source for the inter-court diplomacy of post-Táng south China. The Sìkù tiyao notes a frequent confusion: because the title says Nánpíng wáng, some commentators have wrongly assumed it was for the Jīngnán prince Gāo Jìxīng 高季興 (also titled Nánpíng wáng); but Liú Yǐn was first enfeoffed Nánpíng wáng and only later (one month posthumously) elevated to Nánhǎi wáng, so the document’s address-form is internally datable to the brief 911 window.