Jīngjìn Dōngpō wénjí shìluè 經進東坡文集事略
Imperially-Presented, Outline of Events in the Prose Collection of [Sū] Dōng-pō by 蘇軾 (撰), 郎曄 (注)
About the work
Jīngjìn Dōngpō wénjí shìluè 經進東坡文集事略 in 60 juǎn is the principal Southern-Sòng prose-annotation of Sū Shì 蘇軾 蘇軾, composed by Láng Yè 郎曄 郎曄 (fl. Chúnxī) and presented to the throne under Xiàozōng. The title’s jīngjìn signals the imperial-presentation status; shìluè (outline of events) signals the work’s principal contribution: contextual-historical annotation of the zòuyì and biǎozhuàng (memorials) and jìxù (records and prefaces) — providing the shìshí (historical event) background for each piece. The work is the prose-counterpart to the contemporaneous Wáng Shípéng bǎijiā poetic-annotation KR4d0077 KR4d0078 and complements the (later) Shī Yuánzhī 施元之 / Shī Sù 施宿 zhù Sūshī KR4d0080; the four together form the foundational Sòng annotation-corpus on Sū. The KRP source is the SBCK reprint; not in the Sìkù WYG corpus.
Tiyao
The KRP source is the SBCK reprint, which does not include the Sìkù tíyào. This work was not separately cataloged by the Sìkù but is referred to by Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí (giving the jīngjìn form and 60-juǎn count). The Sòng Húzhōu / Hángzhōu cut survived into the early Qing (Hé Chuò 何焯 collation copy at Yìmén); the SBCK base is the same family of recension.
Abstract
Jīngjìn Dōngpō wénjí shìluè is bibliographically the major surviving Southern-Sòng prose-annotation of Sū Shì. Láng Yè’s annotation method centers on shìshí (historical event) rather than cíyǔ (word-source) — a distinct register from the contemporaneous Wáng Shípéng bǎijiā poetry-annotation, which prioritizes literary citation, and from the later Shī Yuánzhī poetry-annotation, which combines both. Where Sū’s zòuyì (memorials) and biǎo (court memorials) are concerned — typically the prose pieces with the heaviest contextual-political content — Láng Yè’s shìluè annotation is uniquely valuable, providing the shízhèng (timely affair) frame against which Sū’s particular cè (proposals) and biàn (refutations) operated. The 60-juǎn organization preserves a fēntǐ (genre-divided) structure rather than chronological — making it complementary to the biānnián (chronological) approach of Fù Zǎo 傅藻’s Jìnián lù (appended to KR4d0078). The SBCK reprint preserves a recensional state independent of the Sìkù tradition; not having been imperially cataloged, the work is therefore a useful witness to the unmediated Sòng annotation-state. Dating bracket: Láng Yè’s Chúnxī-period composition (c. 1180s) to the SBCK reprint (1929).
Translations and research
- Egan, Ronald C. 1994. Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi. Harvard. Uses Láng Yè’s annotations for the zòu-yì materials.
- Sū Shì wén-jí 蘇軾文集. 1986. Zhōng-huá. 73 juǎn. Standard modern critical edition; uses Láng Yè’s annotation as principal collation control on the prose.
- Wáng Wén-gào 王文誥. 1819. Sū Wén-zhōng-gōng shī-biān-zhù jí-chéng — uses Láng Yè for prose annotations.
- Hé Chuò 何焯. Yì-mén dú-shū jì 義門讀書記. Qing collation note on the jīng-jìn recension.
Other points of interest
The jīngjìn (imperially-presented) status of this work — preserving the Chúnxī-court engagement with Sū Shì’s prose — is itself politically significant: under Xiàozōng (whose Chúnxī program included rehabilitating Sū’s reputation, suppressed under Cài Jīng’s Chóngníng dǎngjí of 1102) the imperial reception of Sū had been thoroughly normalized. Láng Yè’s shìluè method — historicizing each piece — is the operational record of this rehabilitation, supplying the bureaucratic-political frame against which Sū’s zòuyì could be read as model bureaucratic prose.
Links
- Su Shi (Wikidata)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1 (Sòng biéjí); §28.6 (annotation tradition).