Fǔshuǐ jí 滏水集
The Fǔ-shuǐ Collection by 趙秉文 (撰)
About the work
The collected works in twenty juàn of Zhào Bǐngwén 趙秉文 (CBDB 28846, 1159–1232), zì Zhōuchén 周臣, hào Xiánxián lǎorén 閑閑老人, native of Cízhōu 磁州 — the foremost literary master of the middle and late Jīn dynasty, his stature equivalent in Jīn north to Yuán Hǎowèn KR4d0420 in the late-Jīn / Yuán transition. Tested for the jìnshì in Dàdìng 25 (1185); served the four Jīn reigns Shìzōng, Zhāngzōng, Wèiwáng, Xuānzōng, and Āizōng, rising to Lǐbù shàngshū jiān shìdú xuéshì tóngxiū guóshǐ zhī jíxiányuàn shì (Minister of Rites, Concurrent Reader-in-Waiting, Co-Compiler of the National History, Knower of the Academy of Worthies’ Affairs). His Jīnshǐ biography (j. 110) — preserved in the SBCK frontmatter as the Běnzhuàn of this collection — gives the principal historical record: passed the jìnshì by special distinction; demoted in Míngchāng 6 (1195) for a memorial criticizing Chancellor Xū Chíguó 胥持國; re-promoted in Chéngān 5 (1200) by Zhāngzōng’s intervention; in Dàān 1 (1209) presented strategy on the Mongol advance, advising a flanking attack from Línhuáng — rejected, with the predicted defeat at Xuāndé following; held the appointment as Hànlín shìdú xuéshì through Xuānzōng’s reign; in Xìngdìng (1217–) named Lǐbù shàngshū jiān shìdú xuéshì tóngxiū guóshǐ; oversaw the 1218 examination at which he selected the controversially formal-irregular Lǐ Xiànnéng 李獻能 as top jǔrén; presented the Wúyì zhíjiě and Zhēnguān zhèngyào shēnjiàn (Direct Exposition of “Wúyì”; Mirror-of-Forgiveness on “Essentials of Zhēnguān Government”) to Āizōng for moral instruction; in Zhèngdà 9 (1232 first month) composed Āizōng’s surrender amnesty proclamation; died Zhèngdà 9, fifth month, rénchén day, aged 74. The collection embraces fù, gǔshī, lǜshī, juéjù, zátǐ, biǎo / jiǎn / qǐ, bēi, jì, lùn, yǐn, sòng, zhēn, zàn, jìwén, shūqǐ, tíbá — the most comprehensive surviving genre-range of any Jīn-period literary collection. The preface by Yáng Yúnyì 楊雲翼 (1170–1228) of Yuánguāng 2 (1223), praising Zhào as the zhǔméng (presiding master) of Jīn letters and the contemporary cultural arbiter, is preserved here.
Tiyao
No tíyào in the Kanripo source (the source files reproduce the SBCK base, which preserves the Jīnshǐ biography of Zhào Bǐngwén and Yáng Yúnyì’s 1223 preface, but not the Qiánlóng Sìkù tíyào). The Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào records the Fǔshuǐ jí in twenty juàn under “Jīn biéjí lèi,” classing Zhào as one of the three principal Jīn-dynasty biéjí authors (with Wáng Ruòxū KR4d0418 and Wáng Jì KR4d0416) whose collections survive intact. The editors emphasize the breadth of Zhào’s literary range, his role as zhǔméng of late-Jīn letters across four reigns, and the historiographical importance of his collection as a primary source for the literary culture of the Jīn imperial court and Hànlín bureau under Shìzōng through Āizōng.
Abstract
Zhào Bǐngwén (CBDB 28846, 1159–1232) is the senior figure of late-Jīn literary culture, the academic-literary lineage-master of Yuán Hǎowèn (whose 1223 bá to this collection is preserved in some recensions), and the principal cultural architect of the Xuānzōng / Āizōng courts (1213–1234) — the final two decades of the Jīn dynasty. The collection — in twenty juàn — preserves his entire major prose corpus: court documents (biǎo, jiǎn, qǐ, jìwén, zhì, bēi, shìyì, āicè, gào); literary criticism and historical lùn (Western Hàn, Eastern Hàn, WèiJìn zhèngmíng, ShǔHàn zhèngmíng, Táng, Zhīrén, Qiāndū, Hóushǒu, Zhí); foundation-text introductions (yǐn) to the Zhúxī xiānshēng wénjí, the Fǎyán wēizhǐ, the Dàoxué fǎyuán, his own Jiān Tàixuán zàn yǐn and Zhōngshuō lèijiě yǐn; the eight surviving fù of juàn 2 (the Dàchūn fù, Qīxiá fù, Cóngtái fù, Jiě cháoxǐng fù, Hǎiqīng fù, Fǎn Xiǎoshān fù, Lángshān fù, Huáshān gǎngǔ fù, Lìpéng fù, Yóu Xuánquán fù, Wújìnzàng fù, Zhuōxuān fù, Yóu Xīyuán fù, Xīnjìng tiāndì zhī jiàn fù); voluminous landscape, occasional, and presentation verse; nine pieces of religious paratext (qīngcí, jìwén, zhēn); and twenty-three pieces of title-and-postface scholarship on Sū Shì, Mǐ Fú, Wén Tóng, Sū Zhé, Sū Xún, Huáng Tíngjiān, Yáng Níngshì, Wáng Tíngjūn — a major archive of late-Jīn calligraphic-aesthetic discourse. Zhào’s other principal surviving works are his Dàodé zhēnjīng jíjiě KR5c0080 (Daoist scholarship), the Tàixuán jiānzàn, Zhōngshuō lèijiě, and Nánhuá lüèshì. CBDB 28846 firmly establishes 1159–1232; the Jīnshǐ biography fully confirms. Wilkinson treats Zhào extensively in the Jīn-dynasty literary culture (§29).
Translations and research
- Hú Chuán-zhì 胡傳志, Zhào Bǐng-wén yán-jiū 趙秉文研究 (Hé-féi: Ān-huī dà-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2000). The principal modern monograph.
- Hú Chuán-zhì 胡傳志, Jīn-dài wén-xué yán-jiū 金代文學研究 (2000), passim.
- Zhōu Huì-quán 周惠泉, Jīn-dài wén-xué shǐ 金代文學史 (Tái-běi: Wàn-juǎn-lóu, 1996).
- Stephen H. West, Vaudeville and Narrative: Aspects of Chin Theater (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1977) — discusses the late-Jīn literary milieu in which Zhào worked.
- Yuán Hǎo-wèn 元好問, Zhōng-zhōu jí 中州集 — preserves Zhào’s poetry in massive selection with biographical capsule.
- Jīn-shǐ 金史 j. 110 — the standard biography.
Other points of interest
The Jīnshǐ biography preserved in the frontmatter notes that Zhào “in late life rather sullied [his name] with Chán [Buddhist] sayings,” registering the Confucian historiographical reservation about Zhào’s late-life involvement in Chán Buddhist and Quánzhēn Daoist circles — the same syncretism that produced his Dàodé zhēnjīng jíjiě. The reservation is itself historiographically interesting as a marker of the Yuán-period (Tuōtuō Jīnshǐ) editorial stance on the late-Jīn Three-Teachings synthesis. The 1218 examination affair — in which Zhào’s selection of Lǐ Xiànnéng as top jǔrén, despite Lǐ’s irregular fù form, provoked a scandal — is one of the few late-Jīn literary controversies preserved in detail.
Links
- SBCK base; WYG SKQS V1190.2, p55.
- CBDB person 28846 (Zhào Bǐngwén)
- Jīnshǐ j. 110
- Wikipedia, 趙秉文