Zhāngshì Zhuōxuān jí 張氏拙軒集
Collected works of Zhāng Zhuō-xuān by 張侃 (撰)
About the work
Six juan of poetry and prose by Zhāng Kǎn 張侃 (Zhífū 直夫, hào Zhuōxuān 拙軒, fl. early 13th c.), son of the Sòng Kāixǐ (1205–1207)-era Privy Council Director Zhāng Yán 張巖 (d. ca 1209) and a low-ranking official of the post-Qìngyuán (1195–1200) generation. The collection had not survived independently and was reconstituted by the Sìkù editors from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn in six juan.
Tiyao
A respectful submission. Zhāngshì Zhuōxuān jí in six juan, by the Sòng [author] Zhāng Kǎn. Kǎn, zì Zhífū 直夫: his career is not preserved in the histories. From his collection’s self-reference as “Huáihǎi” we can infer he was a Yángzhōu 揚州 man, but neither Bǎoyòu Wéiyáng zhì nor any later record of Guǎnglíng’s men of note can identify him. Only Qián Pǔ’s 錢溥 Mìgé shūmù records Zhāng Zhuōxuān chūgǎo in four registers, and Jiāo Hóng’s 焦竑 Guóshǐ jīngjí zhì has Zhāng Kǎn Zhuōxuān gǎo in four juan; Sòng yìwénzhì and Shūlù jiětí are silent. The Sòng Jiānghú anthologies of all three groups, and the modern selection-poems-of-the-Sòng anthologists, also pass him over. His obscurity in the world is, then, of long standing. The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn under various rhyme-headings still preserves his poems and prose, headed sometimes Zhuōxuān jí and sometimes Zhuōxuān chūgǎo. The titles match Qián Pǔ’s and Jiāo Hóng’s notices precisely — these must be the same book. Of the man himself nothing more was recoverable, until from a xíngshí (life-account) drafted by Xiè Lóu the jiānchéng in honour of his father — repeatedly studied and cross-referred — we have determined that Kǎn was the son of Zhāng Yán 張巖, who in Kāixǐ (1205–1207) held the Privy Council. Sòngshǐ says Yán rose from Vice-Director of the Council of State to take charge of the Privy Council and of the JiāngHuái military. The xíngshí refers to him as one who “drew up plans, composed two memorials, and led the army” — and the careers match up. Sòngshǐ further says that Yán had attached himself to Hán Tuōzhòu 韓侂胄 in pressing war and was defeated; the censor accused him of confederate-villainy and dismissed him. The xíngshí says of Yán only that he “throughout favoured peace, to keep the state in order, but the unobservant misjudged him and bitterly slandered him” — the words plainly defend his father, and reinforce the identification with Zhāng Yán. Sòngshǐ says Yán’s family was originally from Dàliáng 大梁, having moved to Yángzhōu, and at the end of Shàoxīng (1162) crossed the Yangzi and settled in Húzhōu 湖州. Examining the collection: in the Guīlái poem there is the line “I have built a kiosk by the Tiào water,” and in the postface to the JiāngHuái lù (Memo of the Yangzi-Huai region) it says “my house is near Xīsài [West Pass].” His settled home at Wúxīng [Húzhōu] is thus very firmly attested. As to his career: not all is detailed; the collection mentions monitoring liquor-tax at the Bēnniúzhèn at Chángzhōu 常州 and rising to become deputy at Shàngyú 上虞 — that is the broad picture. Zhāng Yán won high office by flattery of a powerful villain and was therefore reviled in his time; but Kǎn for his part kept his ambition simple and easy, drifted in low office, and consorted only with Zhào Shīxiù 趙師秀, Zhōu Wénpú 周文璞, and others — quiet, unstriving men of yínyǒng 吟咏 (poetic practice). His writings, then, are clean, crisp, round and steady, with a touch of leisured plainness. Though they do not strike out a path of their own and form a school, given that the collection has survived after long loss and the world had not yet seen it, we have ordered and arranged it as six juan, that those who speak of Sòng poetry may at least know his name. Submitted reverentially, Qiánlóng 46, ninth month [October–November 1781]. Editors-in-chief Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; chief collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Zhāng Kǎn’s whole bibliographic significance was set out by the Sìkù editors. He was the son of the disgraced Kāixǐ (1205–1207) chief minister Zhāng Yán 張巖 — Hán Tuōzhòu’s 韓侂胄 ally and one of the architects of the failed 1206–1207 Kāixǐ war against the Jīn — and the only substantial defense of his father in the surviving record (the xíngshí of Zhāng Yán reproduced in this collection) is from his hand. The Sòng historians, in striking contrast, condemn Zhāng Yán; the Sìkù editors are admirable in their care to set the xíngshí against the Sòngshǐ without using the conflict to dismiss either source. Zhāng Kǎn’s circle (Zhào Shīxiù 趙師秀, 1170–1219; Zhōu Wénpú 周文璞 fl. early 1200s) places him squarely inside the late-Sòng Jiānghú poetic milieu — the post-Yǒngjiā sìlíng 永嘉四靈 generation of low-rank “studio-name” poets — and the tíyào’s own description “clean, crisp, round and steady” is a recognizable Jiānghúpài signature. His career we know only that he served as liquor-tax monitor at Bēnniúzhèn 奔牛鎮 in Chángzhōu 常州 and as deputy at Shàngyú 上虞 — both small posts. CBDB (id 27791) gives no precise birth or death years for him; the collection’s own writings, datable to the Jiādìng (1208–1224)–Bǎoqìng (1225–1227) range, suggest a floruit roughly 1190–1240. The collection has no Northern-Sòng-revival ambition; it is jiānghú in the strict sense of the late-Sòng poetic settlement.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. For Chinese-language scholarship: Zhāng Hóng-shēng 張宏生, Jiāng-hú shī-pài yánjiū 江湖詩派研究 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1995); the introduction to Quán-Sòng shī under Zhāng Kǎn; and the Sòng-rén zhuàn-jì zī-liào suǒ-yǐn 宋人傳記資料索引 (Chàng Bǐ-dé, 1976) for additional biographical fragments.
Other points of interest
This collection is a useful counter-source for the standard Sòng shǐ portrait of Zhāng Yán 張巖. The xíngshí preserved in juan 5 — drafted by one jiānchéng Xiè Lóu (謝樓監丞) — represents Zhāng Yán’s family-and-pupil circle’s view of him, and is essentially the only sustained pro-Zhāng Yán document to survive the Hán Tuōzhòu purges. As a piece of Sòng family-historiographical writing it is of more than narrowly literary interest.
Links
- CBDB id 27791 for 張侃 (Sòng, floruit index year 1169 in CBDB but more plausibly active 1200–1240)
- Sòng shǐ juan 396 entry on Zhāng Yán 張巖 (the father)