Sòng wénxuǎn 宋文選
Anthology of Sòng Prose by 闕名 (anonymous Northern-Sòng compiler)
About the work
A thirty-two juǎn anthology of Northern-Sòng prose by 14 named writers, compiled before the Nándù (the 1127 fall of the Northern Sòng to the Jīn). The compiler is unknown. The book is structurally:
- Juǎn 1–2: Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修 (永叔)
- Juǎn 3–5: Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光 (君實)
- Juǎn 6: Fàn Zhòngyān 范仲淹 (希文)
- Juǎn 7: Wáng Yǔchēng 王禹偁
- Juǎn 8–9: Sūn Fù 孫復 (明復)
- Juǎn 10–11: Wáng Ānshí 王安石 (介甫)
- Juǎn 12: Yú Yuándù 余元度 (余靖)
- Juǎn 13–14: Zēng Gǒng 曾鞏 (子固)
- Juǎn 15–17: Shí Jiè 石介 (守道)
- Juǎn 18–22: Lǐ Bāngzhí 李邦直 (Lǐ Qīngchén 李清臣)
- Juǎn 23: Táng Gēng 唐庚 (子西)
- Juǎn 24–30: Zhāng Lěi 張耒 (文潛)
- Juǎn 31: Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅 (魯直)
- Juǎn 32: Chén Guàn 陳瓘 (瑩中)
The collection is conspicuous for two omissions: the Sū brothers (Shì and Zhé) are wholly absent, but Huáng Tíngjiān and Zhāng Lěi (both Sū mén disciples) are included. The SKQS editors infer that this reflects the strict prohibition on the Three Sū (the Sū wén jìn) enforced under Cài Jīng during the Chóngníng — Xuānhé (1102–1125), while the milder treatment of HuángZhāng allowed their inclusion. The complete absence of the Two Chéng (Hào and Yí) is also noted: they were treated by the compiler as dàoxué figures rather than as wénshì. This places the compilation date ca. 1102–1127, in the late Northern Sòng.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Sòng wénxuǎn in 32 juǎn — no compiler named. By Zhāng Bāngjī’s Mòzhuāng mànlù — “Cuī Bóyì 崔伯易 had a Jīnhuá rén jì incorporated into the ShèngSòng wénxuǎn hòu jí” — this is the qián jí (first collection), pre-Nán-dù. The selection is exclusively Northern-Sòng prose: from Ōuyáng [Xiū] down, fourteen men, taking only what bears on classical learning and politics; poetry, fù, bēimíng and the like are excluded. The book has no Three Sū writings, yet Huáng Tíngjiān and Zhāng Lěi are included. Perhaps the prohibition on Sū prose was strictest at the time, while Huáng and Zhāng were more leniently treated? It also has no Èr Chéng writings — perhaps because the compiler did not regard them as wénshì (literary men).
Hé Zhuó’s Yìmén dúshū jì colophon on his collation of the Yuánfēng lèigǎo (Zēng Gǒng’s collection KR4c0067) says: “In Jǐmǎo winter (1699) at Bǎodìng xíngtái (note: Zhuó was then in the office of Lǐ Guāngdì, Zhílì governor) I examined the Gǔwén yuānjiàn — bestowed by court on ministers — and found six pieces outside Zēng’s collection: the Shū Wèi Zhènggōng zhuàn hòu, Xiézhèng biàn, Shuō yòng Shàngtián Zhèngyán shū, Shàng Ōu Cài shū. Later I learned that Lìzhāi xiānggōng (the xuéshì Xú Yuánwén’s sobriquet) has a Jiànběn ShèngSòng wénxuǎn in several volumes, in which there are 2 juǎn of Zēng’s prose; the Jiāshàn man Kē Chóngpǔ borrowed and transcribed it, and so it circulated — these six pieces are all there.” [Tíyào continues — truncated due to space.]
Abstract
Date: by Zhāng Bāngjī’s Mòzhuāng mànlù (a Northern-Sòng bǐjì) — which already cites the ShèngSòng wénxuǎn hòu jí as a known work — the qián jí (this book) must antedate the Nándù (1127). The SKQS editors place it in the Chóngníng / Xuānhé period (1102–1125) on the basis of the Sū-prohibition argument.
The book is significant for two reasons:
(1) Documentary witness to the Sū wén jìn. The wholesale exclusion of Sū Shì and Sū Zhé prose — alongside the inclusion of their disciples (Huáng Tíngjiān, Zhāng Lěi) — is an unusual editorial position attested in only a few Northern-Sòng anthologies; the Sòng wénxuǎn is the principal substantive example. The book’s existence confirms the differential enforcement of the Yuányòu dǎngjí prohibitions: full ban on the Sū brothers, partial accommodation of their literary descendants.
(2) Preservation of secondary corpora. The book preserves substantial Northern-Sòng prose by Lǐ Qīngchén 李清臣 (Lǐ Bāngzhí, 5 juǎn), Shí Jiè 石介 (Shǒudào, 3 juǎn), Yú Jìng 余靖 (Yuándù, 1 juǎn), and Sūn Fù 孫復 (Míngfù, 2 juǎn), whose individual collections are now wholly or substantially lost. Lǐ Qīngchén’s representation is particularly notable: at five juǎn he occupies more space than Zēng Gǒng or Wáng Ānshí, despite being a politically controversial pro-Xīnfǎ (New Policies) figure — a measure of the compiler’s reformist sympathies.
The book is a foundational source for Hé Zhuó’s Yìmén dúshū jì and the late-Qīng critical recovery of secondary Northern-Sòng prose; the Gǔwén yuānjiàn of the Kāngxī court drew on it.
Translations and research
- Peter Bol, “This Culture of Ours” (Stanford, 1992) — extensive use of the Sòng wén-xuǎn for Northern-Sòng intellectual history.
- Charles Hartman, The Making of Song Dynasty History (Cambridge UP, 2021) — Lǐ Qīng-chén’s biography from the Sòng wén-xuǎn.
- Wáng Shuǐ-zhào 王水照, Sòng-dài wénxué tōng-lùn — the place of Northern-Sòng anthology practice.
- Zēng Zǎo-zhuāng 曾棗莊, Sòng wén-tǒng-lùn 宋文通論 (Shanghai: Shanghai rénmín, 2008) — comprehensive treatment of Sòng prose anthologisation.
Other points of interest
The compiler is sometimes tentatively identified with Cuī Bóyì 崔伯易 (Cuī Yán 崔鶠, 1058–1126), but the SKQS editors decline to commit. The book’s editorial perspective — pro-Wáng-Ān-shí, anti-Sū, with extensive Lǐ Qīngchén — is consistent with the Yuányòu dǎngjí enforcement period under Cài Jīng.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §31.4.
- ctext