Gǔhuāntáng jí 古歡堂集
The Collection from the Hall of Ancient Joy by 田雯 (撰)
About the work
The collected works of 田雯 Tián Wén (1635–1704, zì Zǐlún 子綸, hào Shānjiāng 山䕬), the ambitious Dézhōu poet-and-official who positioned himself as the qílì (strange-ornate) counter to 王士禛 Wáng Shìzhēn’s Shényùn in the late-Kāngxī poetic firmament. The collection comprises 22 juan of prose + 14 juan of poetry + the appended Qián shū 黔書 in 2 juan (a topographic-ethnographic notebook on Guizhou customs composed during Tián’s brief Guizhou governorship in 1684) + the Chánghé zhì jí kǎo 長河志籍考 in 10 juan (a historical-bibliographical study of his native Dézhōu / Chánghé region — the ancient Guǎngchuān renamed in Sui).
Tiyao
Your servants reverently submit the following: the Gǔhuāntáng jí in 36 juan with appended Qián shū in 2 juan and Chánghé zhì jí kǎo in 10 juan is by Tián Wén of our dynasty. Wén, zì Zǐlún (also zì Lúnxiá), hào Shānjiāng, of Dézhōu, jìnshì of jiǎchén of Kāngxī (1664), appointed zhōngshū shèrén, rose to Hùbù shìláng. This collection: 22 juan of prose, 14 juan of poetry. In the mid-Kāngxī, 王士禛 Wáng Shìzhēn carried great fame in the realm; wénshì (literary gentry) without exception attached themselves to his school-gate, seeking borrowed reputation. The two who did not debate with him and did not bind themselves to him were Wén and Páng Kǎi 龎塏 of Rènqiū. Páng Kǎi’s Cóngbì shānfáng jí 叢碧山房集 is strict in gélǜ (form and rule) but rather weak in talent-ground. Wén has tiānzī gāomài (Heaven-given lofty bearing), with broad memorization; relying on his zònghéng páiào (free-ranging, sweep-and-rush) vigor, he wished to use qílì (strange-ornate) to overpower Shìzhēn from above. So his poetry and prose are both zǔzhī fánfù (richly woven), forged through hard polishing, refusing to compose guīguī chángyǔ (carpenter’s-square ordinary phrasing). 趙執信 Zhào Zhíxìn’s Tán lóng lù often objects that his poetry has no person in it. Yet his piān shī chí tū (lateral-army dash) finally does form zì chéng yī duì (one squadron of its own); those who discuss the art cannot abandon him.
The appended Qián shū in 2 juan was composed while he was Governor of Guizhou. Also the Chánghé zhì jí kǎo in 10 juan: Dézhōu is ancient Guǎngchuān territory; in the Sui shū the change to Chánghé was made to avoid Yángdì’s taboo (Wěi 煒). 王士禛’s Jū yì lù once said: the Qián shū has no single style — some pieces resembling the Kǎo gōng jì, some resembling the GōngGǔ tángōng, some resembling the Yuè jué shū — as though watching the Yǎnshī huàrén (transformer-man) performance. With the Chánghé zhì jí kǎo both are heirs of Guō Xiàn’s Dòngmíng jì and Wáng Jiā’s Shí yí jì — that is, they too display hào qí (love of the strange) as one zhèng (proof), preserved as a biégé (separate-style) of literary composition. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 43 (1778), 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 Gǔhuāntáng jí is the principal monument of the qílì (strange-ornate) counter-program to 王士禛 Wáng Shìzhēn’s Shényùn (Spirit-Resonance) dominance of late-Kāngxī poetics. Tián’s deliberate effort to forge a hard-polished, zònghéng páiào style — to “overpower Shìzhēn from above” through extreme ornament rather than through Shìzhēn’s xiùgǔ tiānchéng indirection — failed to displace the Shényùn mainstream but produced what the Sìkù compilers and 趙執信 both acknowledge as a bájǐ zìchéng (one halberd’s-worth) of independent style.
The supplementary Qián shū 黔書 — a 2-juan ethnographic-topographic notebook on Guizhou composed during Tián’s brief 1684 governorship — is itself a foundational work in Qing-period Han-Guizhou ethnography, with extensive description of the various Miáo and Yáo peoples. The Chánghé zhì jí kǎo — Tián’s 10-juan historical-bibliographic study of his native Dézhōu — is an early example of Qing local-bibliographic kǎozhèng drawing on classical sources for ancient Guǎngchuān region.
Composition window: 1664 (Tián’s jìnshì year) through 1704 (his death). The Gǔhuāntáng recension was compiled by Tián himself.
Translations and research
C. Patterson Giersch, Asian Borderlands: The Transformation of Qing China’s Yunnan Frontier (Harvard, 2006) — references the Tián Qián shū tradition in Guizhou ethnographic writing.
David Atwill, The Chinese Sultanate: Islam, Ethnicity, and the Panthay Rebellion in Southwest China, 1856–1873 (Stanford, 2005) — refs.
趙執信 Zhào Zhí-xìn, Tán lóng lù 談龍錄 — substantial passages on Tián’s poetry.
ECCP 718–719 (Tu Lien-che).
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s discussion of Tián’s style — and especially 王士禛’s indirect compliment in the Jū yì lù that the Qián shū “has no single style” — places Tián as a deliberate stylistic eclectic, drawing on the Kǎo gōng jì, the GōngGǔ / Tángōng, the Yuè jué shū, and the late-Hàn / WèiJìn zhìguài (strange-tales) tradition of Guō Xiàn 郭憲 and Wáng Jiā 王嘉. This eclecticism — together with Tián’s refusal to identify with Wáng Shìzhēn’s circle — gives him a place as the most stylistically independent Kāngxī-era voice.
Links
- Wikidata Q66264005 (Tian Wen)
- ECCP 718–719
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào