Hòushān shīzhù 后山詩注
Annotated Poems of [Chén] Hòu-shān [Shī-dào] by 陳師道 (撰), 任淵 (註)
About the work
Hòushān shīzhù 后山詩注 in 12 juǎn is the principal Southern-Sòng annotated edition of Chén Shīdào 陳師道 陳師道’s poetry, by Rèn Yuān 任淵 任淵 of Xīnjīn — the companion-piece to the same annotator’s Shāngǔ Nèijí shīzhù KR4d0085. Both annotations carry the joint Póyáng Xǔ Yǐn 許尹 HuángChén shīzhù xù (preserved at the head of the Shāngǔ Nèijí-annotation Sìkù recension), framing them together as the canonical Jiāngxī-school annotation pair. Methodologically the same: chronological organization with dated suìyuè (year-month) interlinear notes; cíyǔ (word-source) verification; refusal of speculative sourcing. Base text follows the Wèi Yǎn 魏衍 qīnshòu recension via Wáng Yún 王雲’s Zhènghé-period (1111–1118) acquisition. The KRP source is the SBCK reprint of the Yáng Yīqīng 楊一清 / Yuán Hóng 袁宏 Hóngzhì 10 / 1497 Hànzhōng prefectural cutting (with Yáng Yīqīng’s Hóngzhì dīngsì postface preserved at the head). The 6 + 6 = 12 juǎn division is Rèn Yuān’s elaboration of the original WèiYǎn 6-juǎn poetic core into upper-and-lower halves with embedded annotation.
Tiyao
The KRP source is the SBCK reprint, which does not include the Sìkù tíyào. The Sìkù WYG version’s tíyào in summary frames Rèn Yuān’s Hòushān shīzhù as the canonical pair to his Shāngǔ Nèijí shīzhù; both work from the principle that Jiāngxī-school poetry’s yòngshì shēnmì (event-use, deeply close) requires yuánběn lìyì shǐmò (root-trace meaning-making, beginning-to-end) tracing. Yáng Yīqīng’s Hóngzhì preface explicitly compares Chén’s poetry as yīnfú (close-approaching) to Lǎo Dù (Dù Fǔ) and ranks Sòng poetic developments through Ōuyáng → SūMéi → HuángChén — placing the Jiāngxī-school turn at the Yuányòu-period zenith.
Abstract
Hòushān shīzhù preserves Chén Shīdào’s poetic corpus from Yuánfēng 6 / 1083 (the Qiè bómìng — Chén’s for Zēng Nánfēng funerary poem, the canonical opening of the Jiāngxī-school Hòushān corpus) through Yuánfú 3 / 1101 (the death year). The 12 juǎn are arranged chronologically (juǎn 1: 1083; juǎn 12: 1101), with suìyuè annotations from Rèn Yuān supplementing Sòngshǐ and biographical evidence. The Yuányòu coalition’s principal-court phase (Chén as Xúzhōu jiàoshòu and Mìshūshěng zhèngzì) and the Shàoshèng internment are both well-served by the chronology. Particularly valuable: the unique pieces preserved in this recension — the Sòngbiéjí tradition has no clean Hòushān recension before this; the Hòushān jí KR4d0087’s 24-juǎn full-corpus recension is itself derivative. Dating bracket: Rèn Yuān’s Shàoxīng-period composition (post-1131) to Yáng Yīqīng / Yuán Hóng’s Hóngzhì dīngsì / 1497 Hànzhōng re-cutting (the source of the SBCK reprint’s zhōngyǎn state).
Translations and research
- Bol, Peter K. 1992. “This Culture of Ours”. Stanford UP.
- Yoshikawa Kōjirō 吉川幸次郎. 1962. An Introduction to Sung Poetry. Treats Chén Shī-dào in Jiāng-xī context.
- Lèng Cháng-jiàn 冷昌健 et al. 1987. Chén Shī-dào shī-jí jiào-zhù. Sì-chuān bā-shǔ. Standard modern critical edition; uses Rèn Yuān as principal collation control.
- Liu, James J. Y. 1962. The Art of Chinese Poetry. Chicago.
Other points of interest
The Yáng Yīqīng Hóngzhì preface — preserved in the SBCK base — is one of the more substantial Míng-period framings of Northern-Sòng poetic history: Yáng’s identification of Sòng poetic biàn (transformations) — Ōuyáng’s first transformation, SūShùnqīn / MéiYáochén’s second, HuángTíngjiān / ChénShīdào’s third — anticipates the Sìkù editors’ similar framework and is a principal early statement of the Jiāngxī shīpài canonical periodization. The Wáng Yún 王雲 (zì Zǐfēi) Zhènghé-period direct acquisition of the Wèi Yǎn manuscript — preserved in Rèn Yuān’s zhùyǐn (annotation introduction) — gives this recension privileged textual standing.
Links
- Chen Shidao (Wikidata)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1 (Sòng biéjí); §28.6 (annotation tradition); §47 (Jiāngxī shīpài).