Hǎilíng jí 海陵集
The Hǎi-líng Collection by 周麟之 (撰), 周準 (編)
About the work
Hǎilíng jí 海陵集 in 23 juǎn is the literary collection of Zhōu Línzhī 周麟之 (1118–1164, zì Màozhèn 茂振, of Hǎilíng 海陵 — modern Tàizhōu 泰州 in Jiāngsū). Jìnshì of Shàoxīng 15 (1145); also passed the Hóngcí (Broad-Erudition) examination — a route reserved for senior literary draftsmen. Career: Qǐjū shěrén, Bīngbù shìláng, Zhí xuéshìyuàn, Jǐshìzhōng, Zhī zhìgào, Hànlín xuéshì; ended as Tóngzhī Shūmìyuàn shì (Co-Director of the Privy Council). The collection was edited posthumously by his son Zhōu Zhǔn 周準 in Chúnxī guǐmǎo (1183), with a xù by Zhōu Bìdà 周必大 of the same date. The collection is dominated by zhìgào (court-edicts and inner-court drafts) — Zhōu’s specialty as a senior Hànlín draftsman.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: the Hǎilíng jí in 23 juǎn was composed by Zhōu Línzhī of the Sòng. Línzhī’s zì was Màozhèn, a man of Hǎilíng. Jìnshì of Shàoxīng 15 (1145); passed the Hóngcí examination. Held office as Qǐjū shěrén, rose through Bīngbù shìláng, Zhí xuéshìyuàn, Jǐshìzhōng, Zhī zhìgào, Hànlín xuéshì; ended as Tóngzhī Shūmìyuàn shì.
The Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì records Línzhī’s Hǎilíng jí in 23 juǎn — agreeing with this běn. The front has Zhōu Bìdà’s Chúnxī guǐmǎo (1183) preface, which says: his son Zhǔn assembled his surviving drafts, obtained 23 juǎn — i.e., the same old zhì. The preface says Línzhī served long at court, hence his shīwén composed for occasion are few; the inner-and-outer zhìcí approximately occupy half the collection. Now examining the collection: not only are the zèngdá (responsorial) and chànghé (call-and-answer) pieces sparse — even the zòuyì and zòuzházǐ mostly do not concern military and state grand designs. This is because [Línzhī] dipped his brush in the Forbidden Court, sat in charge of lúngào (rotation-edicts), did not leave the city gates, and rose to high office — broadly comparable to Wáng Guī. His prose is leisurely and elegant, still preserving the Northern-Sòng guǎngé (Cabinet) ambit; not to be classed with the various Southern-Sòng schools that increasingly trended toward the xīn (new) and qiǎo (cunning); not to be lightly dismissed for specializing in parallel-prose.
There is separately an Wàijí in 1 juǎn; among them: 10 Zhōngyuán mínyáo (Folk-songs from the Central Plains), parading symbols and prophetic signs, exalting Sòng and decrying Jin; and 30 Qiánhòu kǎigē (Triumph-Songs Before-and-After), exaggeratingly inflating Yú Yǔnwén’s good fortune at Guāzhōu and Cǎishí — substantially overestimated. Their phrasing is also vulgar and crude, unlike Línzhī’s other poems. Examining the Sòng zhì, there is no entry for this 1-juǎn Wàijí — it is perhaps something his son sealed-off-and-cut-the-draft, and which later people gathered up and appended for preservation. We respectfully cut it, and have noted the error as above. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 3rd month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Zhōu Línzhī is the principal Southern-Sòng Hànlín xuéshì draftsman represented in the KR4d corpus, a generational counterpart of the Northern-Sòng Wáng Guī 王珪 (cf. KR4d0038 Huáyáng jí, missing from the source files). His career — qǐjū shěrén → Hànlín xuéshì → Tóngzhī Shūmìyuàn shì — is the senior literary-draftsman trajectory; the Sìkù editors observe that the collection’s preponderance of inner-and-outer zhìcí (drafted edicts) reflects this courtroom-bound career. The Hóngcí (Broad-Erudition) examination route is the principal qualification for this trajectory.
The collection’s chief curiosity is the Wàijí (Outer Collection) appendix containing 10 Zhōngyuán mínyáo (Folk-songs from the Central Plains, paradoxically authored not by anyone in the North but composed in Línʼan to advertise Sòng claims and to mock the Jin) and 30 Qiánhòu kǎigē (Triumph-Songs) celebrating Yú Yǔnwén’s 虞允文 unexpected victories at Guāzhōu and Cǎishí in the 1161 Wányán Liàng campaign. The Sìkù editors found the phrasing of these pieces too vulgar to be Zhōu’s own work, judged them later spurious accretions, and cut them from the present 23-juǎn recension.
The dating bracket: 1145 (jìnshì year, the start of his career) through 1164 (his death year per CBDB id 8034).
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ Northern-Sòng comparison to Wáng Guī (the late-Northern-Sòng Hànlín draftsman whose Huáyáng jí is also in the KR4d corpus) is the principal generic placement: a senior literary-draftsman whose collection is dominated by official prose. The 1183 Zhōu Bìdà preface — Zhōu Línzhī and Zhōu Bìdà were of the same Hǎilíng Zhōu lineage — is the principal contemporary biographical document.
Links
- Zhou Linzhi (Wikipedia, zh)
- Sòngshǐ biography (cited in tíyào).