Yōngzhōu xiǎo jí 邕州小集
The Small Yōng-zhōu Collection (of Táo Bì) by 陶弼 (撰)
About the work
Yōngzhōu xiǎo jí 邕州小集 is the small 1-juǎn surviving collection (73 poems) of Táo Bì 陶弼 (1015–1078, zì Shāngwēng 商翁), the Húnán military-administrative official whose career was spent in southwestern frontier service — zhī Yángshuò (Guǎngxī), zhī Yōngzhōu (the title of the present collection), and Dōngshàng Géménshǐ Kángzhōu Tuánliànshǐ. Táo accompanied Yáng Tián 楊畋 in the Qìnglì suppression of the Húnán Yáo uprising (1043–1052) and was one of the rare Northern-Sòng officials with sustained on-the-ground experience of southern frontier military operations. The original 18-juǎn literary corpus (per Huáng Tíngjiān’s mùzhì) was lost; the surviving 1-juǎn of poems on Yōngzhōu and Húnán themes is what reached the Sìkù compilers.
Tiyao
[Translation summary] The Sìkù tíyào: Yōngzhōu xiǎo jí in 1 juǎn by Táo Bì of the Sòng. Bì, zì Shāngwēng, of Qíyáng 祁陽. In Qìnglì followed Yáng Tián in suppressing Húnán Yáo, was rewarded with Yángshuò xiàn zhǔbù; held zhī Yōngzhōu; promoted four ranks to Dōngshàng Géménshǐ and Kángzhōu Tuánliànshǐ. Sòngshǐ biography details his pacification of the Mán tribes; also says he was good at poetry. Huáng Tíngjiān’s 黃庭堅 mùzhìmíng says he “gathered late-students and young clerks, lectured on the Six Classics; his life was unconcerned with petty matters; particularly self-pleased in writing; especially called good at poetry; shīwén shūzòu 18 juǎn” — reading his book one knows he was no mediocrity. The 18-juǎn corpus is long lost. Only this Yōngzhōu xiǎo jí in 1 juǎn survives in chāoběn form, with 73 poems. Lì È’s Sòng shī jìshì picked Táo’s Yǒng ǒu and Yǒng dié poems from Hébì shìlèi, neither in the present text. The HúGuǎng tōngzhì praises Táo’s poetry as “particularly good at speaking fēngtǔ (regional landscape)”; his Là chá poem is in 50 rhymes — also missing here. So this collection is all from Húnán — hence titled Yōngzhōu; pieces from elsewhere not in this collection. Three pieces have lost lines (Chénzhōu missing first two; Yuánjū missing first two; Wǔ xī missing last two) — no other text for collation, hence preserved as is. Qiánlóng 43 (1778) 3rd month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Táo Bì’s literary niche is the southern frontier landscape: his poems on the Wǔ xī 五溪 region (modern western Húnán), the Mán tribal frontier of Yǒngzhōu and Yōngzhōu, and the Lá (Lao / Li) populations of Guǎngxī are among the rare Northern-Sòng documentary verse on these regions. The Là chá poem in 50 rhymes (cited by HúGuǎng tōngzhì but not preserved here) appears to have been a substantial ethnographic záyǒng on the mountain-tea industry. Huáng Tíngjiān composed Táo’s mùzhìmíng, suggesting Táo was a literary acquaintance of the SūMén generation. The dating bracket marks Táo’s death (1078) to the Sìkù reconstitution (1778).
Translations and research
- Anderson, James A. 2007. The Rebel Den of Nùng Trí Cao. UW Press. Treats the southern-frontier military context of Táo’s career.
- Lorge, Peter. 2005. War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China. Routledge. Background on the Sòng frontier wars.
- No standalone monograph on Táo Bì in any major Western language.
Other points of interest
The thematic confinement of the surviving collection to Húnán / Yōngzhōu makes it an unusually focused regional documentary corpus from a major Sòng frontier official. Huáng Tíngjiān’s mùzhì for Táo (preserved in his Shāngǔ jí) is the principal contemporary biographical source.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1 (Sòng biéjí); §44 (Sòng frontier).