Xiāoyáo jí 逍遙集
The Xiāo-yáo (Free-and-Easy) Collection (of Pān Lǎng) by 潘閬 (撰)
About the work
Xiāoyáo jí 逍遙集 is the 1-juǎn surviving collection of the eccentric early-Sòng poet Pān Lǎng 潘閬 (d. 1009), self-styled Xiāoyáo zǐ 逍遙子 (“Master Free-and-Easy”). The original Sòng-period collection (recorded by Cháo Gōngwǔ 晁公武 Dúshū zhì as Xiāoyáo shī in 3 juǎn; by Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì as Pān Lǎng jí in 1 juǎn) was lost; the present Sìkù recension is a Qián-lóng-era reconstitution from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典, supplemented from scattered shīhuà and other sources.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: the Xiāoyáo jí in 1 juǎn was composed by Pān Lǎng of the Sòng. Lǎng was a man of Dàmíng 大名. Cháo Gōngwǔ in Dúshū zhì says that Pān’s zì was “Xiāoyáo,” but Jiāng Shàoyú’s 江少虞 Shìshí lèiyuàn 事實類苑 says he styled himself Xiāoyáo zǐ — Jiāng’s account is perhaps closer to the truth. Under Tàizōng he was summoned to court interview, granted a jìnshì, but later fled the capital after being implicated in an affair; under Zhēnzōng he was caught, pardoned, and made Chúzhōu cānjūn. Pān stood at the very beginning of Sòng, the residual style of the Five Dynasties not yet far behind him, and pieces like the Qiūxī lǚshè shūhuái 秋夕旅舍書懷 and Xǐ xuě 喜雪 still bear traces of the rough vigor of Five-Dynasties verse, while his other poems’ stark and angular fēnggé still preserves the manner of late-Táng poets. Sū Shì 蘇軾 praised his Xiàrì sù Xīchán poem and his Tí Zīfú yuàn shíjǐng poem as “not below Shí Mànqīng or Sū Zǐměi”; Liú Pān’s 劉攽 Zhōngshān shīhuà says his Suìmù zì Tónglú guī Qiántáng is “not less than Liú Chángqīng.” Shìshí lèiyuàn praises lines from his Kǔyín shī, Pínjū shī, Xiázhōng wén yuán, Kū Gāo shèrén, Jì Zhāng Yǒng 寄張詠. Liú Kèzhuāng’s Hòucūn shīhuà praises the Kèshè poem; Fāng Huí’s Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ praises his Wèishàng qiūxī xiánwàng, Qiūrì tí Lángyá sì, Luòyè poems. Shìshí lèiyuàn also records that while in Zhèjiāng a connoisseur painted a “Pān Lǎng Chanting the Tide” picture; Guō Ruòxū’s Túhuà jiànwén zhì records that the Chángān painter Xǔ Dàoníng 許道寧 loved Pān’s Huáshān poem and painted “Pān Lǎng Riding His Donkey Backwards”; contemporaries like Wáng Yǔchēng 王禹偁, Liǔ Kāi 柳開, Kòu Zhǔn 寇準, Sòng Bái 宋白, Lín Bū 林逋 — all exchanged poems with him; clearly the men of Sòng prized him highly. Dúshū zhì records Xiāoyáo shī in 3 juǎn; Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì records Pān Lǎng jí in 1 juǎn — the original is long lost and we cannot now tell which is correct. Now we have collated the entries in Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and arranged them as a single juǎn, also adding scattered fragments from other works to fill the lacunae; though we cannot match Cháo’s count, against the Sòng catalog we have recovered roughly eight or nine tenths. The piece Gǔ yì 古意 is given by all printed Tang anthologies as Cuī Guófǔ’s 崔國輔, but in Yǒnglè dàdiǎn it is attributed to Pān; we have included it here with a note on the discrepancy. Qiánlóng 46 (1781) 9th month, respectfully collated. — Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Pān Lǎng’s biography is a study in eccentric outsiderhood: a Wéizhōu (Dàmíng) 大名 native, in the late 990s he was sponsored to court (one source says by Wáng Jìēn 王繼恩) and given an honorary jìnshì by Sòng Tàizōng, but soon fled the capital after being implicated in a political case (probably Wáng Jìēn’s purge of 998); recovered under Zhēnzōng, he was pardoned and given the minor post of Chúzhōu cānjūn, where he died in Dàzhōngxiángfú 2 / 1009. His most famous poems are the Jiǔ tí Qiántáng 酒題錢塘 series — short cí-like qījué 七絕 commemorating the spectacular tides of the Qiántáng — and a string of starkly imagistic late-Táng-style lǜshī, of which the iconic Suìmù zì Tónglú guī Qiántáng and the line “chūn yīn chuí yě cǎo, mù yǔ rù wú yú” 春陰垂野草、暮雨入無虞 became loci of Sòng shīhuà citation. Pān’s outsider standing made him a folk-hero among slightly later poets — Sū Shì repeatedly praised him; Wáng Yǔchēng, Kòu Zhǔn, Lín Bū, Liǔ Kāi all corresponded with him; the painter Xǔ Dàoníng 許道寧 produced the famous “Pān Lǎng riding his donkey backwards” image, an iconography that persisted into YuánMíng painting. The Sòng-period 3-juǎn collection vanished; the present 1-juǎn recension was reassembled in 1781 from Yǒnglè dàdiǎn fragments and shīhuà citations.
The dating bracket is set to the work’s transmission rather than composition: Pān died in 1009, and the Sìkù reconstitution from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn in 1781 forms the terminus ad quem for the received text; the contained poems are tenth-century, but no autograph manuscript survives.
Translations and research
- Yoshikawa Kōjirō 吉川幸次郎. 1962. An Introduction to Sung Poetry, trans. Burton Watson. Harvard UP. Discusses Pān Lǎng among the early-Sòng “late-Táng-style” poets.
- Stuart Sargent. “Po Hsiao Hsing”: occasional studies of early-Sòng poetry have included Pān Lǎng.
- Lǐ Shùn-zhī 李舜之, ed. 2014. Pān Lǎng shī jí jiào-zhù 潘閬詩集校注. Sìchuān dàxué chūbǎnshè. The standard modern critical edition.
Other points of interest
The piece Gǔ yì 古意 (j. 1) is the locus of a famous attribution problem: all printed Táng anthologies give it as Cuī Guófǔ’s, but the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn lemma assigns it to Pān; the Sìkù compilers — characteristically scrupulous — included it but flagged the discrepancy. The “donkey-riding-backwards” iconography became one of the standard subjects of SòngYuánMíng zhōujiǔ 隱逸 (eccentric-recluse) genre painting.
Links
- Pan Lang (Wikidata Q11395252)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1 (Sòng biéjí); §54 (early-Sòng poetry).