Yuánxiàn jí 元憲集
The Yuán-xiàn Collection (of Sòng Xiáng) by 宋庠 (撰)
About the work
Yuánxiàn jí 元憲集 is the 36-juǎn (in the Sìkù WYG; original 40 juǎn) literary collection of Sòng Xiáng 宋庠 (996–1066, zì Gōngxù 公序, posthumous Yuánxiàn 元憲), the elder of the famous early-Sòng “Two Sòngs” 二宋 — jìnshì of Tiānshèng 2 / 1024 (top in all three exam stages, liánzhōng sānyuán 連中三元), eventually rising to Zǎixiàng. Like his brother’s Jǐngwén jí KR4d0021, the original collection was lost in early-Yuán transmission and reassembled by the Sìkù compilers from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. The two brothers’ collections circulate together in the WYG with a single Yùzhì tí (imperial preface) by Qiánlóng commemorating the parallel preservation.
Tiyao
The imperial preface Yùzhì tí Yuánxiàn Jǐngwén jí bìng gè shū qí juǎnshǒu 御製題元憲景文集並各書其卷首 (Qiánlóng yǐwèi / 1775, 2nd month) is the principal preface preserved with both works. Sòng Xiáng and Sòng Qí, brothers, of equal renown, took the jìnshì together; the age called them “Greater and Lesser Sòng.” Yet one rose to Zǎixiàng and one to Shàngshū; their accomplishments differed, their natures (one frugal, one extravagant) differed; thus their poetry and prose are sunk-erudite (Sòng Xiáng) versus newly-startling (Sòng Qí), each turning according to nature, but both circulating in their age — that part is the same. Both forbade their sons to print biéjí of lèi-arranged collections; that is the same. Then the works, even when later combined and printed, were again scattered and lost; same again. Now [the Sìkù project] has reassembled and printed them with the jùzhēnbǎn 聚珍版 (movable-type) for circulation; same once more. The reasons for these “sames” and “differences” — neither Sòng Xiáng nor Sòng Qí could know, nor I; but their dispersal was due to their own desire to hide themselves, and their preservation was due to the lucky survival of the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn — lost more than 700 years ago (Tiānshèng to now over 750 years), recovered more than 300 years later (Míng Yǒnglè to now over 370 years) — and so they return again to sameness. — gòng tí yī shī bìng guàn yú liǎng jí jiǎn shǒu (the imperial poem in qīyán follows). The text of the bīng yì preserved in the WYG also includes Lǐ Zhīqiáng 陳之強’s preface from the Sòng Jiādìng combined-cutting at Ānzhōu (originally promoted by jùnshǒu Wáng Yǔnchū but completed by his successor Chén Fú).
Abstract
Sòng Xiáng’s career is the longer and politically more elevated of the two brothers’. From the top jìnshì spot of Tiānshèng 2 / 1024 he rose through the Hànlín and Shūmì offices to Tóng zhōngshū ménxià píngzhāngshì (Zǎixiàng) under Rénzōng in Bǎoyuán 寶元 1 / 1038, served twice as Shūmìshǐ, and was enfeoffed Jǔguógōng 莒國公 with the canonization Wénxiàn 文憲 (later corrected to Yuánxiàn 元憲, the form by which the collection is named). His name was originally Sòng Jiāo 宋郊; he was made to change it on Rénzōng’s order on grounds of political-divinatory taboo (the homophone with 交 read as predicting jiāo / “uniting” with foreign powers). He died in Zhìpíng 3 / 1066 age 71. Sòng Xiáng’s literary stature is overshadowed by his brother Sòng Qí’s, but his philological work is independently substantial — his Guóyǔ bǔyīn KR2e0002 is the only Sòng phonological treatment of the Guóyǔ to survive.
The collection’s contents are zhìgào, biǎozhuàng, court ceremonial, fù, shī, xùjì, bēimíng — heavy on the official-document side, characteristic of a Zǎixiàng who spent decades drafting court papers. The original 40-juǎn recension recorded by Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì (under the title Sòng Yuánxiàn jí) was lost in YuánMíng transmission; the Sìkù recovery from Yǒnglè dàdiǎn yields 36 juǎn, judged by the compilers to recover roughly 8/10 of the original. The dating bracket is set from Sòng’s death (1066) to the Sìkù reconstitution (1781).
Translations and research
- Hervouet, Yves, ed. 1978. A Sung Bibliography. Chinese University of Hong Kong. Treats the Yuán-xiàn jí in the bié-jí section.
- Wáng Lǐng-pín 王令蘋. 1995. Sòng Xiáng yán-jiū 宋庠研究. Wǔ-hàn dàxué chū-bǎn-shè. Standard Chinese monograph.
- Bol, Peter K. 1992. “This Culture of Ours”. Stanford UP. Treats the Two Sòngs in the Tiān-shèng generation.
Other points of interest
The Sòng Jiāo / Sòng Xiáng renaming episode (the imperially-imposed change of name) is one of the curiosities of Northern-Sòng court politics — driven by a divinatory anxiety over SòngLiáo relations — and is widely recorded in bǐjì literature. Wáng Yǔnchū’s Jiādìng-era project to combine-cut the brothers’ collections at Ānzhōu is the proximate Sòng-period transmission of both jí and is the principal reason both survive at all into the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn.
Links
- Song Xiang (Wikipedia)
- Wikidata Q15894866
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1 (Sòng biéjí).