Píngzhāi jí 平齋集
Collection of the Píng-zhāi Studio by 洪咨夔 (撰)
About the work
Píngzhāi jí 平齋集 (also titled Píngzhāi wénjí 平齋文集 in the SBCK base edition reproduced in Kanripo) in 32 juǎn is the biéjí of the Southern Sòng official and remonstrator Hóng Zīkuí 洪咨夔 (1176–1236, zì Shùnyú 舜俞, hào Píngzhāi 平齋), a native of Yúqián 於潛 (Línān prefecture). Hóng was a Jiātài 2 (1202) jìnshì, served as Censor (御史) and rose to cānzhī zhèngshì 參知政事; he is best known as one of the most outspoken Sòng remonstrators against the chief councillor Shǐ Míyuǎn 史彌遠. The collection is dominated by jīngyán jìnjiǎng (lecture-court presentations) and edicts (制誥), with about three-tenths consisting of poetry and miscellaneous prose. The Sìkù editors note that Hóng’s most pointed remonstrance memorials, prominent in his Sòngshǐ biography, are conspicuously not preserved in the collection — possibly the result of self-censorship to avoid retaliation.
Tiyao
[Translated from the Kyoto Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào 0339701/0339501, the WYG/SKQS tiyao for the 32-juǎn recension; the local Kanripo source uses the SBCK base and does not carry the tiyao.]
Píngzhāi wénjí in 32 juǎn. Edition: the household-held copy of the editor Wāng Rúzǎo 汪如藻.
Composed by Hóng Zīkuí of the Sòng. Zīkuí has [also written] a Chūnqiū zhuàn 春秋傳, already separately catalogued. This collection is dominated by lecture-court presentations (jīngyán jìnjiǎng) and pieces of zhì and gào (制誥, edict-drafting); poetry and miscellaneous works are only some three-tenths. When Zīkuí held office as Censor, his loyal speech and forthright argument forcefully exposed the ills of the time — these are partly visible in his Sòngshǐ biography. Yet the collection does not record his memorial-drafts (zòushū); perhaps [this is] in the spirit of avoiding retaliation by burning the drafts (bìrén féncǎo).
Examining the histories: they say Zīkuí became jìnshì in Jiādìng 2. But Lì È’s 厲鶚 Sòngshī jìshì 宋詩紀事, citing the Xiánchún Línān zhì 咸淳臨安志, claims that there was no Jiādìng 2 examination list, and on this ground decides that it must be Jiādìng 1. Now examining the collection’s poem Tí Táo Chóng shījuǎn 題陶崇詩卷 it says: “I and Zōngshān were both rénxū-year jìnshì together.” We note that Jiādìng renamed [the era] from Wùchén; so its second year is jǐsì, while rénxū is in fact Jiātài 2 [1202]. The history erroneously wrote tài 泰 as dìng 定. Lì È did not investigate carefully, and so misdated Zīkuí as Jiādìng 1 jìnshì — this is wrong.
Furthermore, in the appendix of Xiè Fāngdé’s 謝枋得 Diéshān jí 叠山集 there is a zèngxíng (farewell-poem) suite that includes a seven-syllable lǜshī by one “Hóng Píngzhāi”. On chronological grounds, this person and Hóng Zīkuí cannot be the same. Sòngshī jìshì therefore separately gives a “Hóng Píngzhāi” entry, distinct from Zīkuí — this is to be regarded as the more careful judgment.
Abstract
The dating bracket reflects the productive period of Hóng Zīkuí, from the year of his Jiātài 2 (1202) jìnshì (the textual-critical determination secured by the Sìkù editors against Lì È’s Jiādìng 1 misdating) through his death in 1236. The collection survives as a 32-juǎn recension; the SBCK reproduction in Kanripo, titled Píngzhāi wénjí, follows the late-Míng / Qīng transmitted editions.
The Sìkù editors’ textual-critical contribution is the date correction itself: they recognized that the Sòngshǐ characters 嘉定 are an error for 嘉泰, demonstrated by the internal evidence of the poem Tí Táo Chóng shījuǎn with its explicit “rénxū tóngbǎng” line (Hóng and Táo Chóng both passed in rénxū, which can only be Jiātài 2, since Jiādìng has no rénxū). This is one of the cleaner Sìkù date-corrections, repeatedly cited.
The other observation worth flagging: the Sòngshǐ “Hóng Zīkuí zhuàn” preserves the substance of his sharp memorials against Shǐ Míyuǎn, but these do not appear in the collection itself. The Sìkù editors tactfully suggest “self-censorship” (避人焚草). The remonstrance texts must therefore be reconstructed from the Sòngshǐ and from quotations elsewhere — they are an important set of late-Sòng political documents.
Hóng’s collected cí (lyrics), titled Píngzhāi cí 平齋詞 in 1 juǎn, was separately catalogued by the Sìkù in the cíqǔ sub-class (Sìkù 0444601 in the Zinbun digitization).
Translations and research
- 沈松勤. 南宋文人與黨爭. Beijing: 人民出版社, 2005. Discusses Hóng Zīkuí’s role in the anti-Shǐ-Mí-yuǎn opposition.
- 王水照, ed. 宋代文學通論. Kaifeng: 河南大學出版社, 1997. Standard Sòng wényuán reference; covers Hóng.
- Píngzhāi cí (the cí sub-collection) has scattered modern critical editions in the various comprehensive Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Tang Guizhang 唐圭璋 ed.) compilations.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ identification of 嘉泰 vs. 嘉定 as the date of Hóng’s jìnshì is a textbook example of a Sìkù internal-evidence date correction — the cyclical gānzhī date rénxū mechanically places it in 1202, not 1209.