Wéngōng jí 文恭集
The Wén-gōng Collection (of Hú Sù) by 胡宿 (撰)
About the work
Wéngōng jí 文恭集 (50 juǎn + 1 juǎn bǔyí) is the Sìkù reconstitution from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn of the original 70-juǎn collection of Hú Sù 胡宿 (996–1067, zì Wǔpíng 武平, posthumous Wéngōng 文恭), the high-Northern-Sòng Hànlín xuéshì and Shūmì fùshǐ. Hú is regarded by the Sìkù tíyào as the chief stylistic exemplar of the liùcháo-style ornamental piānlì in mid-Northern-Sòng court drafting; the Yùzhì (imperial preface) by Qiánlóng explicitly criticizes the inclusion of his Dàoyuàn qīngcí 道院青詞 (Daoist liturgical verse drafted for court ritual) and jiàofāng zhìyǔ 教坊致語 (drafted greetings for jiàofāng performances) as “unsuited to the orthodox Way” and orders these excluded from the printed quánjí — a striking imperial editorial intervention preserved in the WYG.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: the Wéngōng jí in 50 juǎn with a 1-juǎn bǔyí was composed by Hú Sù of the Sòng. Sù, zì Wǔpíng, of Chángzhōu Jìnlíng 常州晉陵. Jìnshì of Tiānshèng 2 / 1024. Held LiǎngZhè zhuǎnyùnshǐ, summoned to compile Qǐjūzhù, Zhīzhìgào; from Hànlín xuéshì appointed Shūmì fùshǐ; retired with Tàizǐ shàobǎo. Canonized Wéngōng 文恭. His deeds are in the Sòngshǐ. Hú at court was famous for his uprightness, and his learning was extremely broad. The wéngé of his time had not yet changed, still continuing the sìliù piānǒu 四六駢偶 habit; Hú was particularly skilled in this register. The court’s great drafted edicts are dignified, abundant, beautiful — equaling the Six Dynasties; his five- and seven-character regulated poems are powerful, sonorous and ringing, faintly carrying the residual echoes of High Tang. Chén Shì’s Shūlù jiětí records 70 juǎn; long lost. Recent compilers of “Northern-Sòng famous-worthies’ small collections” gathered only a sparse handful; Lì È’s Sòng shī jìshì despite its breadth recorded Hú’s poems only by dredging gazetteers — never seeing the full panther. The Jīn poet Yuán Hǎowèn 元好問 in Xuǎn Tang shī gǔchuī misincluded twenty-some of Hú’s poems as Tang work, and writers thereafter took Hú as a “late-Tang man whose seat and registry are unclear.” On checking, most of Yuán’s pieces are in the Wéngōng jí, and one is Hé Zhū Kuàng — Zhū was Hú’s son-in-law, of the same Chángzhōu registry, as documented in the xíngzhuàng of his Lady-Mother Lǐ — concrete evidence. That Yuán Hǎowèn could blunder so far indicates that already in JīnYuán times the collection was rare. Now from Yǒnglè dàdiǎn under various rhyme-headings we have gathered some 1500 poems and prose pieces — perhaps not exactly the original count, but the volume is rich enough to recover roughly 8/9. We have classified and arranged them as 50 juǎn, that lovers of antiquity in the literary garden may have something to consult. Qiánlóng (year), respectfully collated.
(The Yùzhì tí Hú Sù Wéngōng jí preface is preserved separately at the head of the WYG, dated Qiánlóng yǐwèi / 1775 2nd month, and instructs that the jiàofāng zhìyǔ and Dàoyuàn qīngcí are “shabby and lewd” / “deviant from the orthodox Way” and should be excluded from the printed quánjí; the manuscript record is to be preserved but only the orthodox portion is to be cut.)
Abstract
Hú Sù’s career was one of the longer mid-Northern-Sòng careers as a court drafter: 43 years (1024–1067) at successive levels of the Hànlín and Shūmì, drafting court ceremonial under Rénzōng and Yīngzōng. His upright moral character (the standard Sòngshǐ j. 318 assessment) won him posthumous canonization Wéngōng 文恭. As a literary figure his historical importance is two-fold: (1) he is the principal piānlì stylist of the mid-Northern-Sòng court, refining the sìliù tradition of Yáng Yì 楊億 and Liú Yún 劉筠 into a register that became the model for Hànlín drafting through the next half-century; (2) the Wéngōng jí preserves a substantial corpus of zòuyì, biǎozhuàng, xùjì, shéndào bēi, and zhìgào drafts that are an important historical source for mid-Sòng court ceremonial — including the shéndào bēi for Jiǎng Táng 蔣堂 preserved here. The Qiánlóng Yùzhì preface’s instruction to expurgate the Daoist liturgical and jiàofāng materials reflects Qing court anxiety about zhèngdào / yìduān boundaries — a striking instance of imperial editorial intervention in a Sìkù text.
The dating bracket marks Hú’s death (1067) to the Sìkù reconstitution (1781).
Translations and research
- Egan, Ronald C. 1984. The Literary Works of Ou-yang Hsiu. Cambridge UP. Treats Hú Sù in the Tiān-shèng / Qìng-lì literary generation.
- Bol, Peter K. 1992. “This Culture of Ours”. Stanford UP. Discusses Hú’s piān-lì style.
- Wáng Liǎng 王亮. 2011. Hú Sù yán-jiū 胡宿研究. Sū-zhōu dàxué chūbǎnshè. Standard modern Chinese monograph.
Other points of interest
The Yuán Hǎowèn misattribution episode — flagged by the Sìkù compilers — is one of the more vivid documented instances of how the loss and recovery of a Sòng biéjí could distort Tang-Sòng poetic attribution at the boundary; before the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recovery, Hú Sù poems were circulating as anonymous “late-Tang” pieces.
Links
- Hu Su (Wikidata Q15920860)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1 (Sòng biéjí); §54 (mid-Sòng piānlì).