兩宋名賢小集

LiǎngSòng míngxián xiǎojí 兩宋名賢小集

Minor Collections of the Worthies of the Two Sòng by 陳思 and 陳世隆

About the work

A 380-juǎn monumental anthology of 157 Sòng poets’ small collections (xiǎojí), running from Yáng Yì 楊億 (early-Sòng Xīkūn master) through Pān Yīn 潘音 (SòngYuán transition). Attributed by the printed text to Chén Sī (陳思) as initial compiler and Chén Shìlóng (陳世隆) as supplementer, with a 1230 preface ascribed to Wèi Liǎowēng 魏了翁 and two early-Qīng colophons ascribed to Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊. The SKQS editors expose the entire paratextual apparatus as forgery: the Wèi Liǎowēng preface is the verbatim text of Wèi’s Bǎokè cóngbiān xù (Chén Sī’s jīnshí bibliography) with the title changed; Zhū Yízūn’s colophons are forgeries, since his Pùshūtíng jí discusses Chén Qǐ’s 陳起 Jiānghú jí (which the colophons confuse with Chén Sī’s work) but never mentions this anthology. Moreover the colophons attribute the supplementation work to Juànpǔ (Cáo Róng) — but Cáo Róng’s actual recovery, per Wáng Shìzhēn’s Jūyì lù, was only forty-and-more Sòng small collections that have almost no overlap with the LiǎngSòng míngxián xiǎojí. The SKQS editors conclude: someone in the late Míng / early Qīng assembled Cáo Róng’s actual cache together with other sources, forged the Wèi Liǎowēng and Zhū Yízūn paratexts, and re-presented the whole as a Chén-family Sòng-and-Yuán production. Despite this, the anthology itself is not a forgery — the poems it preserves are genuine Sòng poems, often the only surviving witness of their authors’ work. The editors retain the book on textual grounds and pillory the forgeries.

Tiyao

Your servants respectfully submit: the LiǎngSòng míngxián xiǎojí in 380 juǎn. The old text attributes the editing to Chén Sī and the supplementation to Chén Shìlóng. Sī has the Bǎokè cóngbiān (see KR2n0024); Shìlóng has the Běixuān bǐjì (see KR3l0143) — both already on record. The book records Sòng-men’s poetry collections beginning with Yáng Yì and ending with Pān Yīn — 157 families in all. It carries a Shàodìng 3 (1230) preface by Wèi Liǎowēng and two colophons by Zhū Yízūn of our dynasty.

Examining: the preface of Wèi Liǎowēng [as cited] differs from the preface of the Bǎokè cóngbiān not at all in character or word — only the title-words are changed. It is without doubt a forgery. Zhū Yízūn’s colophons say the book is also called Jiānghú jí, cut in BǎoqìngShàodìng time, that Shǐ Míyuǎn 史彌遠 suspected slander against him and prosecuted, that Chén Sī was implicated, and the print-blocks destroyed. But the printer of the Jiānghú jí was Chén Qǐ — not Chén Sī; and the Jiānghú jí contained only post-Southern-Crossing men, while this book begins with Yáng YìSòng Bái — utterly different. Yízūn conflates them — utterly garbled.

Yet examining Yízūn’s Pùshūtíng jí: he has a Sòng Gāo Jújiàn yígǎo xù recounting Chén Qǐ’s misfortune in detail, never confusing it with Chén Sī; and his collected works also do not contain this colophon. The colophon must be a near-modern forger’s hand — not necessarily issuing from Yízūn. The colophon further says Chén Shìlóng was Chén Sī’s cóngsūn (grand-nephew); on Sī’s edited 60-plus families he added 140 more; the manuscript was scattered and Cáo Róng later reassembled it. Yet checking what is recorded in the book — much is omitted: like Wáng Yīnglín’s collection, which though no longer transmitted, has many remaining pieces visible in the Sìmíng wénxiàn jí — yet here only five poems for one collection. Cáo Róng would not have been so careless — so the assertion that “Cáo Róng supplemented” is also not credible.

Examining Wáng Shìzhēn’s Jūyì lù: “Zhúchá [= Zhū Yízūn] collected more than forty kinds of Sòng-men’s small collections — beyond the Jiānghú shī of the foregoing juǎn: Liú Yì zì Chánfù Xīnyóu zhāigǎo; Lín Xīyī Juànzhāi shíyī gǎo; Áo Táosūn zì Qìzhī Qúwēng jí; Zhū Jìfāng zì Jìshí Jìngzhù jí; Lín Shàngzhì zì Rùnsǒu Duānyǐn gǎo; Liú Guò zì Gǎizhī Lóngzhōu jí; Liú Xiānlún zì Shūnǐ Zhāoshān jí; Huáng Wénléi zì Xīshēng Kànyún jí; Huáng Dàshòu zì Déróng Lùxiāng shígǎo; Wǔ Róng zì Cháozōng Cángzhuō gǎo; Zhāng Yùn zì Rénpǔ Dǒuyě jí; Liú Hàn zì Wǔzǐ Xiǎoshān jí; Zhāng Liángchén zì Wǔzǐ Xuěcōng jí; Zhào Xīzhē zì Yífǔ Bàozhuō jí; Lì Dēng zì Lǚdào Bàigǎo; Hé Yīnglóng zì Zǐxiáng Jútán gǎo; Shěn Shuō zì Wéixiào Yōngzhāi jí; Shī Yǒngyí Shānlǎo Yúnquán jí; Xuē Yú zì Zhòngzhǐ Yúnquán jí; Yú Guì zì Xīxì Yúyǐn gǎo; Gě Tiānmín Wúhuái jí; Yáo Yōng zì Xīshēng Xuěpéng jí”, etc.

So Yízūn had Sòng-men’s small collections forty-and-more in his cabinet. Perhaps the old manuscript was scattered and later men obtained its remnant, picked up more from other anthologies, combined them as one — and then, because Yízūn’s collection was the originating source, falsely attached his name and faked two colophons? But — though the editor is a fraud, the poetry edited is not fraudulent. The Sòng-men’s remnant-drafts have been considerably gathered here; the search is not without merit. The Líqiū phantom-art is best left aside without comment [i.e. the question of who exactly assembled it can be set aside].

Reverently submitted, twelfth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

Dating and authorship. The case is the most-celebrated forgery scandal in Sòng-anthology bibliography. The transmitted text bears:

• a Shàodìng 3 (1230) preface ascribed to Wèi Liǎowēng (the Hèshān master) — forged by re-titling Wèi’s Bǎokè cóngbiān preface;
• two colophons ascribed to Zhū Yízūn (1629–1709) — forged: the colophons confuse Chén Sī with Chén Qǐ and claim Zhū Yízūn obtained a Jiānghú jí witness that Zhū’s own writings never mention.

The actual textual layering, per the SKQS editors and supported by Wáng Shìzhēn’s Jūyì lù, is:

1. Original c. 1230–1240: a 60-plus-family anthology in some form attributable to Chén Sī (or his circle) of Línān, in the same milieu as the Jiānghú jí.
2. c. 1340–1355: supplementation by Chén Shìlóng (or his circle) of late-Sòng / early-Yuán poets.
3. Late Míng: the cumulative anthology is lost or fragmented.
4. Mid-seventeenth century: Cáo Róng 曹溶 obtains some forty-plus Sòng small-collections.
5. Late-Míng / early-Qīng forger: assembles Cáo Róng’s cache + other sources into the present 380-juǎn recension; fabricates the Wèi Liǎowēng and Zhū Yízūn paratexts.

Significance. Despite the forged paratexts, the textual content is genuine. The 157 poets are real Sòng-and-Yuán-transition figures; their poetry was recovered from real circulation. The anthology is a principal documentary witness to Sòng minor-poetic collections, complementing KR4h0053, KR4h0054, and KR4h0065.

Translations and research

• 張宏生 Zhāng Hóngshēng, Jiāng-hú shī-pài yán-jiū (Beijing, 1995) — for the Sòng xiǎo-jí tradition.
• 祝尚書 Zhù Shàngshū, Sòng-rén bié-jí xù-lù — bibliographical reference for the recovered individual collections.
• 韓酉山 Hán Yǒu-shān, Liǎng-Sòng míng-xián xiǎo-jí kǎo — focused study (Hangzhou).

Other points of interest

The anthology is the single largest Sòng-and-Yuán-transition poetry compendium in the Sìkù, and the textbook case study in how a textually-genuine anthology can come down through a chain of forged paratexts. The SKQS editors’ careful distinction — the editor is fraudulent but the edition is not — is a model of scholarly equanimity.

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §31.4.
• ctext