Táng yīn 唐音
Tones of the Táng by 楊士弘, with annotations by 張震
About the work
A 14-juǎn anthology of Táng poetry compiled by Yáng Shìhóng (楊士弘, zì Bóqiān 伯謙, Xiāngchéng 襄城 man), completed in Zhìzhèng 4 (1344) with a preface by Yú Jí 虞集. The work is organised into three divisions: 始音 Shǐyīn (“Inaugural Tones”, 1 juǎn, the Four Eminents of Early Táng — Wáng Bó 王勃, Yáng Jiǒng 楊炯, Lú Zhàolín 盧照鄰, Luò Bīnwáng 駱賓王) + 正音 Zhèngyīn (“Proper Tones”, 6 juǎn, classified by verse-form, with Early-and-High Táng / Mid-Táng / Late Táng as three classes) + 遺響 Yíxiǎng (“Remaining Resonances”, 7 juǎn, miscellaneous, ending with monk-poetry and women’s poetry). The compilation deliberately excludes Lǐ Bái 李白, Dù Fǔ 杜甫, and Hán Yù 韓愈 on the principle that their quánjí circulate widely and need not be excerpted. The present recension carries the annotation of Zhāng Zhèn 張震 (zì Wénliàng 文亮, Xīngàn 新淦 man), a Míng-era annotator whose biographical details are unclear and whose notes the SKQS editors find “shallow and crude” (極弇陋) but tolerate as the only available text.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Táng yīn in 14 juǎn — the Yuán Yáng Shìhóng edited it. Shìhóng zì Bóqiān, Xiāngchéng man. The work was completed in Zhìzhèng 4 (1344), and Yú Jí prefaced it. In total: Shǐyīn 1 juǎn, Zhèngyīn 6 juǎn, Yíxiǎng 7 juǎn. Shìhóng’s own notice calls it 15 juǎn — this is because Yíxiǎng contains a sub-juǎn.
Shǐyīn records only the four masters Wáng, Yáng, Lú, Luò. Zhèngyīn sorts poems by form (tǐ), then categorises early-and-high Táng as one class, mid-Táng as one, late Táng as one. Yíxiǎng preserves the rest, with monk-poetry and women’s poetry appended. Lǐ Bái, Dù Fǔ, Hán Yù — these three masters are absent from the selection. Shìhóng’s fánlì (editorial principles) say that because all three have quánjí widely transmitted, they are accordingly not recorded.
The work was produced through ten years’ effort, and its selection is not casual. Sū Héng 蘇衡 in his preface to Liú Jìngbó’s 劉敬伯 Gǔshī xuǎn somewhat criticised this book’s division into Shǐyīn, Zhèngyīn, Yúxiǎng as misguided. But Lǐ Dōngyáng’s 李東陽 Huáilùtáng shīhuà 懷麓堂詩話 says: “Anthologising poetry is truly difficult — only one whose discrimination is sufficient to compass several houses can anthologise across houses; only one whose discrimination compasses a whole age can anthologise an age. An age does not yield more than a few persons; a person, not more than a few pieces. Yet to anthologise all this single-handed — is this not difficult? Of the anthologisers of Táng poetry, only Yáng Shìhóng’s Táng yīn approaches the mark.” His estimation reaches its peak there.
The Míng Gāo Bǐng’s Tángshī pǐnhuì (KR4h0095) draws on the Táng yīn’s scheme with slight modification. The Féng Shū 馮舒 brothers’ commentary on Zhāng Hú’s 章㿇 Cáidiào jí 才調集 strongly denounces Gāo’s coinage of the term páilǜ (extended regulated verse) — yet in fact the name páilǜ was used here first, not coined by Gāo.
Cáo Ān’s 曹安 Lányán chángyǔ 讕言長語 records an older recension by Yán Rùnqīng 顏潤卿 of Dānyáng, but that text we have not seen. The present recension carries the editorial annotation of Zhāng Zhèn 張震 zì Wénliàng of Xīngàn — his career and dynastic placement are uncertain — but his annotation is extremely crude. Táng Jìn 唐覲 in Yánzhōu bǐjì 延州筆記 has criticised his note on Lǐ Qí’s 李頎 Zèng Liú Shí 5th poem regarding the figure “Qí piàojì”, and on Lú Zhàolín’s Sòng Zhèng sīcāng rù Shǔ regarding “Pān, age thirty-plus” — among other errors not worth enumerating. Examples like: Yáng Jiǒng’s Liúshēng — this is a yuèfǔ old title — yet Zhāng writes “we do not know who Liúshēng was; the next-poem also has Liúshēng — probably both are unaffiliated military men”. Or: Yáng Jiǒng’s Yè sòng Zhào Zòng — composed in early Táng — yet Zhāng says “Zhào Zòng was the son-in-law of Guō Zǐyí, rising to shìláng” — Zhào Zòng in fact lived a century later! Such errors are so numerous that they cannot be detailed. He must have been a Míng man.
Because the present recension is the only one preserved and contains some passable annotations, we have included it as a single witness. Reverently submitted, tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Yáng Shìhóng was a mid-Yuán Xiāngchéng (Hénán) literatus whose dates are not securely fixed; he was active in the 1320s–1340s. The work is the principal Yuán anthology of Táng poetry and the direct model for Gāo Bǐng’s KR4h0095 Tángshī pǐnhuì (1393), which became the dominant Míng Táng-poetry anthology. The three-fold Shǐyīn / Zhèngyīn / Yíxiǎng scheme — pre-1350s — anticipates Gāo’s enlarged scheme of 正始 / 正宗 / 大家 / 名家 / 羽翼 / 接武 / 正變 / 餘響 by 50 years.
Zhāng Zhèn’s annotations are a Míng addition; the SKQS editors retain them faute-de-mieux but flag their errors. The Táng yīn’s Yuán original (without Zhāng’s notes) does not survive — the SKQS recension is the bibliographically composite (Yuán anthology + Míng annotation) version.
Significance. (1) Yáng’s exclusion of Lǐ, Dù, Hán — on the principle that their quánjí are universally available — establishes the Táng anthology’s role as a curator of secondary canon, not of the apex masters. (2) The naming of páilǜ (extended-regulated verse) as a sub-form derives from this book — not from Gāo Bǐng. (3) The triple-division (shǐ / zhèng / yí) anticipates the High-Mid-Late periodisation that became standard in Míng Tángshī studies (e.g. Yán Yǔ 嚴羽 Cāngláng shīhuà).
Translations and research
- Stephen Owen, The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century (827–860) (Harvard, 2006) — discusses Míng-Qīng Táng-shī anthologising and the role of Táng yīn and Táng-shī pǐn-huì.
- 蔣寅 Jiǎng Yín, Dà-lì shī-rén yán-jiū (Beijing, 1995) — anthologising history of Táng poetry.
- 陳國球 Chén Guó-qiú, Tángshī de chuán-chéng (Taipei, 1990) — historical-canonical study of Táng-poetry anthologies, with the Táng yīn as a key node.
Other points of interest
The work occupies the central pivot in the transmission of the Táng-poetry canon: it stands between Sòng anthologies (e.g. Héyuè yīnglíng jí 河岳英靈集, Cáidiào jí 才調集 — both pre-modern selections) and the definitive Míng anthology (Gāo Bǐng’s Tángshī pǐnhuì). The Qīng QuánTáng shī 全唐詩 (1707) supersedes both as a complete corpus, but for the purpose of selection — choosing the representative poems — the lineage Héyuè yīnglíng → Cáidiào → Tángyīn → Tángshī pǐnhuì → Tángshī sānbǎi shǒu runs through this book.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §38.2 (Táng anthologies).
- ctext