端平詩雋

Duānpíng shījùn 端平詩雋

Choice Poems from the Duānpíng Era by 周弼 (撰), 李龏 (編)

About the work

A four-juàn poetry selection of the work of Zhōu Bì 周弼 (zì Bóbì 伯弜; jìnshì of Jiādìng 嘉定 11 / 1218; fl. 1228 per the catalog meta), the late-Sòng poet of the Jiānghú 江湖 (“Lakes-and-Rivers”) school best known to readers today as the compiler of the Sāntǐ Tángshī 三體唐詩 (the canonical late-imperial Táng-poetry training anthology). The Duānpíng shījùn was assembled posthumously in Bǎoyòu 5 (1257) by Zhōu’s lifelong friend and exact contemporary Lǐ Gōng 李龏 (zì Héfǔ 和父, native of Hézé 菏澤), who himself had edited Zhōu’s original Duānpíng jí 端平集 in twelve juàn. The selection is significant as a witness to the late-Sòng Jiānghúshī movement and as one of the relatively few Sòng poetry collections whose editorial principles are explicitly stated (in Lǐ Gōng’s surviving preface).

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: Duānpíng shījùn, four juàn, was composed by Zhōu Bì of the Sòng. Bì, zì Bóbì 伯弜, was a man of Wènyáng 汶陽 [present-day Tài’ān 泰安, Shāndōng]. His selection of Sāntǐ Tángshī 三體唐詩 is recorded in Huáng Yújì 黃虞稷’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù 千頃堂書目, which calls him a man of Xīnjiàn 新建 [Jiāngxī] and an Hóng-wǔ-era 洪武 Míngjīngguān xùndǎo 明經官訓導 [an early-Míng provincial assistant-instructor]. On examination: this compilation contains a preface by Lǐ Gōng 李龏 of Hézé 菏澤, dated Bǎoyòu dīngsì 寶祐丁已 (1257), in which Lǐ states that he and Zhōu Bì were born in the same gēngzǐ (cyclical) year, lived in the same neighbourhood, and discussed poetry together for more than thirty years. He also says that he had personally cut Zhōu’s Duānpíng jí in twelve juàn for circulation. He further notes that Zhōu Bì, when he was seventeen or eighteen, was already widely read with a strong memory; that he had served his father Jìnxiān 晉仙 [or Jìnxiānbó], who too had loved poetry; that across forty years of official travel through WúChǔ and JiāngHàn his fame for verse spread; that his name was known throughout the Jiānghú circle and that people contended to acquire his works. But in his volumes there were rather many pieces that the younger learners could not understand; fearing that this might prevent the broader circulation of his work, Lǐ Gōng excerpted only those that were straightforward (tǎnránzhě 坦然者), supplementing with about two hundred pieces obtained from outside the collection, and entitled it Duānpíng shījùn. He arranged with the Mr. Yúnchén 芸陳 of the Háishī wànrén 萬人海中 [bookseller’s district at the Cǎijiē of Lín’ān] private school-press for it to be cut. The colophon adds: “My friend Bóbì in his lifetime never gave way to anyone; now separated by the Nine Springs, were he to examine this selection of mine, he would surely not call me wrong.”

This being so, well before Bǎoyòu dīngsì (1257) Zhōu Bì had long been dead. He cannot then possibly have been an early-Míng provincial school official, nor a man of Xīnjiàn (Jiāngxī) — he would not have been from the same neighbourhood as Lǐ Gōng [of Hézé in Shāndōng]. Huáng Yújì’s report is therefore in error.

This recension carries the printing-imprint of the Lín’ānfǔ Péngběijiē Chén Jiěyuán shūjípù 臨安府棚北街陳解元書籍舖印行 colophon, and so is plainly transmitted from a Sòng-era cut. Zhōu’s poetic style is not particularly elevated and does not exceed the Jiānghú 江湖 school of late-Sòng poetry; from time to time he ventures into a Late-Táng register. He is still free of the coarse-and-overbearing habits of his contemporaries. Of his small-scale “one-mound-one-valley” pieces there are also some that achieve a small, lovely effect.

Respectfully collated, tenth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Chief-Compiler Officers (ministers) Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅; Chief-Collation Officer (minister) Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Preface to the Duānpíng shījùn by Lǐ Gōng (1257; translated in full): Zhōu Bóbì of Wènyáng and I were born in the same cyclical year and lived as neighbours. For more than thirty years we exchanged visits and discussed poetry. He himself had cut and circulated the Duānpíng jí in twelve juàn. From the age of seventeen or eighteen Bóbì was already widely read and of strong memory; at his father Jìnxiānbó’s side he loved to compose. As he grew older, in forty years of bureaucratic travel through WúChǔ and JiāngHàn his territory of experience widened: what he composed, in the styles of the Seven Kingdoms, the Two Hàn, the Three Kingdoms, the Six Dynasties, and the SuíTáng, was complete in every register. His fame for verse rose-and-rang in the Jiānghú world; men contended to purchase his works. But in his collection there were rather many pieces difficult for late-learners. Fearing the hindrance to wider circulation, I have here, from the old-style gēshī 歌詩, the five-character lǜ, the seven-character lǜ, and the five- and seven-character juéjù, excerpted those that are accessible (tǎnránzhě), and added some two hundred further pieces of his that I had obtained outside the collection, titled it Duānpíng shījùn, and arranged with the Mr. Yúnchén of the Wànrén Hǎi [bookseller’s quarter] private school-press to cut it for circulation. Let this make it convenient for like-minded readers to read-and-recite. In his lifetime my Bóbì never gave way to anyone; now separated by the Nine Springs, were he to examine this selection of mine, he would surely not call me mistaken. Bǎoyòu dīngsì (1257), winter-solstice day — Hézé Lǐ Gōng Héfǔ writes.

Abstract

The Duānpíng shījùn is the principal surviving witness to Zhōu Bì’s poetry. The textual situation is unusual: the original Duānpíng jí in twelve juàn, which Lǐ Gōng himself had earlier cut for circulation, did not survive; the Duānpíng shījùn, a four-juàn posthumous anthology of selected works, is now the only substantial transmission. The Sìkù editors’ detective-work on the preface — using Lǐ Gōng’s claim of co-cyclical-year, neighbourhood, and thirty-year acquaintance to date Zhōu’s death well before 1257 — definitively corrects Huáng Yújì’s erroneous attribution of the work to a Míng Hóngwǔ school-official of the same name.

Zhōu Bì’s place in late-Sòng poetics. Zhōu Bì is far better known today for his Sāntǐ Tángshī 三體唐詩 (a three-form selection of Táng poetry: five-character lǜ, seven-character lǜ, and juéjù) than for his own poetry. The Sāntǐ Tángshī — also called Tángxián sāntǐ shīfǎ 唐賢三體詩法 — became one of the central late-Sòng-and-Yuán Táng-poetry pedagogical anthologies, transmitted in multiple Yuán and Míng editions and exerting substantial influence on early-Edo Japanese reading of Táng verse. Zhōu’s own poetry, by contrast, stands within the Jiānghúshī 江湖詩 (“Lakes-and-Rivers”) movement of the early-to-middle 13th century — the Jiāngnán poetry circle associated with Liú Kèzhuāng 劉克莊, Dài Fùgǔ 戴復古, and the Jiānghú jí 江湖集 publisher Chén Qǐ 陳起 — and shows the same orientation toward Late-Táng plain style and accessible diction.

Dates. Zhōu Bì was jìnshì of Jiādìng 11 (1218) and is listed by the catalog meta as flourishing 1228 (Duānpíng era 1234–1236 is reflected in the collection title, but as the tíyào notes, the dating refers to the era under which Zhōu lived and composed, not to the date of the present anthology). The compositional window is therefore conventionally placed c. 1218–1257 (1257 being the date of Lǐ Gōng’s posthumous editing). Lǐ Gōng’s date of birth is given as the same gēngzǐ year as Zhōu Bì — possibly gēngzǐ of Qìngyuán 6 (1200), making both poets c. 1200–c. 1256.

Bibliographic interest. The Lín’ānfǔ Péngběijiē Chén Jiěyuán shūjípù imprint preserved on the recension is one of the few directly-attested late-Sòng commercial-press imprints for a poetry collection, and is of considerable interest for Sòng book-history. The Jiānghújí publisher Chén Qǐ 陳起 — likely the very “Chén Jiěyuán” of this imprint — was the central figure of the Jiānghú-school publishing milieu; for him see Stephen H. West, “Crossing Over: Huizong in the Afterlife” (2006) and Liú Yútáng, Sòngdài Hángzhōu kèshū kǎo (Hángzhōu, 2008).

For period context see Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §35 on Sòng anthologies; Yoshikawa Kōjirō, An Introduction to Sung Poetry (Harvard, 1967), on Jiānghú-school aesthetics.

Translations and research

• Michael A. Fuller, Drifting Among Rivers and Lakes: Southern Song Dynasty Poetry and the Problem of Literary History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2013) — the standard modern English-language treatment of the Jiānghú poetry school, including Zhōu Bì in context.
• Yoshikawa Kōjirō 吉川幸次郎, Sōshi gaisetsu 宋詩概説 (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1962); Burton Watson trans., An Introduction to Sung Poetry (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967) — classical overview, with Zhōu Bì in the Jiānghú context.
• For the Sān-tǐ Táng-shī, see the modern Japanese edition Tōken sansei shihō 唐賢三體詩法 (various Edo and Meiji reprints; Iwanami bunko edition 1924).
• Zhōu Bì 周弼, Sān-tǐ Táng-shī 三體唐詩 (modern critical editions in the Sòng-rén xuǎn Táng-shī 宋人選唐詩 series, Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi gǔjí).

Other points of interest

The Duānpíng shījùn is unusual among Sòng biéjí in being a posthumous editorial selection rather than an authorial collection, and the editorial criteria are explicitly stated in Lǐ Gōng’s preface: accessibility for “late-learners” (wǎnxué 晚學), with the more demanding pieces of the original Duānpíng jí deliberately set aside. This makes the work an unusually clear case-study of a late-Sòng anthology-of-a-single-poet operating under what would later be called “pedagogical” rather than “scholarly-archival” principles. The fact that this is the only surviving recension — the parent Duānpíng jí having vanished — means that what survives of Zhōu Bì’s verse today is already a Sòng-internal editorial selection, not the full corpus.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1185.2, p525.
• CBDB person 40170 (Zhōu Bì)
• CBDB person 41398 (Lǐ Gōng)