Nányuè chàngchóu jí 南嶽倡酬集
Nán-yuè Mutual-Rhyme Anthology by 朱熹, 張栻, and 林用中
About the work
A one-juǎn (plus one juǎn of fùlù) mutual-rhyme anthology recording the seven-day literary pilgrimage to Mt. Héng 衡山 (the Southern Sacred Mountain, Nányuè 南嶽) by Zhū Xī 朱熹 (1130–1200), Zhāng Shì 張栻 (1133–1180, Jìngfū), and Zhū’s disciple Lín Yòngzhòng 林用中 (Zézhī) in 11th month of Qiándào 3 (1167). The trip falls in the dīnghài year, between the jiǎxū (Nov. 11) and gēngchén (Nov. 17) days. It is one of the most famous literary excursions in Sòng intellectual history: Zhū and Zhāng were the two principal figures of Southern-Sòng Dàoxué, and the Nányuè visit (Zhū Xī travelling from Huīzhōu to Tánzhōu and back) was the occasion for the famous Tánzhōu wèndá (Tánzhōu Question-and-Answer dialogues on the Zhōngyōng and the Xīntǐ) that helped consolidate the Lǐxué canon.
Structure: the body of the anthology contains 57 titled poem-sequences as preserved in the WYG copy (each typically with three responses, one by each of Zhū, Zhāng, Lín); the original count by Zhū Xī’s own preface was 140+ pieces, and Zhāng Shì’s preface says 149 — significantly more than the surviving WYG count of ca. 170 poems (3 × 57). The fùlù appendix contains 32 letters from Zhū Xī to Lín Yòngzhòng, 10 yíshì anecdotes about Lín, and 2 prefatory zìxù (zì = courtesy-name) by Zhū Xī to Lín — added by a later compiler to preserve material about Lín.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Nányuè chàngchóu jí in one juǎn plus one juǎn of fùlù — Sòng’s Zhū Xī, with Zhāng Shì and Lín Yòngzhòng, joint poems on the Southern Sacred Mountain. Lín Yòngzhòng, zì Zézhī, hào Dōngpíng, of Gǔtián, was once a disciple of Zhū Xī. The collection was made in Qiándào 2 (1166) 11th month — note: the SBCK source dates this Qiándào 2 (1166), but cross-collation with Zhāng Shì’s preface, which is dated dīnghài (1167), shows the Qiándào 3 (1167) reading is correct.
Before is Zhāng Shì’s preface, which says: “After two cycles of years travelling HúXiāng, I dreamed of the wonders of Mt. Héng. In dīnghài autumn (1167), the Xīnān Zhū Yuánhuì (Zhū Xī) came to visit me by the Xiāng waters, and we made this journey together.” And Zhū Xī’s own poem-titles call Zhāng Shì “Zhāng Húnán” (Zhāng of Húnán) — Zhāng Shì must have been an official in the HéngXiāng region at the time, hence the appellation. But the Sòngshǐ biography records Zhāng Shì as having served under Xiàozōng as JīngHú běilù zhuǎnyùn fùshǐ and later Zhī Jiānglíngfǔ ānfǔ běnlù — not as Húnán official — so there is likely a Sòngshǐ lacuna.
The trip ran from jiǎxū to gēngchén — seven days in all — and the East-return on disorderly-stalks preface (Zhū’s own) speaks of obtaining 140 poems; Zhāng Shì’s preface says 149. The present text records only 57 tí (titled-pieces); collation against Zhū’s Dàquán jí gives only 50; and there are pieces in the Dàquán missing here. Further, each title was composed by three men, so 57 tí should give 171 — not 149. The arithmetic does not agree.
In the juǎn the liánjù often loses the surname-attribution; other poems too follow Zhū’s jí titling — to the extent that a poem titled Cì Jìngfū yùn still has a poem by Jìngfū within it: this is not normal arrangement. Probably re-edited by later hand, no longer the original. After is 32 of Zhū Xī’s letters to Lín Yòngzhòng, 10 of Yòngzhòng’s yíshì, and 2 of Zhū Xī’s zìxù writings about him — all later additions by a hand that wished to preserve material on Lín. Lín was a high-ranking disciple of Zǐyáng (Zhū Xī); his collection is mostly lost; only through this book can his surviving verse be examined. We record and preserve it, that it may not vanish to posterity. Reverently submitted, fifth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date: by Zhāng Shì’s preface, Qiándào 3 dīnghài (1167), 11th month; the additional preface from guǐwèi (1163) noted in some sources is to another exchange. The anthology proper covers the seven days jiǎxū to gēngchén (Nov. 11–17, 1167).
The book is foundational for two reasons:
(1) It is the principal documentary witness to the ZhūXī / ZhāngShì relationship during the formative Tánzhōu wèndá period — the autumn 1167 visit during which the foundational Lǐxué dialogues on zhōnghé (centrality-and-harmony), the xīntǐ (heart-substance), and the Zhōngyōng commentary took shape. The poems are not the dialogues themselves, but they document the close cooperation that produced them.
(2) The fùlù preserves the only substantial body of Lín Yòngzhòng’s verse and 32 personal letters from Zhū Xī to Lín — letters that document Zhū Xī’s pedagogical practice and his relationship with a senior disciple. These letters, otherwise dispersed in the Huìān jí, are gathered here in one place for the first time.
The text-historical problems noted by the SKQS editors (the count discrepancy, the late re-editing) make the book a case-study in how Sòng chànghé anthologies were re-edited by later compilers — losing original liánjù attributions, re-following the dominant figure’s collection-titling. These issues are not unique to the Nányuè anthology but are unusually visible in it.
Translations and research
- Hoyt C. Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii Press, 1992) — discusses the Zhū-Zhāng visit and the Tán-zhōu wèn-dá.
- Wing-tsit Chan, Chu Hsi: New Studies (Honolulu, 1989) — Zhū Xī’s 1167 visit to Tánzhōu.
- Conrad Schirokauer, “Chu Hsi’s Sense of History,” in Ordering the World (Univ. of California Press, 1993).
- Tián Hào 田浩 (Hoyt Tillman) and Sū Fei 蘇費, Zhū Xī yánjiū 朱熹研究 — uses the Nán-yuè anthology systematically.
- Liú Shù-xiān 劉述先, Zhū-zǐ zhé-xué sī-xiǎng de fā-zhǎn yǔ wán-chéng — chapter on the Tán-zhōu period.
Other points of interest
The collection includes Zhū Xī’s famous “Zuìxià Zhùróngfēng zuò” — written on the descent from Zhùróng peak — which became iconic in later Sòng Lǐxué literature for its representation of Lǐxué in physical-geographical engagement with the sacred landscape. The Nányuè (Héngshān) cult was a major Sòng intellectual category, and this anthology canonised a Lǐxué reading of the mountain.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §31.4, §32.
- ctext