Chén Jiǎntǎo sìliù 陳檢討四六
The Parallel-Prose of Chén the Hànlín Compiler by 陳維崧 (撰), with commentary (註) by 程師恭
About the work
The parallel-prose (sìliù 四六) corpus of 陳維崧 Chén Wéisōng (1625–1682, zì Qínián 其年, hào Jiālíng 迦陵), the leading early-Qīng exponent of parallel prose, in 20 juan, with the philological commentary by 程師恭 Chéng Shīgōng of Wǎn (Anhui) completed in Kāngxī 32 (1693, guǐyǒu). Chén died as a Hànlín jiǎntǎo (Compiler), giving the title Chén Jiǎntǎo. The 20-juan corpus comprises Chén’s full fù and sìliù output: rhapsodies (Tóngquè wǎ fù 銅雀瓦賦 on the Bronze-Sparrow tile, Shùzǔ dé fù 述祖德賦 on family virtues, Dànyuán fù 憺園賦, Xuánjī yùhéng fù 璿璣玉衡賦), serial parallel-prose, prefaces to occasions, biǎo (memorials), and the substantial Máo zhēn nǚ duò lóu shī xù 毛貞女墮樓詩序 on the suicide-leap of Madam Máo, with each piece exhaustively annotated by Chéng for its diction and allusion-sources.
Tiyao
Your servants reverently submit the following: the Chén Jiǎntǎo sìliù in 20 juan is by Chén Wéisōng of our dynasty, with notes by Chéng Shīgōng. At the founding of our dynasty, those famed for sìliù were at first Wéisōng and 吳綺 Wú Qǐ, and next Zhāng Zǎogōng 章藻功 with his Sīqǐtáng jí 思綺堂集, which also gained some renown. But Qǐ’s talent-stand was somewhat weaker than Wéisōng’s, while Zǎogōng — wishing to defeat the two by xīnyǐng (novelty) — slipped into a separate, side-channel mode. Compared to Míng-period poetry: Wéisōng’s source was Yǔ Xìn 庾信, his vital line broad and strong, like Lǐ Mèngyáng’s 李夢陽 imitation of Dù Fǔ. Wú Qǐ pursued Lǐ Shāngyǐn, his style elegant and refined, like Hé Jǐngmíng 何景明’s approach to mid-Táng. Zhāng Zǎogōng carved deep into the xīn yǐng, purely in Sòng form — descending into the line of the Three Yuán and the ZhōngTán type. Speaking with a fair mind, the guānjūn (front-rank) must be Wéisōng. Some have questioned him as fūkuò (loose-windy) merely because his work has been too widely circulated and too widely imitated — like the late-Míng impeachment of Běidì (Lǐ Mèngyáng) — but in truth his talent is rich and his form complete; among the various schools he alone has not lost the old Six-Dynasties Four-Heroes-of-the-early-Táng standard. He cannot be blamed for xiānchě (carelessly grasping from) Yùxī (Lǐ Shāngyǐn’s) Thirty-Six-Style trove.
Chéng Shīgōng’s notes were completed in guǐyǒu of Kāngxī (1693). 王士禛 Wáng Shìzhēn’s Gǔfūyú tíng zá lù 古夫于亭襍録 says: “It used to be said that one zhījǐ (kindred spirit) is enough to remove regret. My old friend Chén Qínián of Yángxiàn was a zhūshēng growing old in the examination-hall; even minor tests often went badly for him. In Kāngxī 18 (1679) with the Bóxué hóngcí call he entered the Hànlín on poetry and fù; a few years and he was dead of illness in the capital. Upon his death his fellow-townsman Jiǎng Jīngshǎo Jǐngqí printed his surviving collection without losing a single character; the Wǎn man Chéng Shūcái Shīgōng further annotated his parallel-prose to circulate in the world. This is what the world cannot get even from his sons and grandsons: one as a same-village junior, one as a man who never met him in person — to gather and protect his composition in this way.”
The praise of Chéng Shīgōng is rather generous; but Chéng’s annotations often miss the basic source. For example, in the Tóngquè wǎ fù’s line tánqí àizǐ (loved-son’s chess-flicking), he uses Cáo Pī’s flicking the chess from the corner of his cap — but Chéng only cites the Yì jīng note on flicking-chess and a quotation from Lù Jī’s Diào Wèi Wǔdì wén. In fū fěn jiā ér (powder-applying handsome youth), he uses Cáo Zhí’s powder-application opposite Hándān Chún — but Chéng cites the Wèi zhì’s Cáo Cāo-wishing-He-Yàn-as-son and the doubt of Wéndì about He Yàn’s powdering — both near but wrong. Likewise in the Shùzǔ dé fù, kuàng bǐ lǐtíng (yet that lǐ-courtyard) uses Yáng Rǔshì’s “peach-and-plum new-shade resting in the carp-courtyard” — but Chéng only cites the Lùn yǔ’s Bóyú story. In the Dànyuán fù, shuāngdīng jù nǐ (the twin Dīngs cannot match) uses Liáng Wǔdì’s poem to Dào Gài saying “the Hàn world prized the two Dīngs” — but Chéng only cites the Wénshì zhuàn on the Dīng brothers Yí. He knows the one but not the two. As to the Máo zhēn nǚ duò lóu shī xù, kōngkōng shí xià tiān zhī zhuàng uses Lǐ Sī’s memorial to Qín Shǐhuáng (kōngkōng like the descending Heaven-state) — but Chéng’s note on this cites the Jiàn xiá zhuàn’s “Miàoshǒu Kōngkōngér” — utterly amiss. Examples of this kind are not few. Moreover, Rén Yuān and Shǐ Róng — annotators of 黃庭堅’s collection — were extremely thorough in tracking down composition-occasions and dates; theirs is the model good-annotation. Chéng was very near to Wéisōng in time; the events behind these compositions could have been determined by simple inquiry. For example, in the Xuánjī yùhéng fù’s preface lines about the wūkōng Chǔmù (the crow-empty Chǔ tent) and the juānqù Bājiāng (the cuckoo leaving Bā river) — these reference the imperial summons to the Bóxué hóngcí in jǐwèi (Kāngxī 18, 1679), the year after the pacification of Húguǎng and Sìchuān; hence Wéisōng’s allusion. Chéng does not annotate the cause, and the lines come unprepared — what wén yì (literary meaning) is this?
Parallel-prose without annotation is hard to clarify; and Chéng’s jūnzhí (gathering-up) of gùshí (allusive facts) does provide kǎozhèng-helpful material. Therefore we preserve it, the better to allow comparative checking. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), seventh 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 Chén Jiǎntǎo sìliù is the central monument of the early-Qīng parallel-prose revival, paired with KR4f0018 吳綺’s Línhuìtáng quánjí. The Sìkù tíyào’s assignment of pride of place to Chén — guānjūn (front-rank) among parallel-prose writers — sets the canonical assessment that would obtain for the next two centuries. The pairing with Yǔ Xìn (the Liáng-Chén-era master of parallel-prose, 513–581) and the comparison of Chén : Yǔ Xìn :: Lǐ Mèngyáng : Dù Fǔ is the Sìkù’s precise positioning: Chén stands in relation to Yǔ Xìn as Lǐ Mèngyáng stood to Dù Fǔ — as a heroic imitator who carries the older mode into a new century.
The Sìkù tíyào’s elaborate fault-finding of Chéng Shīgōng’s commentary is unusually thorough (substantially more space than the tíyào itself spends on Chén): the catalogue of misallusions is meant to provide later annotators a working brief for correction. The compilers nonetheless preserve the commentary because sìliù without notes is unreadable.
Composition window: 1660 (the earliest dated pieces in the corpus) through 1682 (Chén’s death). The 20-juan recension was assembled by Jiǎng Jǐngqí of Yíxìng shortly after Chén’s death; Chéng Shīgōng’s annotation followed in 1693.
Translations and research
Yán Dí-chāng 嚴迪昌, Yáng-xiàn cí pài yánjiū 陽羨詞派研究 (Jiāngsū gǔjí, 1993) — definitive study of the Yáng-xiàn school of which Chén was founder.
Stephen Owen, ed., The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 2010) — central discussion.
Daniel Bryant, “The Rise of Cí Poetry,” in Cambridge History, vol. 2 — Chén as the háo-fàng counterpart to 朱彝尊’s elegant-Sòng line.
Mǎ Xìng-róng 馬興榮, Chén Wéisōng nián pǔ 陳維崧年譜 (Shanghai guji, 1989).
Tài-pìn 邰平, Chén Wéisōng yánjiū 陳維崧研究 (Shàng-hǎi: Fùdàn UP, 1998).
Other points of interest
The textual point — that Chén Wéisōng’s parallel-prose was edited by the Yíxìng townsman Jiǎng Jǐngqí and annotated by the Wǎn outsider Chéng Shīgōng, both without Chén’s own descendants’ involvement — illustrates a recurrent pattern in early-Qīng biéjí transmission: the family lineage is often inadequate or unwilling to undertake the labor of editing literary remains, which falls instead to friends, students, or sympathetic outsiders.
Links
- Wikidata Q15893998 (Chen Weisong)
- ECCP 103–104 (Tu Lien-che)
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào