Luó Zhāojiàn jí 羅昭諫集
The Collection of Luó Zhāo-jiàn (Luó Yǐn) by 羅隱 (撰)
About the work
The eight-juǎn WYG collected works of Luó Yǐn 羅隱 (833–909/910), the great late-Táng / WúYuè poet, satirist, and political essayist of Xīnchéng 新城 in Hángzhōu, zì Zhāojiàn 昭諫 — from which the title takes its honorific. The collection is a Qīng-period reconstitution: a Kāngxī-period Péngchéng 彭城 magistrate Zhāng Zàn 張瓚 obtained the Jiāngdōng jí 江東集 in manuscript from the local Yuán family and, separately, the printed Jiǎyǐ jí 甲乙集 (the SBCK ancestor at KR4c0108); he combined them and printed the result. The result is layered: four juǎn of poetry (overlapping the Máo Jìn 毛晉 Jiǎyǐ jí cutting), one juǎn of miscellaneous prose (origin uncertain), the Xiāngnán jí xù (preface only — the Xiāngnán jí itself is lost), the Guǎnglíng yāoluànzhì 廣陵妖亂志 plus eleven preceding pieces (these eleven likely the Huáihǎi yùyán 淮海寓言 prose-essay collection), and ten pieces of the Liǎngtóngshū 兩同書 (Luó’s dual Confucian-Daoist treatise — see also KR5e0037 for the Sìkù listing of the Liǎngtóngshū in the Daoist division). The eighth juǎn contains those Liǎngtóngshū pieces.
The Sìkù tiyao notes the collection’s incompleteness: even Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫 in his Shūlù jiětí could no longer locate Luó’s Huáihǎi yùyán and Chánshū 讒書 separately; the WúYuè zhǎngjì jí 吳越掌記集 is not preserved at all; and the Wényuàn yīnghuá’s preserved Qiūyún sì Luó fù 秋雲似羅賦 (one of Luó’s lǜfù) is not in this Qīng cutting. Hence: of Luó’s principal Sòng-listed corpus (Chánshū, post-collection, Huáihǎi yùyán, Liǎngtóngshū, Xiāngnán jí, WúYuè zhǎngjì, the fù-collection, the Jiǎyǐ jí-poetry), only fragmented remains survive, of which this WYG eight-juǎn is the most copious gathering.
Tiyao
“We respectfully report: Luó Zhāojiàn jí, eight juǎn. Composed by Luó Yǐn of the Táng. Yǐn has two other works listed in the Sìkù. According to the WúYuè bèishǐ biography, Yǐn’s Jiāngdōng [Jiǎyǐ jí], Huáihǎi yùyán, and Chánshū with its post-collection were all in circulation in the world. Zhèng Qiáo’s Tōngzhì yìwénluè gives Luó’s jí in twenty juǎn and a post-collection in three, plus a WúYuè zhǎngjì jí in three. By Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí the Jiǎyǐ jí is reduced to ten, the post-collection has five, plus a Xiāngnán jí of three; he notes that the Jiǎyǐ jí is all poetry; the post-collection has a few lǜfù; the Xiāngnán jí is the prose composed at Chángshā in his mùfǔ service. Yǐn also had a Huáihǎi yùyán and Chánshū, but Chén could not find them. Hence not only is the WúYuè zhǎngjì jí lost, even the Huáihǎi yùyán and Chánshū were already inaccessible to Chén Zhènsūn. The present text is a Kāng-xī-era cutting by Péngchéng magistrate Zhāng Zàn. Zhāng’s postface explains that he could no longer locate Yǐn’s separate collections, but obtained the Jiāngdōng jí in manuscript from the local Yuán family, then later obtained the printed Jiǎyǐ jí, and combined them. Although the entire corpus could not be recovered, ‘one stripe of the panther through the bamboo-tube’ has been seen. Clearly the present is a later compilation, not the original. The text contains four juǎn of poetry plus one juǎn of miscellaneous prose. The poetry matches the Máo Jìn Jiǎyǐ jí cutting; the prose origin is unknown. The Xiāngnán jí survives only in its preface, which says that the Xiāngnán prose was lost on the road and only three juǎn could be reassembled — the various qǐ (epistolary openings) in the present text are mostly from the Húnán mùfǔ and may be remains of the Xiāngnán jí. The Wényuàn yīnghuá has Yǐn’s Qiūyún sì Luó fù, presumably from the post-collection’s lǜfù; the present text omits it, so the cutting still has gaps. The seventh juǎn’s last piece is the Guǎnglíng yāoluànzhì; the eleven preceding pieces are doubtless the Huáihǎi yùyán prose. The eighth juǎn has ten pieces of the Liǎngtóngshū; the Tángzhì records this — its argument is that Confucianism and Daoism are one, hence the title ‘Two-Same’; whether it is exactly Chánshū or distinct from it cannot be determined. Yǐn was unsuccessful at the Táng court; with the Táng’s fall the Liáng ruler offered him the rank of Jiànyì dàifū and called for his service — Yǐn refused. He vigorously urged Qián Liú 錢鏐 to attack the Liáng. Although the campaign came to nothing, the Jūnzǐ (the moral judges) approved of his stance. His poems — Xúkòu nánbī gǎnshì xiàn Jiāngnán zhījǐ, Jíshì zhōngyuán jiǎzǐ, Zhōngyuán jiǎzǐ yǐ xīnchǒu jià xìng Shǔ (four pieces) — all show the loyal-indignation spirit overflowing in language. Compared to his contemporaries Lǐ Shānfǔ 李山甫 and Dù Xúnhè 杜荀鶴, Yǐn has the relation of phoenix to owl. Even in fragmentary form his poetry is a treasure of the literary tradition. Respectfully presented, Qiánlóng 43 / 2 (1778). Chief compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General reviser: Lù Fèichí.”
Abstract
Luó Yǐn (CBDB id 33649, 833–910) is the most influential and acerbic political-satirical voice of the late Táng, of Xīnchéng 新城 in Hángzhōu (an area then part of the WúYuè kingdom of Qián Liú 錢鏐). He failed the jìnshì examinations ten times — the famous “shícì bù dì” 十次不第 — before turning to private letters and mùfǔ (staff) service in the various south-Táng warlord courts (Chángshā, WúYuè) of the late 9th century. With the fall of the Táng to Liáng (Zhū Wēn) in 907, Luó refused the Liáng Jiànyì dàifū offer and remained in WúYuè under Qián Liú, urging an anti-Liáng campaign that came to nothing. He died at Húzhōu in 909 (or 910 — sources vary).
The textual situation is complex. Luó’s lifetime corpus comprised: (a) the Jiǎyǐ jí — a poetry collection cut into “jiǎ” (Cháng-shā-period) and “yǐ” (Wú-Yuè-period) bundles; (b) the Chánshū 讒書 — his polemical prose-essay collection; (c) the Liǎngtóngshū 兩同書 — a Confucian-Daoist treatise (also catalogued as a Daoist work at KR5e0037); (d) the Huáihǎi yùyán 淮海寓言 — fable-essays; (e) the Xiāngnán jí 湘南集 — Húnán mùfǔ prose; (f) the WúYuè zhǎngjì jí 吳越掌記集 — WúYuè staff documents; (g) miscellaneous fù and writings. Most was lost by the Sòng; what survives is preserved in two main lineages: the SBCK Jiǎyǐ jí KR4c0108 (poetry only, derived from the Máo Jìn cutting) and this WYG Luó Zhāojiàn jí (prose plus poetry, the Kāngxī Zhāng Zàn assemblage). The Liǎngtóngshū survives separately at KR5e0037.
CBDB confirms 833–910 (the conventional figures). The catalog meta-dates 833–909 (year of death not strictly resolved); the notAfter of 909 is followed.
Translations and research
- 雍文華 Yōng Wén-huá (collator). Luó Yǐn jí 羅隱集. Beijing: Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1983. — Standard modern critical edition combining all surviving parts.
- 李定廣 Lǐ Dìng-guǎng. 2008. Luó Yǐn nián-pǔ jiàn-zhèng 羅隱年譜箋證. — Critical chronological biography.
- 姚奠中 Yáo Diàn-zhōng. 1980s articles on Luó Yǐn’s Chán-shū and political prose.
- No substantial Western-language scholarship located.
Other points of interest
The poems Xúkòu nánbī gǎnshì xiàn Jiāngnán zhījǐ and Zhōngyuán jiǎzǐ yǐ xīnchǒu jià xìng Shǔ (four pieces) — singled out by the Sìkù tiyao — are the canonical late-Táng “loyalty” poems composed against the Huáng Cháo rebellion (878–884) and Xīzōng’s flight to Shǔ (881). They are routinely contrasted with the Liáng-collaborationist late work of Pí Rìxiū 皮日休 and the more politically ambiguous work of Dù Xúnhè 杜荀鶴 to set the late-Táng poetic register.