古詩紀

Gǔshī jì 古詩紀

Records of Ancient Poetry by 馮惟訥

About the work

A 156-juǎn monumental Jiā-jìng-era anthology of all pre-Táng Chinese poetry — running from gǔyì (pre-history) through Chén and Suí — compiled by Féng Wéinè (馮惟訥, †1572, zì Rǔyán 汝言, of Línqú 臨朐, Shāndōng; Jiājìng wùxū (1538) jìnshì; to guānglùsì qīng). The compilation took 14 years (begun Jiājìng jiǎchén (1544), completed Jiājìng dīngsì (1557)); first printed at Shǎnxī by Zhēn Jìng 甄敬 of Tàiyuán. The work is structured in four parts:

• 前集 Qiánjí (10 juǎn): gǔyì shī — pre-canonical lost ancient verse.
• 正集 Zhèngjí (130 juǎn): HànWèi through ChénSuí — the principal stratum.
• 外集 Wàijí (4 juǎn): xiānguǐ zhī zuò — verse attributed to immortals and ghosts.
• 別集 Biéjí (12 juǎn): shīhuà and previous critics’ discussions of ancient poetry.

The present recension is the Wú Guàn 吳琯 reprint — which combined the four sub-collections into a unified 156-juǎn sequence under the single title Gǔshī jì, dropping the original sub-titles. Féng Wéinè also published separately a 風雅廣逸 Fēngyǎ guǎngyì (10 juǎn) earlier in his career — the same material as the Qiánjí of the present work, published first separately. The work is the definitive pre-Táng poetry repository of late-imperial China, sourcing later anthologies including Zhāng Zhīxiàng’s 張之象 Gǔshī lèiyuàn 古詩類苑, Zāng Màoxún’s 臧懋循 Gǔshī suǒ 古詩所, and Méi Dǐngzuò’s (梅鼎祚) Bādài shīshèng 八代詩乘.

Tiyao

Your servants respectfully submit: the Gǔshī jì in 156 juǎn — the Míng Féng Wéinè composed it. Wéinè zì Rǔyán, Línqú man. Jìnshì of Jiājìng wùxū (1538), served to guānglùsì qīng.

His book: 前集 10 juǎn — all are古逸詩 (ancient lost verse); 正集 130 juǎn — HànWèi through ChénSuí; 外集 4 juǎn — sideways-collected immortal-and-ghost compositions; 別集 12 juǎn — earlier critics’ discussions of poetry.

The time-span is miǎncháng (long-stretched); the gathering is fánfù (abundant). Among these, true-and-false are mixed up; contradictions, errors, and omissions could not be absent. Therefore Féng Shū 馮舒 wrote the KR4h0108 Shījì kuāngmiù 詩紀匡謬 to correct its faults. But its upper-touching the gǔchū (ancient-beginning), lower reaching the Liùdài (Six Dynasties) — every metrical composition is included; tracing back to shījiā zhī yuānyuán (the source-and-origin of poetry-houses) — one cannot escape this book and look elsewhere. It is also a cǎizhū zhī cānghǎi (sea for collecting pearls) and fámù zhī Dènglín (Dèng-forest for cutting timber).

Thereafter Zāng Màoxún’s Gǔshī suǒ, Zhāng Zhīxiàng’s Gǔshī lèiyuàn, Méi Dǐngzuò’s Bādài shīshèng came out one after another — all taking this book as lánběn (blue-base / template). Yet Zāng’s book — though claiming to supplement this book’s gaps — is wild-gathering fánwēi; zhūlì (pearls and stones) are confused. Further, he splits by form, not by era, leaving the reader without bearings — unable to grasp the zhèngbiàn yuánliú (regular-and-modified source-and-stream). His book further re-orders by topic, becoming effectively a lèishū (categorical encyclopaedia); only HànWèi are fully recorded; JìnSòng below are abridged — already not wánbèi (complete view). What it records — Sū Wǔ’s wife’s poem etc. — is to this day the yìlín zhī xiào (laughing-stock of the arts forest).

Therefore only Wéinè’s compilation is the guīniè (standard) for poetry-houses. Originally Zhēn Jìng of Tàiyuán engraved it in Shǎnxī, following Wéinè’s original sequence; the engraving is jiǎnzhuō (clumsy), with occasional errors. The present recension is Wú Guàn’s reprint — although it dropped the names Qiánjí, Zhèngjí, Wàijí, Biéjí and combined into 156 juǎn, the order is preserved; the collation is more detailed than Zhēn’s. Therefore today we follow Wú’s recension and do not separately split the categories. Wéinè has also the Fēngyǎ guǎngyì in 10 juǎn; checking what it contains, it is the present Qiánjí. He had earlier gathered the gǔyì zhū piān and printed them separately; later continued and completed Hàn-Wèi-and-after, combining into one book — not in fact two books. Today we record only its catalog-entry (mù) and do not double-record its book.

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

Abstract

Date. The original preface (by an unnamed colleague who collaborated on initial collation) records: “Started in jiǎchén winter (1544); completed in dīngsì summer (1557) — 14 years.” Féng was serving as Hézhōng shǒu (prefect of Hézhōngfǔ) at the inception. The work was published in stages: Fēngyǎ guǎngyì (the gǔyì portion) first; then the complete Gǔshī jì in Shǎnxī.

Significance. (1) The work is the definitive late-imperial repository of pre-Táng Chinese poetry — the principal source for all subsequent pre-Táng poetry anthologies and for modern critical editions (e.g. Lù Qīnlì 逯欽立, XiānQín Hàn Wèi Jìn NánBěicháo shī — Beijing 1983). (2) Féng’s editorial principle — shī yǐ rén xì, rén yǐ dài fēn, dài yǐ shí cì (“poetry attached to person; person divided by dynasty; dynasty ordered by time”) — established the chronological-and-attributional framework that remained standard. (3) The work is so foundational that Féng Shū’s KR4h0108 Shījì kuāngmiù — a corrective collation by a Qīng scholar — is itself in the Sìkù corpus alongside the original. (4) The work’s coverage of gǔyì (pre-canonical verse) — including Shījīng fragments, oracle-bone verse-formulas, Yìjīng hexagram lines treated as verse, and yáo (folk songs) from various Hàn historical sources — represents the most thorough Míng-era reconstruction of the pre-canonical verse tradition.

Translations and research

• 逯欽立 Lù Qīn-lì (1910–1973), Xiān-Qín Hàn Wèi Jìn Nán-Běi-cháo shī (Beijing, 1983) — the modern critical successor to Gǔ-shī jì, supplementing and correcting Féng’s compilation.
• Stephen Owen, The Making of Early Chinese Classical Poetry (Harvard, 2006) — discusses pre-Táng poetry anthologising.
• Hans H. Frankel, The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady — anthology of pre-Táng yuè-fǔ (uses Féng’s compilation indirectly).
• Joseph R. Allen, In the Voice of Others: Chinese Music Bureau Poetry (Ann Arbor, 1992).

Other points of interest

The work’s status as principal pre-modern source for almost all pre-Táng Chinese poetry is reflected in the standard modern reference Lù Qīnlì’s XiānQín Hàn Wèi Jìn NánBěicháo shī (1983), which explicitly takes Gǔshī jì as its starting-point. Féng’s anthological project — to recover every metrical composition from pre-Táng China — is the most ambitious such project in pre-modern Chinese bibliography. The 14-year compilation period, the use of multiple regional gentlemen as collaborators, and the geographic spread of source-materials (Féng served in many provinces during compilation) all testify to its scope.

Links

• ctext
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §38.1, §38.2.