Qiántáng jí 錢塘集
The Qián-táng Collection (of Wéi Xiāng) by 韋驤 (撰)
About the work
Qiántáng jí 錢塘集 is the literary collection of Wéi Xiāng 韋驤 (1033–1105, zì Zǐjùn 子駿) of Qiántáng, a Huángyòu 5 / 1053 jìnshì whose career ran through provincial appointments (Píngxiāng, Fújiàn, Kuílù) and ended as Tíjǔ Dòngxiāogōng sinecure. The collection is transmitted through a Ming bookseller (Wú Kuān 吳寬) recension whose first two juǎn were already missing — the Sìkù editors thus received it as a 14-juǎn fragment; the WYG version is now in 12 juǎn, retaining poetry, prose, and the sìliù (parallel) memorials and qǐ on which Wéi’s reputation principally rested. The extensive fù corpus listed by Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì (a separate 20-juǎn Wéi Zǐjùn fù) is entirely lost.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: Qiántáng jí in 14 juǎn by Wéi Xiāng of the Sòng. Xiāng, zì Zǐjùn, of Qiántáng. Huángyòu 5 / 1053 jìnshì. Appointed zhī Yuánzhōu Píngxiāngxiàn; passed through Fújiàn zhuǎnyùn pànguān; later sent out as Kuílù tíxíng; at the start of Jiànzhōng Jìngguó (1101) was appointed zhī Míngzhōu; petitioned for a gōngcí (sinecure shrine office) and died as Zuǒ Cháoyìdàifū Tíjǔ Hángzhōu Dòngxiāogōng. His deeds are not in the Sòngshǐ, but the zhuàng, sacrificial pieces, and so on preserved in this collection still bear his official titles, by which his career may be reconstructed in outline. Duānlín (Mǎ Duānlín 馬端臨)‘s Jīngjí kǎo records Qiántáng Wéi xiānshēng jí in 18 juǎn; Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì’s juǎn count is the same. The present yuánběn in 16 juǎn carries collectors’ inscriptions: “the Sòng-board Wéi Xiāng jí is from Wú Kuān’s family-held copy”; the original lacks the first and second juǎn — it is in fact only 14. Examination of the book shows that wherever the character gòu 構 occurs it is left blank with a note “Tàishàng huángdì yùmíng (the present-emperor’s tabooed name)” — this should be from a Xiàozōng-period (1163–1189) cut, transmitted in copies. The two juǎn lacking are common to all extant copies, and there is now no way to reconstitute them. Wéi was known in youth for cífù: Wáng Ānshí especially praised his Jièzhù fù, but the collection does not include it; examination of Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì finds Wéi separately had a fù collection in 20 juǎn — these would have been there, in a separate fù-collection — and they are now lost. His ancient-style poetry is also incomplete, but the general outline still stands: in qìgé (overall character) he generally does not slavishly imitate the Táng-people, but his mìyǒng tiányín (close-chanting, gentle-singing) carries a natural charm; his miscellaneous prose is mostly tranquil-elegant and orderly; his sìliù memorials and qǐ are particularly skilled — the jīnglì liúyì (refined-fluent ease) here already opens a southern-Sòng register. Although he cannot match the footsteps of Ōuyáng (Xiū) and Méi (Yáochén), he too was one of the talents of the age. We have respectfully restructured the mùcì (catalogue order), making what survives — beginning from the present juǎn 3 as juǎn 1 — into 14 juǎn. After repeated transmission and copying, drop-outs are many; with no other recension, where the omission is recoverable we collated; where it is not, we provisionally hold to the quēyí (suspended-doubt) principle. Qiánlóng 46 (1781) 5th month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Wéi Xiāng’s career is that of a competent but not first-rank zhōngcéng (mid-tier) Northern-Sòng official: jinshi 1053, repeated provincial postings, and a final sinecure. The collection itself is principally significant for two things. First, the sìliù biǎoqǐ (parallel-prose memorials and submission letters) are unusually accomplished — the Sìkù editors note their proto-Southern-Sòng register, suggesting Wéi as an early node in the rhetorical lineage that would mature in Wāng Zǎo 汪藻 and Sūn Dí 孫覿. Second, the collection’s transmission history is itself instructive: a Northern-Sòng author whose work survived only through a Xiàozōng-era cut (datable by the gòu 構 taboo for Gāozōng’s name), held by Wú Kuān 吳寬 in the Ming, fragmentary even on entry into the Qing imperial library. The 20-juǎn fù collection praised by Wáng Ānshí is entirely lost. Dating bracket: Wéi’s death (1105) to the Sìkù re-collation (1781).
Translations and research
- Hú Wù-jiǎo 胡務嬌. 1992. “Wéi Xiāng yǔ Qián-táng jí” 韋驤與錢塘集. Wén-xiàn 文獻 1992.4. The standard short-monograph treatment.
- Bol, Peter K. 1992. “This Culture of Ours”: Intellectual Transitions in T’ang and Sung China. Stanford UP. Background on the Huáng-yòu literary milieu.
- Egan, Ronald C. 1994. Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi. Harvard UP. Treats the same generation in passing.
Other points of interest
The character gòu 構 left blank with a yùmíng (imperial taboo) note, observed by the Sìkù editors throughout the surviving recension, fixes the terminus ante quem of the present text to Gāozōng’s reign — a textbook example of the way Sòng-period taboo characters serve as bibliographic dating evidence.
Links
- Wei Xiang (Wikidata)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1 (Sòng biéjí); §1.3 (taboo characters).