Yùzhì shījí 御製詩集
Imperial Poetry Collection (of the Qiánlóng Emperor) by 高宗弘曆 (御製)
About the work
The Qiánlóng emperor 高宗弘曆 (1711–1799)‘s post-accession poetry corpus, monumentally the largest single-author biéjí in pre-modern Chinese history. The WYG recension comprises three collections totaling 260 juan of poetry plus 22 juan of table-of-contents: chūjí 初集 (Qiánlóng 1–12, 1736–1747; 44 juan, 4 juan toc, c. 4,150 poems); èrjí 二集 (Qiánlóng 13–24, 1748–1759; 94 juan, 6 juan toc, c. 8,470 poems; collated by grand secretary 蔣溥); sānjí 三集 (Qiánlóng 25–36, 1760–1771; 100 juan, 12 juan toc, c. 11,620 poems; collated by grand secretary 于敏中). The combined count given by the Sìkù tíyào is over 24,240 poems, with the post-1772 (rénchén) compositions still being added at the time of Sìkù compilation. The catalog meta gives 454 juan, reflecting the further sìjí 四集 (printed Qiánlóng 51 / 1786) and wǔjí 五集 (printed Jiāqìng 5 / 1800) which the WYG eventually incorporated.
Tiyao
Your servants reverently submit the following: the Yùzhì shījí in 260 juan is composed of poetry of both ancient and modern forms, arranged chronologically. The already-printed material falls into three collections. From Qiánlóng 1 bǐngchén (1736) through Qiánlóng 12 dīngmǎo (1747), totaling over 4,150 poems, forms the chūjí in 44 juan with 4-juan table of contents. From Qiánlóng 13 wùchén (1748) through Qiánlóng 24 jǐmǎo (1759), totaling over 8,470 poems, forms the èrjí in 94 juan with 6-juan table of contents, edited and printed by the grand secretary 蔣溥. From Qiánlóng 25 gēngchén (1760) through Qiánlóng 36 xīnmǎo (1771), totaling over 11,620 poems, forms the sānjí in 100 juan with 12-juan table of contents, edited and printed by the grand secretary 于敏中. Combined, more than 24,240 poems; from rénchén (1772) onward what remains uncarved is yet of unknown count, and from this year forward, for the myriad years to come, no number can yet be set. Since antiquity the copiousness of versified composition has had no peer with His Imperial Majesty’s. As the Sìkù surveys the surviving imperial corpora, even Sòng Tàizōng’s 300-juan, Zhēnzōng’s 300-juan, and Rénzōng’s 100-juan as recorded in 王應麟’s Yùhǎi turn out, on inspection, to have been assemblage of scattered prose-and-prose-fragment material, never properly printed or publicly issued. By contrast our imperial sovereign’s collections are carved and impressed and distributed throughout the universe — their patterns shining brighter than the constellations, their content richer than the mountains and oceans, manifest for all to see. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 44 (1779), third month. Chief editors your servants 紀昀, 陸錫熊, 孫士毅. Chief proof-collator your servant Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The Yùzhì shījí is the most extreme example in Chinese history of imperially-sponsored poetic output. The total post-accession count exceeds 41,000 poems if the post-Sìkù fourth and fifth collections (sìjí 1773–1783, wǔjí 1784–1795, plus the brief 1796 yújí) are included. The zhīxiǎoxù 御製初集詩小序 reproduced in the KR4f0005_000 front matter — by Qiánlóng himself, dated 1749 — explains that the original intent was not to publish: he had the early manuscript transcribed in fair-copy by Hanlin attendants and kept in the inner palace. The published form was forced by the volume of subsequent composition and by the editorial initiative of 蔣溥 (who memorialised in 1749 requesting printing of the chūjí) and later 于敏中.
Modern philology has long taken the imperial-poetry corpus as a peerless source for the day-by-day texture of Qiánlóng-era court life: nearly every imperial outing, inspection tour, ceremonial occasion, antique-painting viewing, and personal anniversary produced a documenting poem. The corpus is thus far more useful as historical source than as literary monument; its uneven literary quality has long been remarked.
Translations and research
Qianlong 御製詩 has not been translated as a whole into any European language; partial-translation studies include Jonathan Hay, “The Kangxi Emperor’s Brush-Traces: Calligraphy, Writing, and the Art of Imperial Authority,” in Body and Face in Chinese Visual Culture (Harvard, 2005).
Mark Elliott, Emperor Qianlong: Son of Heaven, Man of the World (New York: Pearson Longman, 2009) — uses the Yùzhì shījí throughout for biographical material.
Stephen Owen, ed., The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature vol. 2 (Cambridge, 2010) — places the Yùzhì shījí in the Qing imperial-court verse tradition.
Patricia Berger, Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing China (Honolulu: UH Press, 2003) — uses the Yùzhì shījí extensively for inscriptions on paintings and Buddhist works.
Wai-yee Li, “Yuan Mei (1716–1798) and the Late Qing Critique of Qianlong-Era Poetic Culture,” in Late Imperial China (various essays) — situates the imperial corpus against the Yuan Mei orbit.
Other points of interest
The corpus is preserved nowhere else as completely as in the WYG-Sìkù. Even modern reprinting efforts (e.g. the Yùzhì shī wén quánjí facsimile, Beijing 1993) trace back to the WYG-derived imperial print-blocks.
Links
- Wikidata Q26643 (Qianlong Emperor)
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào