Èr Huángfǔ jí 二皇甫集
Joint Collection of the Two Huángfǔ by 皇甫冉, 皇甫曾, compiled by 劉潤之
About the work
A joint collection in eight juǎn gathering the surviving verse of two brother-poets of the mid-Táng Dàlì generation — Huángfǔ Rǎn 皇甫冉 (714–767), zì Màozhèng 茂政, and Huángfǔ Zēng 皇甫曾 (active 753–c. 785), zì Xiàocháng 孝常 — assembled by the Míng-dynasty scholar Liú Rùnzhī 劉潤之 of Hézhōng 河中 in the first half of the sixteenth century, with a preface by Wáng Tíngxiāng 王廷相 (1474–1544) and a colophon by Yáng Shèn 楊慎 (1488–1559). The two brothers, both jìnshì (Zēng 753; Rǎn 754) and both associates of Dúgū Jí 獨孤及, are mainstays of the Dàlì shí cáizǐ 大曆十才子 anthological tradition. Rǎn’s seven juǎn contain 234 surviving poems (Dúgū Jí’s preface of Dàlì 10 [775] reports 350 pieces — so 116 are already lost); Zēng’s one juǎn matches the Shūlù jiětí count.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Èr Huángfǔ jí of the Táng — joint collection of Huángfǔ Rǎn and Huángfǔ Zēng — eight juǎn. Rǎn, zì Màozhèng, of Dānyáng, was jìnshì of Tiānbǎo 15 (756); in Dàlì he reached zuǒ bǔquè. Zēng, zì Xiàocháng, was jìnshì of Tiānbǎo 12 (753); he reached jiānchá yùshǐ and was banished as magistrate of Yángzhái 陽翟, where he died. Zēng’s collection is one juǎn, matching the Shūlù jiětí; Rǎn’s is seven juǎn, five more than the Shūlù jiětí. But the Dàlì 10 (775) preface by Dúgū Jí to Rǎn’s collection says 350 pieces; here only 234 — 116 already lost. Further, “Chóu Yáng shìyù sì zhōng jiàn zhāo,” “Sòng Xuē pànguān zhī Yuè,” and “Sòng Wèi zhōngchéng huán Héběi” — Sān yùn lǜshī — and “Fù dé Yuè shān,” all regulated three-rhyme works, are here misplaced among the five-syllable ancient pieces. “Fèng jì Huángfǔ bǔquè liùyán yī shǒu” 奉寄皇甫補闕六言一首 is actually a poem by Zhāng Jì 張繼; Rǎn’s reply, with preface, is appended and proves it — but this version mixes it into the liùyán section as Rǎn’s piece, so the proper sequencing has been disturbed by the reprint. Both Rǎn and Zēng have their five-character páilǜ (regulated) separately classified — yet the form was not so named in the Táng, nor even in the Sòng or Yuán. This is interpolation by ill-instructed editors after Gāo Bǐng 高棅, that much is certain. Before is a preface by Wáng Tíngxiāng; after, a colophon by Yáng Shèn; both name Liú Rùnzhī of Hézhōng as the compiler of the Èr Huángfǔ jí. So this is Rùnzhī’s edition. Reverently submitted, ninth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The chief evidentiary problem is the discrepancy between Dúgū Jí’s preface (350 pieces) and the surviving 234 — i.e., the loss of one third of Huángfǔ Rǎn’s corpus before the Míng-dynasty re-compilation. The Yìwén lèijù and the Wényuàn yīnghuá KR4h0022 still preserve some of the lost pieces; modern collators have recovered approximately 30 of the missing 116. The misclassification of páilǜ (regulated long poems) as a distinct sub-genre is, as the SKQS editors note, a Míng anachronism not found in Sòng or Yuán bibliographies — the term páilǜ first appears in Gāo Bǐng 高棅’s Tángshī pǐnhuì KR4h0095 (1393). Liú Rùnzhī’s Míng edition therefore reflects the GāoBǐng poetics — the standard view across late-Míng anthology practice that long regulated verse forms a distinct genus.
Huángfǔ Rǎn is rated by Dúgū Jí as a successor to Cuī Hào and Wáng Wéi, and the Sōnglíng jí KR4h0014 of Pí Rìxiū draws on his rhyme-matching practice. Lǐ Bái has a poem to Rǎn’s father Huángfǔ Yǐ 皇甫顗 of Tánzhōu (the Tánzhōu chángshǐ), confirming the family’s literary network. Zēng’s career was shorter and more provincial; his work is collected by his brother’s posthumous editors.
Translations and research
- Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T’ang (Yale, 1981) — includes the Huángfǔ brothers as Dà-lì shí cái-zǐ writers.
- Jiǎ Jìnhuá 賈晉華, Táng-dài jí-huì zǒng jí yǔ shī-rén qún yánjiū (Beijing daxue, 2001).
- Lú Yánxīn 盧燕新, “Èr Huángfǔ jí yǔ Dà-lì shí cái-zǐ tǐ-xì yánjiū” 二皇甫集與大曆十才子體系研究, Zhōngguó wénxué yánjiū 2010.4.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §30.3.1.
- ctext