Pílíng jí 毗陵集
The Pí-líng (Cháng-zhōu) Collection by 張守 (撰)
About the work
Pílíng jí 毗陵集 in 15 juǎn preserves the writings of Zhāng Shǒu 張守 (1084–1145), Chángzhōu Chóngníng 1 / 1102 jìnshì and Cānzhī zhèngshì under Gāozōng. The title takes Zhāng’s native place Pílíng 毗陵 (an alternative name for Chángzhōu, from the Jìn period). Zhāng’s career spanned Huīzōng, Qīnzōng, and early-Gāozōng, with his peak authority during the Jiànyán / early-Shàoxīng period as a senior court official engaged in the resistance-vs-peace debates.
Tiyao
Abstract
Pílíng jí preserves the prose of one of the senior early-Southern-Sòng court officials. Zhāng Shǒu’s Cānzhī zhèngshì tenure under Gāozōng placed him at the centre of the early-Shàoxīng policy debates. The collection includes substantial zòuyì (memorials), zhì (drafts of imperial edicts), and other court-official prose — primary documents for Jiànyán / early-Shàoxīng governance.
The catalog gives composition date 1102 (Zhāng’s jìnshì year); the actual compositional bracket of the collection runs from Chóngníng through Shàoxīng, with the bulk of substantive prose dating from the post-1126 Jiànyán / Shàoxīng period. Zhāng’s role in the yìzhě (deliberative) discussions on the héyì (peace-faction) controversy — alongside Lǐ Gāng 李綱, Xǔ Jǐnghéng 許景衡, and others — places him in the resistance-faction’s senior generation.
The 15-juǎn extent is moderate for an early-Southern-Sòng biéjí; the work appears to have been preserved in continuous transmission through the SòngYuánMíngQīng without major reconstructive intervention. Lifedates 1084–1145 are conventionally given.
Translations and research
- Sòng-shǐ — Zhāng Shǒu’s biography is appended to other senior officials’ biographies.
- Tao, Jing-shen. Two Sons of Heaven (Tucson 1988). Background on the Jiàn-yán faction politics.
- Levine, Ari Daniel. Divided by a Common Language (Hawaii 2008). Background.
- No dedicated monographic study of Zhāng Shǒu located.
Other points of interest
- The Pílíng (Chángzhōu) literary cluster — including Lǐ Gāng 李綱 (Wúxī, immediately adjacent), Yáng Shí 楊時 (Wúxī), and Zhāng Shǒu — represents a remarkable concentration of senior late-Northern-Sòng / early-Southern-Sòng resistance figures from a small geographical region.