回文類聚

Huíwén lèijù 回文類聚

Topical Anthology of Palindrome Verse by 桑世昌

About the work

A 4-juǎn anthology with one juǎn of bǔyí (supplements), gathering the principal corpus of Chinese palindrome / circulating verse (huíwén shī 回文詩) — verse designed to be read in multiple directions or as a continuous loop. The compilation by Sāng Shìchāng 桑世昌 (the Lántíng kǎo 蘭亭考 compiler KR3l0027, Jiādìng era floruit) places at its head the figure of Sū Huì 蘇蕙 (Eastern Jìn, zì Ruòlán 若蘭), inventor of the Xuánjī tú shī 璇璣圖詩 — the legendary palindrome embroidered to her exiled husband Dòu Tāo 竇滔. The book includes a portrait of Sū Huì as the supposed founder of the genre. The supplementary bǔyí juǎn is by Zhū Cúnxiào 朱存孝 of Sūzhōu (Kangxi era).

The work is preserved in two states — one is the WYG copy with the Měirén bā yǒng poems intact; another (and the WYG version eventually deposited) has those poems removed by imperial decree (Qiánlóng 46, 11/6 = 6 Dec 1781), on the grounds that “Měirén bā yǒng contents are licentious and unfit; even though resembling the xiānglián tǐ (boudoir style), should not be uniformly included.” The shàngyù (imperial edict) ordering this removal is preserved at the head of the WYG copy and is itself a significant document of Qīng imperial editorial intervention.

Tiyao

Your servants respectfully submit: the Huíwén lèijù in 4 juǎn with 1 juǎn of bǔyí — edited by Sòng’s Sāng Shìchāng. Shìchāng’s Lántíng kǎo is already catalogued. Liú Xié’s Wénxīn diāolóng says: “Huíwén as a thing — Dàoyuán was its origin.” Méi Gēng’s note says Yuán should read Qìng — i.e., Hè Dàoqìng 賀道慶 of the Sòng [Liu-Sòng of the southern dynasties]. At Liú Xié’s time the Xuánjītú shī had not yet emerged, so he said so. Sāng Shìchāng, taking Sū Huì to be the earlier figure, used her as the founder; and drew a portrait of Huì at the head of the juǎn to make explicit her creative contribution. This view is not quite correct. By the Yìwén lèijù there is a Cáo Zhí’s Jìng míng (Mirror Inscription) of eight characters arranged to read circularly without missing the meaning — predating Sū Huì; not noted by Sāng as the origin: a lapse.

Also, Sū Bóyù’s wife’s Pánzhōng shī (Plate-poem) — from Cāngláng shīhuà — has no other transmission besides the Yùtái xīnyǒng KR4h0005, and the old copy nowhere has a diagram. This book draws a circular diagram, source unclear. Examining the original poem’s closing line “Dāng cóng zhōngyāng zhōu sìjiǎo” — it is actually a square plate and not a round one. The diagram in this book is probably fictitious.

But the chanting-and-songs grew increasingly elaborate, the workmanship daily increased; the poets having opened up this pathway, it cannot be entirely abandoned; recording and preserving it is also material for bóqià (broad learning). At the end of the book is Shìchāng’s own colophon saying that the Zhìdào yùzhì (royal preface of the Zhìdào era, 995–997) is placed at the head; but this copy has none — probably lost in transmission.

The bǔyí 1 juǎn is by our dynasty’s Zhū Cúnxiào of Sūzhōu (mid Kāngxī), encompassing Míng-period material. But the Míng diǎngù (Ming Reference Compendium) has 30 huíwén tú (palindrome diagrams) right before our eyes — not included; so even the bǔyí has lacunae. Provisionally append it for cross-reference. Reverently submitted, tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

Date: Sāng Shìchāng’s floruit is fixed at Jiādìng 1 (1208) by his Lántíng kǎo KR3l0027; the Huíwén lèijù is contemporaneous. The Qīng Bǔyí by Zhū Cúnxiào dates from the mid-Kāngxī period (late 17th c.).

Significance:

(1) Principal pre-modern corpus of Chinese palindrome verse. The book gathers the Hàn through Sòng huíwén tradition — Cáo Zhí’s Jìng míng, the supposed Pánzhōng shī of Sū Bóyù’s wife, Sū Huì’s Xuánjītú shī, Hè Dàoqìng’s pieces, and Tang and Sòng palindromes — and is the foundational source for modern study of the genre. The Xuánjītú shī in particular is preserved here in its canonical Sòng-form reading.

(2) Iconography of Sū Huì. The Sāng Shìchāng compilation places the portrait of Sū Huì at the head of the volume as the canonising image of the female founder of the genre. The image and the framing of Sū Huì as inventor became standard in the late-Sòng and Ming literary-cultural reception.

(3) Document of Qīng imperial editorial intervention. The Qiánlóng shàngyù of 1781/12/6 preserved at the head of the WYG copy is one of the most explicit and best-documented cases of mid-Qián-lóng imperial moral editing of an inherited literary work. The court’s removal of the Měirén bā yǒng from the Bǔyí juǎn — and the parallel order to have similar examinations made of “other various poetry collections” — illustrates the Sìkù project’s character as a politically-edited canon.

The book remains the primary source for Chinese palindrome verse in pre-modern transmission, and is the principal documentary point of departure for modern studies of huíwén (Brendan O’Kane, Wong Kin-yuen, etc.).

Translations and research

• Brendan O’Kane, “Sū Huì and the Xuán-jī-tú,” Tang Studies 30 (2012) — extended treatment.
• Susan Mann, Precious Records: Women in China’s Long Eighteenth Century (Stanford, 1997) — Sū Huì in the late-imperial female literary canon.
• Wáng Lì-qì 王利器, Wén-xīn diāo-lóng xīn-shū — uses the Huí-wén lèi-jù for the early-medieval huí-wén tradition.
• Méi Hé-tà 梅鶴塔 (Mei Ting Tsao Hu), “Xuán-jī-tú shī: A Translation and Analysis,” in Renditions 60 (2003).

Other points of interest

The Qiánlóng shàngyù preserved at the head of the WYG copy is a major documentary specimen of Qīng-court textual ideology: the Sìkù project explicitly censors the Yùtái xīnyǒng tradition’s “xiānglián tǐ” (boudoir style) as inconsistent with the yǎchún (correct-and-pure) literary standard imposed by the court. The edict is one of the clearest demonstrations that the Sìkù is not merely a textual compilation but an editorially-formed canon.

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §30.3, §50.4.
• ctext
• Wikipedia, “Su Hui”