Sōngshān jí 嵩山集
The Sōng-shān Collection by 晁公遡 (撰)
About the work
Sōngshān jí 嵩山集 in 54 juǎn is the literary collection of Cháo Gōngsù 晁公遡 (zì Zǐxī 子西, of Jùyě 鉅野 in Shāndōng — though the Cháo lineage was by his generation long settled in Sìchuān), younger brother of the great bibliographer Cháo Gōngwǔ 晁公武 (compiler of Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì KR3a0017). Cháo Gōngsù’s career — as reconstructed from internal evidence by the Sìkù editors — included posts as Liángshān jūnxiànwèi (county defender of Liángshān), Fúzhōu jūnshì pànguān (judicial functionary of Fúzhōu), Shīzhōu tōngpàn (vice-prefect of Shīzhōu, in Shàoxīng 30 / 1160), Zhī Méizhōu (prefect of Méizhōu in 1166), and a bùshǐzhě (surveillance commissioner) post of unidentified location. The collection was carved at Qiándào 4 (1168) by his disciple Shī Xuán 師璿, drawing on Cháo’s Bàojīngtáng gǎo 抱經堂稿 (his original draft archive arranged by jiǎyǐ).
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: the Sōngshān jí in 54 juǎn was composed by Cháo Gōngsù of the Sòng. Gōngsù’s zì was Zǐxī, of Jùyě, younger brother of Gōngwǔ. The Sòng shǐ has no biography; only Lǐ Xīnchuán’s Cháoyě zájì makes much use of his Jīshān rìjì, but his official career can no longer be verified. Now examining the collection: a letter to Vice-Prefect Zhōu signed Zuǒ Dígōngláng zhī Liángshān jūn Liángshānxiàn wèi; the Chéngshì jīngshǐgé jì says he once was Fúzhōu jūnshì pànguān; in his xiǎojiǎn (note-letter) to Fèi Xíngzhī he says in Shàoxīng 30 (1160) he was Shīzhōu tōngpàn; the Méizhōu dàorèn xièbiǎo (Thanks-memorial on arrival at Méizhōu) and the Xiè zhízhèng qǐ show he was at one time Zhī Méizhōu; the reply qǐ to Shǐ Liángshān says “I unworthily, from a branch jùn, suddenly oversee the auspicious punishments [i.e. the Tíxíng office]” and the preface by Shī Xuán at the front of the collection also calls him Bùshǐzhě (Surveillance Commissioner). So he was at one time promoted to a Tíxíng post but the location is not detailed.
The Méizhōu zhōuxué cángshū jì is dated Qiándào (some month-and-year), and the Bǐngxū yuánxī poem has the line “as Prefect, dare I claim ‘pleasure’?” — bǐngxū is Qiándào 2 (1166), and at this time he was indeed at Méizhōu. The collection was carved in Qiándào 4 (1168), so all these are works composed before [his] Méizhōu [appointment]. Shī Xuán’s preface again says: Gōngsù’s Bàojīngtáng gǎo was arranged by jiǎyǐ-divisions, oxen-sweat-and-rafter-filling [i.e. enormous]. This [recension] is but a panther-glimpsed-through-a-tube — i.e. an editorial selection.
The Cháo lineage from [Cháo] Jiǒng onward had nearly every individual with a literary collection. After the southern crossing, the Gōngwǔ brothers became known. Gōngwǔ’s Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì the world calls broadly-learned, but his Zhāodé wénjí is no longer to be seen — only Gōngsù’s collection survives. Wáng Shìzhēn evaluated his poetry as below Wújiù [Cháo Bǔzhī 晁補之] and Shūyòng [Cháo Yǒngzhī 晁詠之], its tǐgé somewhat lowly, no longer with the brush-strength of the elders — this was due in part to the spirit of his age — yet his own pouring is unrestrained, free from the bondage of fixed forms. As to his prose: his sturdy qì runs straight through, with much of the rugged-and-magnificent. Compared to Jǐngyū [Cháo Yuèzhī 晁說之] and the Jīlèi [collection of Cháo Bǔzhī], it has not yet lost the family pattern.
Abstract
Sōngshān jí is the only fully-surviving member of the great Cháo-family library of Northern-Sòng biéjí. Cháo Gōngsù was the younger brother of the bibliographer Cháo Gōngwǔ 晁公武 (whose Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì KR3a0017 survives, though his own Zhāodé wénjí is lost), and a more distant cousin of Cháo Bǔzhī (the Jīlèijí poet) and Cháo Yuèzhī (the Jǐngyūjí author). The Cháo lineage held that nearly every adult male would compile a personal biéjí; with the Northern-Southern dislocation only Gōngsù’s came through.
The collection’s chief biographical interest is that it is essentially the only documentation of Cháo Gōngsù’s career: the Sìkù editors reconstruct his offices entirely from internal references in this collection (memorials, qǐ-reply letters, dated poems), since neither the Sòng shǐ nor the standard biographical compendia preserve a separate zhuàn. The 1166 bǐngxū New Year poem at Méizhōu and the 1168 carving date together establish that the collection is essentially complete to the latter year; Shī Xuán’s preface explicitly acknowledges the recension is selective from the much-larger Bàojīngtáng gǎo draft archive.
The dating bracket adopted here uses 1145 as a conservative notBefore (Cháo’s earliest datable activity, around the time of the Shàoxīng 15 examinations) and 1168 as the notAfter (the carving date of the recension); the underlying composition dates run from his probable youth through Méizhōu.
Translations and research
- de Weerdt, Hilde. 2007. Competition over Content. Harvard. Touches on the Cháo family’s role in Sòng bié-jí culture.
- Cherniack, Susan. 1994. “Book Culture and Textual Transmission in Sung China.” HJAS 54.1. Discusses the Cháo lineage’s bibliographic significance.
Other points of interest
The Cháo family was one of two or three Sòng lineages most extensively represented in the biéjí tradition; the survival of only Gōngsù’s collection (and the loss of Gōngwǔ’s) is a striking case of selective transmission. Lǐ Xīnchuán’s Cháoyě zájì preserves citations from Cháo Gōngsù’s lost Jīshān rìjì — a journal-form work distinct from this collection.