Jiānghú xiǎojí 江湖小集
Smaller Jiānghú Anthology by 陳起
About the work
A 95-juǎn late-Southern-Sòng commercial anthology of contemporary poetry, compiled and printed by Chén Qǐ 陳起 (zì Zōngzhī, hào Chéndàorén) at his book-shop in the Mùqīnfāng (Línān). Chén Qǐ was the most active commercial publisher of the late-Sòng Jiānghú poetic circle (the network of unofficial, often regionally-based poets who circulated their work outside official channels). His Jiānghú xiǎojí gathers individual collections of 62 named hands: Hóng Mài (2 juǎn), the monk Shàosōng (7 juǎn), Yè Shàowēng (1), Yán Càn (1), Máo Xū (1), Dèng Lín (1), Hú Zhòngcān (1), Chén Jiànzhī (1), Xú Jísūn (1), Chén Yǔnpíng (1), Zhāng Zhìlóng (1), Dù Zhān (1), Lǐ Gōng (3 juǎn), Shī Shū (2), Hé Yìnglóng (1), Shěn Shuō (1), Wáng Tóngzǔ (1), Chén Qǐ (1), Wú Zhòngfú (1), Liú Yì (1), Zhū Jìfāng (2), Lín Shàngrén (1), Chén Bìfù (1), Sī Zhí (2), Liú Guò (1), Yè Yīn (5), Gāo Sìsūn (1), Áo Táosūn (2; with Shīpíng attached), Zhū Nánjié (1), Yú Guānfù (1), Wáng Cóng (1), Liú Xiānlún (1), Huáng Wénléi (1), Yáo Yōng (1), Yú Guì (3), Xuē Yǔ (1), Jiāng Kuí (1), Zhōu Wénpú (3), Wēi Zhěn (1), Luó Yǔzhī (2), Zhào Xīzǔ (1), Huáng Dàshòu (1), Wú Rǔshì (1), Zhào Chóngfú (1), Gě Tiānmín (1), Zhāng Yì (1), Zōu Dēnglóng (1), Wú Yuān (2), Sòng Bórén (1), Xuē Shīshí (1; with colophons and tomb-inscription), Gāo Jiǔwàn (1), Xǔ Fěi (4), Dài Fùgǔ (4), Lì Dēng (1), Lǐ Tāo (1), Lè Léifā (4), Zhāng Yùn (1), Liú Hàn (1), Zhāng Liángchén (1), Gě Qǐjǐng (1), Wǔ Yǎn (2), Lín Tóng (1). Mostly poetry; only Yáo Yōng, Zhōu Wénpú, Wú Yuān, and Xǔ Fěi include fù and miscellaneous prose.
This is the principal anthology of the Jiānghú school (江湖派), the most important late-Sòng poetic movement after the Sìlíng. It is the first of three related Chén Qǐ commercial anthologies: the Jiānghú xiǎojí KR4h0053 (this work), the Jiānghú hòují KR4h0054 (its supplement, also Chén Qǐ), and the lost Jiānghú qiánjí (the original Jiānghú jí of Bǎoqìng 1, 1225, which provoked the famous “Jiānghú shī huò 江湖詩禍” when Shǐ Míyuǎn 史彌遠 took offence at lines and ordered the woodblocks destroyed).
Tiyao
(Translated, edited): Your servants respectfully submit: the Jiānghú xiǎojí in 95 juǎn — the old text attributes the compilation to Sòng’s Chén Qǐ. Qǐ, zì Zōngzhī, of Qiántáng, opened a book-shop at Mùqīnfāng and was also known as Chéndàorén; the various Sòng-block texts attributed to “Línān Chéndàorénjiā kāidiāo” are all his prints. The collection covers 62 hands [list as above]…
By Fāng Huí’s Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ: “In the early Bǎoqìng (1225), at the time when Shǐ Míyuǎn was changing the throne, the Qiántáng book-shop man Chén Qǐ Zōngzhī, himself able in verse, was on good terms with all the Jiānghú poets, and printed the Jiānghú jí to sell — Liú Qiánfū’s Nányuè gǎo was among them. Zōngzhī’s own verse had the line ‘Qiūyǔ Wútóng huángzǐ fǔ, chūnfēng yángliǔ xiànggōng qiáo’ — originally by Liú Píngshān [the Wǔtóng and Yángliǔ lines being read by the court as allegorical critique]…”
Abstract
Date: by Fāng Huí’s Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ and the Qídōng yěyǔ (Zhōu Mì) account, the principal compilation activity of the Jiānghú anthology series is Bǎoqìng 1 (1225) onward. The Jiānghú jí (the lost original) and the Jiānghú xiǎojí (this work) come from this period; the Jiānghú hòují extends through the Shàodìng and possibly into the Duānpíng (1234–1236). Chén Qǐ’s floruit spans ca. 1215–1240.
Significance:
(1) Principal documentary witness to the Jiānghú shīpài. The Jiānghú xiǎojí, together with the Jiānghú hòují KR4h0054, is the defining textual monument of the late-Sòng Jiānghú poetic movement — a network of unofficial, regionally-based, often commercially-circulated poets who reacted against both the late Jiāngxī school and the official court-poetics. Major figures preserved here include Liú Guò, Áo Táosūn, Jiāng Kuí, Sòng Bórén, Dài Fùgǔ, and Lè Léifā — the canonical Jiānghú names.
(2) A document of late-Sòng commercial publishing. Chén Qǐ’s Mùqīnfāng book-shop is one of the first attested Chinese commercial publishing operations to engage in active anthology-building. The collection reflects this commercial origin in its breadth without rigorous editorial criteria, its focus on circulating poets known personally to Chén Qǐ, and its publication-by-individual-collection structure (each poet as a separate small biéjí assembled into the larger zǒngjí).
(3) The Jiānghú shī huò documentary context. The first Jiānghú jí (lost) is the cause of the famous Jiānghú shī huò 江湖詩禍 of 1225 — when Shǐ Míyuǎn, having recently changed the imperial succession, took offence at supposed allegorical critique in Liú Kèzhuāng (Qiánfū)‘s Nányuè gǎo; the woodblocks were destroyed and the poets implicated. The Jiānghú xiǎojí and hòují are Chén Qǐ’s subsequent reconstructions of the same poetic network after the huò, using the format of separate small collections to evade further censorship.
The book is one of the central documents in the late-Sòng tradition of commercial-publishing-and-private-poetry-circulation; for the study of late-Sòng literary culture, late-Sòng politics, and late-Sòng commercial publishing, it is foundational.
Translations and research
- Michael A. Fuller, Drifting Among Rivers and Lakes: Southern Song Dynasty Poetry and the Problem of Literary History (Harvard Asia Center, 2013) — comprehensive study of the Jiānghú school, with extensive use of both Chén Qǐ anthologies.
- Lucille Chia, Printing for Profit: The Commercial Publishers of Jianyang, Fujian (11th–17th Centuries) (Harvard Asia Center, 2002) — situates Chén Qǐ in Sòng commercial publishing.
- Zhāng Hóng-shēng 張宏生, Sòng-shī rónɡ-zhái jí — late-Sòng poetics.
- Zhāng Mào-pèng 張茂鵬, “Jiānghú xiǎo-jí yánjiū” 江湖小集研究, Sòng-Yuán wénxué 2009.
- Stuart H. Sargent, The Poetry of He Zhu (1052–1125): Genres, Contexts, and Creativity (Brill, 2007), Appendix on late-Sòng anthology practice.
Other points of interest
The book is the parent of the more substantial Jiānghú hòují KR4h0054, also by Chén Qǐ, which is normally read alongside it. The two together — with the lost Jiānghú jí — constitute the “Three Jiānghú Collections” of the late-Sòng Chén Qǐ publishing programme.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §31.4.
- ctext
- Wikipedia, “Jianghu school”: (limited English coverage)