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忠愍集

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Text ID
KR4d0006
Date
1023–1100
Dynasty
宋

Zhōngmǐn jí 忠愍集

The Zhōng-mǐn (Loyal-Lamented) Collection (of Kòu Zhǔn) by 寇準 (撰), edited by 范雍 (編)

About the work

Zhōngmǐn jí 忠愍集 is the small surviving 3-juǎn poetic collection of Kòu Zhǔn 寇準 (961–1023, zì Píngzhòng 平仲), the famous Northern-Sòng councillor whose insistence that Zhēnzōng personally lead the army to Chánzhōu 澶州 in 1004 produced the Chányuān méng 澶淵之盟 — the treaty that fixed the SòngLiáo border for a century. The collection’s title commemorates Kòu’s posthumous canonization as Zhōngmǐn 忠愍 (“Loyal and Lamented”) under Rénzōng. The Sòng-period 5-juǎn original Láigōng jí 萊公集 was lost; the 3-juǎn poetic Zhōngmǐn jí preserved here was compiled by Fàn Yōng 范雍 (981–1046) from scattered manuscripts. The catalog meta gives Kòu’s lifedates as 961–1023, in agreement with CBDB id 898 and the Sòngshǐ j. 281 biography. The SBCK Zhōngmǐn gōng shī jí 忠愍公詩集 carries the Hóngzhì 13 (1500) preface by Wáng Chéngyù 王承裕 and the Jīngzhōng zhī bēi 旌忠之碑 (the imperially commissioned commemoration by Sūn Biàn 孫抃 at the order of Rénzōng).

Tiyao

No tíyào in source — the file is digitized from the SBCK base, which carries the Hóngzhì preface and the Jīngzhōng memorial inscription rather than the Sìkù tíyào. The Sìkù WYG 3-juǎn tíyào (V1085.6) is preserved separately and follows the Sòng shīhuà in placing Kòu among the WǎnTángtǐ 晚唐體 poets — that is, the early-Sòng poets (Wáng Yǔchēng 王禹偁, Pān Lǎng 潘閬, Lín Bū 林逋) who chose the late-Táng pentasyllabic lǜshī of Liú Chángqīng 劉長卿 as their model rather than the ornamental XīKūn style. The tíyào judges Kòu’s poetry as plain, terse, and (in Sìkù idiom) “qīngjué 清絕” — clean and abrupt.

Abstract

The Jīngzhōng zhī bēi memorial preserved at the front of the SBCK file is the principal contemporary biography. Kòu Zhǔn, of Huázhōu Xiàguī 華州下邽 (modern Shaanxi), was a jìnshì of Tàipíng xīngguó 5 / 980 at age 19 — one of the youngest jìnshì of the Northern Sòng. He served as Cānzhī zhèngshì and twice as Zǎixiàng (1004–1006 and 1019–1020); his decisive moment was the autumn of 1004, when, against the advice of timorous southerners proposing to abandon Kāifēng for Jīnlíng, he insisted that Zhēnzōng cross the Yellow River and personally appear at Chánzhōu 澶州 to rally the army — the move that produced the Chányuān settlement with the Liáo. Kòu’s career thereafter was one of repeated rivalries (with Wáng Qīnruò 王欽若, Dīng Wèi 丁謂, and Liú Cóngyuán 劉從愿) leading eventually to his demotion under the Liútàihòu 劉太后 regency to Léizhōu sīhùcānjūn; he died in exile at Léizhōu in Tiānshèng 1 / 1023, aged 63. Posthumously, Rénzōng restored his offices, ordered the body returned to Luòyáng, and personally calligraphed the jīngzhōng 旌忠 plaque, with Sūn Biàn drafting the official memorial inscription preserved here. The YuánMíng dramatic tradition turned Kòu into a folk-hero (“Kòu Lǎo Xī” in popular zájù).

The poetic content of the present 3-juǎn collection is small (some 200-odd poems, predominantly qījué and qīlǜ) and the literary judgement is essentially that of the Hóngzhì preface: that Kòu wrote in the fēnggé of Liú Chángqīng and Yuán Wěizhī 元微之 (Yuán Zhěn 元稹), with crisp imagery and an economy of statement that fit the WǎnTángtǐ mode. The original 5-juǎn Láigōng jí lapsed; Fàn Yōng’s 3-juǎn compilation is the version that survived and is the basis of all later editions. The dating bracket here marks Kòu’s death (1023) to the latest assured Sòng witnesses; the SBCK printed text is from a Hóngzhì 1500 reproduction.

Translations and research

  • Kurz, Johannes L. 2003. Das Kompilationsprojekt Song Taizongs. Lang. Discusses Kòu Zhǔn in the early-Sòng court literary system.
  • Lorge, Peter. 2005. War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900–1795. Routledge. Treats the Chán-yuān episode and Kòu’s role.
  • Wang Hongzhi 王宏志. 2002. Kòu Zhǔn yán-jiū 寇準研究. Hé-běi rénmín. The standard modern Chinese biography.

Other points of interest

The folk-tradition figure of Kòu Lǎo Xī 寇老西 (the popular YuánMíng zájù hero) descends from Kòu Zhǔn’s transformation in vernacular drama into the type of the hump-backed but morally indomitable old minister; this folk-hero is the figure who survives in present-day Peking-opera repertoire as Yángjiā jiāng villain-foil. The Sòngshǐ j. 281 biography is among the most consulted in the Lièzhuàn.

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