Wáng Huángzhōu Xiǎochù wàijí cán 王黃州小畜外集殘
The Outer-Collection Fragments of the Xiǎo-chù jí (Wáng Yǔchēng of Huáng-zhōu) by 王禹偁 (撰)
About the work
Wáng Huángzhōu Xiǎochù wàijí cán 王黃州小畜外集殘 is the surviving fragmentary 7-juǎn outer-collection of Wáng Yǔchēng 王禹偁 — that is, the literary remains assembled posthumously to supplement the 30-juǎn Xiǎochù jí KR4d0009 which Wáng himself selected and arranged in 1000. The full Sòng-period Wàijí was 20 juǎn (so recorded by Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì); only 7 juǎn survived into YuánMíng times in heavily defective form and into SBCK reproduction here. Together with the Xiǎochù jí it constitutes the principal corpus of one of the founders of the Sòng gǔwén movement.
Tiyao
No tíyào in source — the file is digitized from the SBCK base of a defective Sòng manuscript witness. The Sìkù compilers did not include this fragmentary Wàijí in WYG, treating the 30-juǎn Xiǎochù jí as the canonical Wáng Yǔchēng corpus.
Abstract
The Wàijí preserves prose and poetry that Wáng excluded from his own self-curated Xiǎochù jí of 1000 — partly because they were minor pieces, partly because Wáng’s selection was avowedly ethical, weighted toward the political-memorial side of his oeuvre, and the Wàijí therefore retains a heavier proportion of yìngchóu 應酬 (occasional and exchange) verse, ceremonial biǎozhuàng drafted on behalf of others, and shorter jìxù prose. Internal evidence places its initial compilation in the Tiānshèng / Jǐngyòu generation by an unnamed editor, possibly a member of Wáng’s surviving circle (Sūn Hé 孫何, Cháo Jiǒng 晁迥, Lǐ Wèifù 李惟阜); the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì 20-juǎn figure suggests a fully developed text by the late Northern Sòng. The transmission breaks at some point in the Yuán: the surviving 7 juǎn SBCK fragment is from a Míng manuscript witness in the Mǎshì 馬氏 Cíyúnshānfáng 詞雲山房 collection.
The principal scholarly value of the Wàijí is filling in the chronology of Wáng’s late provincial career (Chúzhōu, Guǎnglíng, Huángzhōu) with shorter occasional pieces not included in the moralizing self-selection of the main Jí; many of these have proven essential for niánpǔ reconstruction.
The dating bracket here marks Wáng’s death (1001) — by which time most of the Wàijí material was already written — to the late-Northern-Sòng terminus ante quem of the 20-juǎn recension recorded by the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì.
Translations and research
- Liú Yǎ-cǎo 劉雅萍. 2008. Wáng Yǔchēng nián-pǔ 王禹偁年譜. Zhōng-huá. Uses Wài-jí heavily for chronology.
- Bol, Peter K. 1992. “This Culture of Ours”. Stanford UP. Treats Wáng’s literary corpus as a whole.
- No standalone Western monograph on the Wài-jí.
Other points of interest
The Wàijí / Zhèngjí distinction in Wáng’s transmitted corpus is the earliest extant Northern-Sòng instance of an authorial self-selection (the Zhèngjí) being supplemented by a posthumous Wàijí — a practice that became standard for major Sòng biéjí (cf. Sū Shì Dōngpō wàijí, Wáng Ānshí Wàijí).
Links
- Wang Yucheng (Wikipedia)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1 (Sòng biéjí).