Pōmén chóuchàng jí 坡門酬唱集
Mutual-Rhyme Anthology of the Pō (Sū Shì) School by 邵浩
About the work
A 23-juǎn Southern-Sòng anthology of mutual-rhyme (chóuchàng 酬唱) poetry exchanged between the Sū brothers and the Sūmén liù jūnzǐ 蘇門六君子 (Six Gentlemen of the Sū School): Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅, Qín Guān 秦觀, Cháo Bǔzhī 晁補之, Zhāng Lěi 張耒, Chén Shīdào 陳師道, Lǐ Zhì 李廌. Edited by Shào Hào 邵浩 (zì Shūyì) of Jīnhuá over a long compilation period — begun in Shàoxī wùyín (1158, when Shào was still a student at the Chéngjūn); resumed after his jìnshì (Lóngxīng 1, 1163) as the Sūmén chóuchàng jí; completed in 1189 at Yùzhāng as the Pōmén chóuchàng jí, with a preface by Xiè Wénzhōng (the Línjiāng Xiègōng who had just moved from Yùshǐ zhōngchéng to Shàngshū jūnyì). Zhāng Shūchūn 張叔椿 added a publishing preface in Shàoxī yuánnián (1190, 5/24) — the date apparently corrupted in the WYG copy as Shàoxīng yuánnián (1131), an obvious mis-reading later corrected by the SKQS editors.
Structure: the first 16 juǎn are Sū Shì’s poems with the others’ rhyme-matched replies; juǎn 17–20 are Sū Zhé’s poems with replies; juǎn 21–23 are Huáng Tíngjiān et al.’s poems with replies. Lǐ Zhì is missing as a poetic principal but appears as a respondent. 660 poems in all by the editor’s count.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Pōmén chóuchàng jí in 23 juǎn — edited by Sòng’s Shào Hào. Hào, zì Shūyì, of Jīnhuá. Before the book is Zhāng Shūchūn’s preface: “In the year jǐyǒu (1189) I came to the jīmù office at Yùzhāng; Master Shào — actually elevated together with me in Lóngxīng — produced an enormous compilation entitled Pōmén chóuchàng, in total 660 pieces; he commissioned the cutter to print it for wider circulation,” dated 1131 5/24. Also Hào’s own yǐn (preface): “In Shàoxīng wùyín (1158) I, not yet capped, studied at the Chéngjūn; in Lóngxīng guǐwèi (1163) I gained my jìnshì and returned. I took the Two Sū brothers’ mutual exchange and that of the gate-disciples’ six gentlemen, their daily rhyming with the two masters, and gathered them: titled Sūmén chóuchàng. In Chúnxī jǐyǒu (1189) I served at Yùzhāng; Línjiāng Xiègōng, just promoted from Yùshǐ zhōngchéng to Shàngshū jūnyì and not yet returned, wrote me a preface and re-titled it Pōmén chóuchàng,” dated 1130 4/1.
By calculation: guǐwèi is Xiàozōng’s Lóngxīng 1 (1163); jǐyǒu is Chúnxī 16 (1189); 1189 is 59 years after Shàoxīng xīnhài (1131). Gēngxū (1130) is Jiànyán 4, again not assignable to Shàoxīng. The dating in the two prefaces is plainly in error: Chúnxī jǐyǒu (1189) Xiàozōng abdicated; the following year gēngxū is Guāngzōng’s Shàoxī 紹熙 1 (1190) — so the Shàoxīng in the prefaces must be a corruption of Shàoxī. Even allowing this, by Hào’s yǐn Shūchūn’s preface should come first; but Hào’s yǐn is dated 4/1 and Shūchūn’s preface 5/24 — also an inconsistency. Probably the transmission was long and copyists modified the texts at will.
The book records the daily chóuchàng of Sū Shì, Sū Zhé, Huáng Tíngjiān, Qín Guān, Cháo Bǔzhī, Zhāng Lěi, Chén Shīdào, Lǐ Zhì etc. The first 16 juǎn are all Shì’s poems with Zhé and the rest matching; then Zhé’s poems 4 juǎn; Huáng Tíngjiān et al. 3 juǎn, again with Shì and the others matching. Lǐ Zhì is missing. Those not among the eight but who chimed in are appended as notes for distinction. The poems are largely already in the individual biéjí. As to: the Shāngǔ wàijí records Huáng Tíngjiān’s Cìyùn Zǐzhān Shū Huángtíng jīng jīngwěi fù Jiǎn dàoshì, his Cìyùn Cháo Bǔzhī, Liào Zhèngyī zèngdá; Bǔzhī’s Hé Zǐzhān Zhòngsōng zèng Dù Yú xiùcái 3 — the current Pō jí has Sū’s only 2 — these are not entered in our anthology either: not without lacunae. Yet mutual-rhyme verse is uniquely Dōngpō’s transformation-without-limit; the jiāyī of all others, and others’ talent is also enough to stand against him. Hào gathered them and made them comparable, letting the reader cross-collate and witness the workings of intent — no small contribution to poetry-study. Reverently submitted, third month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date: by the SKQS editors’ correction, Shàoxī 1 (1190) is the final compilation year, with the bulk of the work completed in Chúnxī 16 (1189) at Yùzhāng. The earlier Shàoxīng wùyín (1158) is when Shào Hào first began collecting; Lóngxīng guǐwèi (1163) is when he first organised the materials as the Sūmén chóuchàng.
The book is foundational for two reasons:
(1) It is the single most comprehensive anthology of the Sū-school exchange poetry — Sū Shì and his disciples’ verse is dispersed across many biéjí, but the chóuchàng relations between them, the order of rhyme-passing, the response-to-prompt structure, can be reconstructed only here. Modern scholarship on the SūHuáng “Jiāngxī shīpài” 江西詩派 dynamics draws extensively on this anthology.
(2) The collection preserves several Sū-school exchange pieces in textually different recensions from the corresponding biéjí — minor variants that document the editorial revisions made when the individual collections were assembled.
The principal modern reading is that the Pōmén chóuchàng jí is the documentary basis for the Sū-school as a Southern-Sòng canonical category — Shào Hào’s compilation, made during the Zhū Xī era at a moment when Sūxué and Lǐxué were openly competitive, was a deliberate Southern-Sòng act of canon-defence on behalf of the Sū tradition.
Translations and research
- Ronald Egan, Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi (Harvard Asia Center, 1994) — extensive use of chóu-chàng relations among the Sū circle.
- Michael A. Fuller, The Road to East Slope: The Development of Su Shi’s Poetic Voice (Stanford, 1990).
- Mò Lì-fēng 莫礪鋒, Jiāng-xī shī-pài yánjiū 江西詩派研究 (Chéngdū: Bā-Shǔ shū-shè, 1986).
- Yáng Sōng-rǔ 楊松如, Sū Dōng-pō hé sòng-Yuán chóu-chàng shī-jí yánjiū 蘇東坡和宋元酬唱詩集研究 — focused study.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §31.4.
- ctext