Sū shī bǔzhù 蘇詩補註
Supplementary Annotation on Sū [Shì]‘s Poetry by 蘇軾 (撰), 查愼行 (補注)
About the work
Sū shī bǔzhù 蘇詩補註 is the magnum opus of Zhā Shènxíng 查愼行 查愼行 (1650–1727, zì Xiàzhòng 夏重, hào Chūbái 初白) — composed across a 30-year period (癸丑 / 1673 to Kāngxī rénwǔ / 1702) and presented to the throne in 50 juǎn. The work supersedes the earlier four-tradition Sūshī annotation corpus (Wáng Shípéng bǎijiā KR4d0077 KR4d0078; Láng Yè jīngjìn on prose KR4d0079; Shī Yuánzhī / Shī Sù zhùshī KR4d0080; the Shào Chánghéng / Lǐ Bìhéng / Féng Jǐng Kāngxī reconstruction in Shīzhù Sūshī) — drawing on all of them while correcting their errors and adding biānnián (chronological) refinements. The structural innovation: 45 juǎn of dated zhèngjí arranged year-by-year following Sū’s career-track from Jiāyòu jǐhài / 1059 (the Nánxíng jí phase, leaving Sìchuān with his father) to Jiànzhōng Jìngguó xīnsì / 1101 (the post-amnesty return north and death at Chángzhōu); plus juǎn 46 (tiēzǐcí, zhìyǔ, kǒuhào); juǎn 47–48 (yíshī, recovered lost poems); juǎn 49–50 (tājí hùjiàn shī, poems also seen in other authors’ collections). Front-matter: Wáng Wén-gào-style prefatory imperial ode preserved at the head; lìluè (editorial principles) by Zhā himself, dated Kāngxī rénwǔ / 1702; cǎijí shūmù (sources-list) of 516 + 116 = 632 books — one of the most extensive biéjí-annotation source-lists in the Sòngbiéjí corpus. The Sìkù tíyào is the work’s most authoritative early evaluation.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: Sū shī bǔzhù in 50 juǎn — by our dynasty’s (Qing) Zhā Shènxíng. Shènxíng zì Xiàzhòng hào Chūbái, of Hǎiníng. Kāngxī guǐwèi / 1703 jìnshì; office Hànlínyuàn biānxiū. Earlier the Sòng’s Shī Sù annotated Sū Shì’s poetry, with Lù Yóu’s preface; long without surviving recension; in Kāngxī Sòng Luò obtained its mutilated remains, with several missing juǎn — assigned Shào Chánghéng and others to supplement; jíjù chéng shū (in haste making the book), cǎocǎo shūshèn (haphazard in the extreme); further the old běn mildewed-darkened (méiàn) — the characters’ traces mostly hard to identify; Shào and others were dàn yú xúnyì (timid in pursuing the meaning) — often yìgǎi qí wén (changed by guesswork); some even shānchú yǐ mièjì (deleted to obliterate traces); the parts they preserved also lost their zhēn (true face). Shènxíng’s biān: every place Shào and others interpolated and mutilated, all check the original shū and one-by-one lízhèng (correct-and-fix); further on the parts Shī’s annotation did not reach, all gathered from the various books to supplement. In the biānnián cuòluàn (chronologically disordered) and yǐ tā shī hùnrù (other poems mixed in) — all kǎodìng chóngbiān (verified-and-re-edited). Total: zhèngjí in 45 juǎn; further bǔlù tiēzǐcí, zhìyǔ, kǒuhào in 1 juǎn; yíshī bǔbiān in 2 juǎn; tājí hùjiàn shī in 2 juǎn. Separately the niánpǔ placed at the head; tóngshí chànghé (contemporaneous answering-poems) attached after each piece. Although the juǎnzhì hàobó (volumes vast), inevitably dǐwú (clashings): like Sū Zhé’s Xīnchǒu chúrì jì Shì shī — Shì got it and answered — must be in rényín / 1062 — yet placed at the end of the Xīnchǒu juǎn — clearly there is biānnián chā (chronological discrepancy); the Tí Lǐ Bái xiězhēn shī — front-and-back literal-meaning xiāngshǔ (interconnected), originally one piece — what Huìhóng said is fully clear — yet on the basis of Shēnghuà jí divided into two pieces — clearly jiàochóu wéi chuǎn (collation-erroneous); the Yúfùcí four pieces, the Zuìwēngcǎo one piece — originally all shīyú (cí lyrics) — yet listed in the shījí — clearly tǐcái wèimíng (genre-distinction unclear); the chànghé poems listed include Zēng Gǒng’s Shàngyuán yóu Xiángfúsì poem, Chén Shùnyú’s Sòng Zhōu Kāizǔ poem, Yáng Pán’s Běigù Běigāofēngtǎ poem, Zhāng Shùnmín’s Xīzhēng sān juéjù — all with [Sū] Shì miǎo bù xiāngguān (utterly unrelated) — yet yīgài lánrù (uniformly let-in). As to the supplemented pieces such as the Guàishí shī — taken as zāoyōu shí zuò (composed during mourning) — not knowing Zhūzǐ yǔlèi says: èrSū jūsàng wú shīwén (the two Sūs in mourning had no shīwén); the Shǔxūbǐ shī — originally Shì’s son Guò composed — yet not believing Sòng wén jiàn; the Hé Qián Mùfǔ jìdì shī — already loaded in juǎn 31 — yet the entire piece duplicated; the Yuányòu jiǔnián lìchūn shī — xì Lǐ Duānshū shī mid four lines — already in juǎn 37 — yet gēliè zàichū (split-out, re-issued); the Shuāngjǐng báilóng shī — Lěngzhāi yèhuà clearly says it’s not Dōngpō’s composition — yet on the contrary said jùyǐ bǔrù (taking it as basis to supplement); even Lǐ Bái’s Shānzhōng rìxī hūrán yǒuhuái shī — also cited as Shì’s composition — particularly fails in jiǎnhé (verification). Such things — all unable to escape xuànbó tānduō (showing-off-erudition, greedy-of-many). His bǔzhù such as the Sòng Shūdá jiā tīng-pí-pa shī’s mènghuí yóushí guīzhōu zì line — fundamentally using the Kōnghóu Zhūzìshì — seen in Tàipíng guǎngjì — yet only quoting Tiānjì shí guīzhōu line; further misreading Xiè Tiào as Xiè Língyùn. The Huángjīnglù shī — originally painted Huángjīng and lù — yet quoted Léi Xiào pàozhìlùn Huángjīngzhī zhìlùróng matter — all are chuǎnwù (errors). Further: the Jìmèng shī citing Lǐ Bái cànrán qǐ yùchǐ line — not knowing it appeared first in Xīnshì SānQín jì; the Duānwǔ shī citing Qū Yuán fàntǒng matter — saying based on Chūxué jì’s Qíxié jì — not knowing the Xù Qíxié jì’s present běn still loads this tiáo — all wèi qióng gēndǐ (not exhausted to root-and-foundation). Yet kǎohé dìlǐ, dìngzhèng niányuè, yǐnjù shíshì, yuányuán běnběn (verifying geography, fixing year-and-month, citing-on-the-basis-of timely-affairs, source-by-source root-by-root) — without not having tiáolǐ (orderliness). Not only what Shào’s annotation new-recension cannot reach — even Shī’s annotation’s original běn falls below it. Zìyǒu Sū shī yǐlái zhùjiā yǐ cǐ běn jūzuì (since the existence of Sū’s poetry, of all annotators this běn ranks foremost). The various small failings are insufficient to count against it. Qiánlóng 44 (1779) 3rd month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Sū shī bǔzhù is the Sìkù editors’ explicitly-designated foremost annotation of Sū Shì’s poetry. Methodologically distinguished by: (1) full biānnián (chronological) reconstruction across 45 juǎn of zhèngjí, place-and-time-stamping every poem against Sū’s known biographical itinerary; (2) treatment of yíshī (lost poems) recovery as a separate enterprise (juǎn 47–48 with 120+ recovered poems); (3) handling of tājí hùjiàn (cross-collection sharing) as a methodologically-distinct category (juǎn 49–50, identifying poems duplicated in others’ collections — Sū Chè, Huáng Tíngjiān, Qín Guān, etc.); (4) systematic correction of the predecessor annotations (Wáng’s bǎijiā errors, Shào Chánghéng’s reconstruction-period interpolations); (5) the most extensive Sòng-biéjí-annotation cǎijí shūmù (632-book source-list). Zhā’s lìluè (editorial principles) — also preserved at the head — is one of the more articulate Qing statements on annotation method, framing his work in lineage with Wáng Yuánshū’s annotation of Dù Fǔ, Wáng Níngzǔ’s revisions, Xuē Mèngfú’s supplements, etc. The Sìkù editors’ note that “since the existence of Sū’s poetry, of all annotators this běn ranks foremost” is the work’s standard textbook ranking. Dating bracket: Zhā’s completion (1702) to the Sìkù re-collation (1779).
Translations and research
- Egan, Ronald C. 1994. Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi. Harvard. The English-language standard, drawing principally on the Sū shī bǔ-zhù’s biān-nián framework.
- Wáng Wén-gào 王文誥. 1819. Sū Wén-zhōng-gōng shī-biān-zhù jí-chéng — synthesizes Zhā with the others.
- Sū Shì shī-jí 蘇軾詩集. 1982. Zhōng-huá. 50 juǎn. Standard modern critical edition; uses Zhā as principal control.
- Wú Wén-zhì 吳文治. 1986. Zhā Shèn-xíng yán-jiū 查愼行研究. Hú-běi rén-mín. Standard biography.
- Hǎi-níng wéi-shēng 海寧維生 / 渭生 et al. on Zhā’s Jìng-yè-táng output.
Other points of interest
The 30-year compositional period — including the dramatic 1701 anecdote (recounted in the lìluè) of the manuscript’s near-loss to huáiběi (Huai-river) ice damage in 1699 and to a Sūzhōu night-robbery in 1701 — is one of the more vivid early-Qing textual-survival narratives. Zhā’s framing of his three-decade enterprise as a jìyú gōng shī yǐ chuán (relying on the master’s poetry to be transmitted) is a striking statement of the dependent immortality of the zhùjiā (annotator) on the major poet whom he annotates. The 632-book cǎijí shūmù (gathered books) — split between a 516-book main list and a 116-book xùcǎi (continuation) — is a key bibliographic snapshot of late-17th-century Hǎiníng / Hǎiyán private-library holdings.
Links
- Zha Shenxing (Wikidata)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.6 (annotation tradition); §31.3 (Qing scholarly editing).