Xú zhèngzì shī fù 徐正字詩賦
The Poetry and Rhapsodies of Xú the Rectifier-of-Texts by 徐夤 (撰)
About the work
The two-juǎn WYG poetry-and-fù collection of Xú Yín 徐寅 (in WYG orthography; the same person as 徐夤 — see KR4c0101 for the SBCK ten-juǎn parallel and the orthographic note). The two juǎn: (1) eight fù — the smaller surviving fragment of Xú’s once-fifteen-juǎn fù-collection (the Xú Yín fù of five juǎn plus Tànlóng jí 探龍集 etc.), reassembled by his Mǐn descendants from anthology-gleanings; (2) 368 poems in various meters, similarly reassembled.
The text is not the Sòng-period family recension of Xú Shīrén (1129) preserved at KR4c0101. Rather, the Sìkù tiyao explains that Xú Yín’s collection had so completely disappeared by the Yìwénzhì compilations onwards that the Xīn Tángshū did not even list it; it was Xú’s later descendants (after the Yuán-period restoration by Xú Wánkě had again been partially lost) who reassembled this two-juǎn skeleton from the Tángyīn tǒngqiān 唐音統籤 (Hǔ Zhènhēng’s anthology), the Wényuàn yīnghuá 文苑英華, and other anthologies — appending the result to the family genealogy. It is “no longer the five-juǎn original.”
Tiyao
“We respectfully report: Xú zhèngzì shī fù, two juǎn. Composed by Xú Yín of the Táng. Yín’s zì was Zhāomèng; he was of Pǔtián. Passed jìnshì in Qiánníng 1 (894) and was appointed Mìshūshěng zhèngzì. Later he depended on the Wáng Shěnzhī mùfǔ and ended his days at Yánshòu xī. His original Tànlóng and Diàojī collections totaled five juǎn. From the Tángshū yìwénzhì on, none of the catalog-makers list them; doubtless they were already scattered and lost, no longer in circulation. The present text has only one juǎn of fù (eight pieces) and one of poetry of various forms (368 pieces) — gathered by his descendants from the Tángyīn tǒngqiān, the Wényuàn yīnghuá, and other works, and appended to the family genealogy. It is no longer the five-juǎn original. His fù are characterized by sentence-carving and character-polishing, not departing from the contemporary examination-standard, but the painstaking refinement often produces fine couplets. The Zèng Bóhǎi bīngòng Gāo Yuángù xiānbèi shī xù says that ‘his country has copied out my Zhǎnshé jiàn, Yùgōu shuǐ, and Rénshēng jǐhé three fù, displaying them in gold ink as folding-screens’ — at the time he was indeed a ‘precious substance commanding the Jīlín market’. The poetry too does not depart from the Five-Dynasties model; the descriptions of physical objects are particularly numerous. His five-character lines such as ‘White hair grows few with combing; / The blue mountain enters dreams oftener’; ‘My yearly debts hang in the monk’s pocket; / My examination name owes the imperial favor’ — and his seven-character couplets such as ‘In a year of plenty without spring rain in the jiǎzǐ day; / In a fine night I had my full sleep on the gēngshēn night’; ‘Bright moon’s southern shore: my dream’s first break; / Falling flowers at Dòngtíng: he has not returned’ — these are already counted as fine couplets in the collection. But the literary practice of the day was not otherwise; one cannot blame Yín alone for it. Yín had presented fù to Zhū Quánzhōng [Zhū Wēn]; later he offended Quánzhōng and fled to Mǐn. He was never genuinely loyal to the old dynasty, but he and Sīkōng Tú and Luó Yǐn corresponded at distance — like minds. He also wrote in his Dàfū sōng poem ‘Better the rime-resisting integrity of the pine in the gully / Than the Qín-king’s bestowed pine-rank’; and in Mǎwéi: ‘The Zhāngjūn brothers — where are they? — / Yet Yángfēi died to honor the lord’ — as if a single bowl of millet could not be forgotten the sovereign Táng. But men of letters’ words are not always evidentiary; the historian must verify by deeds. Respectfully presented, Qiánlóng 46 / 5 (1781). Chief compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General reviser: Lù Fèichí.”
Abstract
The same author and same fundamental corpus as KR4c0101 (the SBCK ten-juǎn Diàojī wénjí in the Sòng family-recension), but in a much shorter and later-reconstructed form. The two-juǎn WYG text is the anthological reconstruction assembled by Xú’s descendants from the early-Qīng Hǔ Zhènhēng anthology Tángyīn tǒngqiān and the Sòng Wényuàn yīnghuá — i.e., it preserves only those poems and fù that had circulated through the SòngYuánMíng anthology tradition, not those that the Sòng family-line had managed to keep in the lineage’s ten-juǎn form. The two recensions overlap in the principal fù (the famous Rénshēng jǐhé, Zhǎnshé jiàn, Yùgōu shuǐ are in both) but differ substantially in the poetry and minor pieces.
The catalog meta gives no specific dates. The 894 jìnshì date is the firmest external anchor. Xú’s life extended through Wáng Shěnzhī’s establishment of the Mǐn court (909) and beyond; the notAfter is conservatively set to 920.
Translations and research
See KR4c0101. The same author’s modern scholarship treats both recensions together.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tiyao’s pointed observation — that Xú Yín’s professed Táng loyalty in poems like Dàfū sōng and Mǎwéi must be weighed against the historical fact that he had himself sought office under Zhū Wēn before fleeing south — is a useful corrective to romanticizing readings. Xú is usefully understood as a literary man who navigated the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties transition pragmatically.