Yùdìng Qiānsǒu yàn shī 御定千叟宴詩
Imperially Determined Poems of the Banquet of the Thousand Elders by 聖祖玄燁
About the work
A 4-juǎn commemorative anthology of the poems composed at the Qiānsǒu yàn 千叟宴 (Banquet of the Thousand Elders) held by the Kāngxī emperor in Kāngxī 61 (1722) — the last great court ceremony of his reign, occurring just months before his death (Kāngxī 61/11). The Qiānsǒu yàn was a grand court banquet to which elderly men of the realm (officials and commoners over 65) were invited from across the empire to celebrate the emperor’s 60th year on the throne and his approaching 70th birthday (he was then 68 sui); the emperor and the attending elders all composed poems on the occasion, and these were collected into the present compilation. The compilation opens with the Kāngxī emperor’s own poem Yùzhì Qiānsǒu yàn shī — beginning Bǎilǐ shānchuān jī sù yán / Gǔxī báifà huì qióngyán (“A hundred lǐ of mountains-and-rivers pile up bright snow / Past-seventy white-haired men gather at the qióngyán banquet”) — followed by hè (matching-response) poems by senior court officials including Wáng Shàn 王掞, Wáng Xūlíng 王頊齡, Wáng Hóngxù 王鴻緒, Chén Yuánlóng (陳元龍), Zhāng Tíngyù (張廷玉), Jiǎng Tíngxī 蔣廷錫, Lì Tíngyí 勵廷儀, Wèi Tíngzhēn 魏廷珍, Chén Bāngyàn (陳邦彥) and many more, then by attending elderly officials and commoners. The Sìkù tíyào glosses the work as a record of kāngshèng “the great prosperity-and-strength” of the late Kāngxī court — the zhìshì zhī yīn ān yǐ lè (the sound of an ordered age, peaceful and joyous). The work is one of the few items in the KR4h division to consist primarily of a single court occasion’s verse — and its companion volume Yùdìng Qiānsǒu yàn shī of Qiánlóng 50 (1785) KR4h0151 forms a Qīng-imperial pair.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Qiānsǒu yàn shī in 4 juǎn — Kāngxī 61 (1722) imperially-commanded compilation. We respectfully consider:
The Sage-Ancestor Benevolent Emperor chāngyùn yīng tú (received the bright fortunes and answered the tú-prophecy); chōnglíng jiàn zuò (at tender age, stepped on the throne); xiāopíng sānniè zhī shǔ sìyíng (eliminated the three sprouts [Three Feudatories’ Revolt] and grindstone-the-four-seas); the shèngdé (sage-virtue) mào qí jíxī (flourished in the jíxī tradition); the shéngōng (divine-merit) zhāo hū qǐyòu (was bright in opening-and-protecting); thereby able to qīnchóng yǒngbǎo (revere and preserve forever) wúyì (without rest), yánnián shòukǎo kāngqiáng (extending years, kǎo-longevity, kāng-strong) — matching the báohǎi wújiāng (within-the-seas, boundless) blessing. And his shēnrén hòuzé (deep benevolence, thick favours), hányù pánghóng (nourishing the great) — dàndàn chūnqí, tóngshēng màoyù (joyful spring-blessings, tóng-tree-growth flourishing); the so-called huáng jiàn qí yǒu jí, liǎn wǔfú yòng fū xī jué shùmín (the imperial principle of the jí, collecting five-blessings to spread to the people) — verified by the Jī chóu (Hong-fan / Hong-fan chapter), truly conforming to ancient meaning. Therefore pínggé zhī ruì (the auspice of pínggé) — those rising with the dynasty — all reach to chúngù zhī qì (deep-and-stable air); those who drink-the-harmony — uncountable. Táibèi huángfà piánlián xiāngshǔ (the bowed-back, the yellow-haired, joined together) [i.e. the elderly, in great numbers] […]
He already fǔyǔn chénmín zhī qǐng (accepted from below his ministers’-and-people’s requests) and zhào jǔ wànshòu shèngdiǎn (commanded the great-longevity ceremony) — huānxīn pǔqià (joyful-heart universally moistened); zōushì sōnghū (from the four corners, “sōng”-hailed) — yǐ gōnglè hóngbiān (already engraved the great compilation), zhāochuí yìyè (brilliant down the generations). Again [the emperor] zhào jǔ gāonián, hóng kāi jiāyàn (decreed: gather the high-aged, broadly open the jiā-banquet); to shēn yánhóng zhī qìng (extend the yánhóng celebration) and biǎo rénshòu zhī zhēng (display the auspice of rénshòu). Jiǔlǐ shēnghuáng (wine and reed-organ), gēnggēng yángbài (matching-and-bowing), bīnbīn yān, yùyù yān (well-arranged and richly-coloured) — from Shètí hé luò (the Shètí / héluò age) onward, there has been no such grandness.
Thereupon [the emperor] mìng (ordered) to póují shīpiān, tōngwéi yī jí (gather-and-edit the poetic pieces into a single collection). At the head: the shèngzhì (imperial composition) — yǔ Yīqí shénrén jiāochàng (with the divine-man of Yīqí [Yáo / Shùn era] matched in song), kuàngdài qíguāng (radiating across the ages, equally bright). Following: the qúnchén hèzhāng (group-officials’ matching pieces) — yǔ Zhōujīng Tiānbǎo zhūshí (matching the Zhōujīng “Tiānbǎo” pieces) yǎyīn jiēxiǎng (elegant-sounds reach each other). The rest of the works also yǔ Bīnfēng chēnggōng zhī wén, Yáomín jīrǎng zhī yǒng, hòuxiān yīguǐ (match the *Bīnfēng “Chēnggōng” prose and the Yáo-people “Jīrǎng” recitations, the later-and-the-earlier on a single track).
Submitting low and reading it: like huájīng zòu, wēifèng yí (the brilliant-whale [bell] is played, the awesome-phoenix appears); kēngqiāng zhènyào (resounding-and-bright). Bāyīn huì ér wǔsè zhāng (the Eight-Sounds gather and the Five-Colours shine). Huàguó zhī rì shū yǐ cháng (the day of an enlightened state extends easily and long); shèngshì zhī yīn ān yǐ lè (the sound of a prosperous age is peaceful-and-joyous) — both fully visible in this. Truly fitting to be stored in the precious case and placed in the Shíqú (imperial library). Reverently submitted, fourth month of Qiánlóng 54 (1789). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date. The compilation memorialises the Qiānsǒu yàn banquet of Kāngxī 61 (1722) — held in the first month of the New Year (early 1722) at the Qiánqīnggōng. The emperor died later that same year (Kāngxī 61, 11th month / December 1722). The compilation was therefore completed in 1722 — the very last year of the Kāngxī reign — and is the culminating literary monument of the Kāngxī period.
Significance. (1) The work is a unique historical document of the late-Kāngxī court — recording who attended the Qiānsǒu yàn (a banquet of unprecedented scale: per the Qīng shílù, around 1,000 elderly officials and 1,000 elderly commoners were invited; the yàn was held over two days in the first month of 1722) and what they wrote on the occasion. (2) The compilation establishes the Qiānsǒu yàn as an imperial ceremonial precedent — repeated by Qiánlóng emperor in Qiánlóng 50 (1785) KR4h0151 and again in Qiánlóng 60 (1796, after his abdication as tàishàng huáng). (3) The Kāngxī emperor’s opening poem — composed at age 68 only months before his death — is read as his literary-political testament: a celebration of his long reign, an explicit refusal to retire (Wànjī wéi wǒ wú xiūxī / Rìmù qīxún wèi xiē jiān — “ten-thousand affairs are mine without rest / dusk at seventy not yet a shoulder lowered”), and a Confucian-paternal celebration of imperial-and-popular shared longevity. (4) The matching poems by Zhāng Tíngyù (the future Yōngzhèng / Qiánlóng grand councillor) and other senior officials document the late-Kāngxī court literary establishment at its most concentrated moment.
Qiānsǒu yàn institutional history. The banquet was a Manchurian innovation, building on Manchu shàngchí (elder-honour) traditions and on the Confucian xiāngyǐn (rural-banquet) precedent. The Kāngxī Qiānsǒu yàn of 1722 was held twice: first for elderly bannermen and Mongol nobles in the 1st lunar month, then for elderly Han officials and commoners in the same month. The Qiánlóng Qiānsǒu yàn of 1785 doubled the scale; the second Qiánlóng Qiānsǒu yàn of 1796 (held in the tàishàng huáng status) was the final imperial banquet of this kind.
Translations and research
- Jonathan Spence, Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K’ang-hsi (New York, 1974) — definitive English-language biographical portrait of the Kāngxī emperor in his last decades.
- Mark C. Elliott, The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China (Stanford, 2001) — context for the Qiān-sǒu yàn as Manchu-Confucian fusion ceremony.
- 馮爾康 Féng Ěr-kāng, Yōng-zhèng zhuàn 雍正傳 — context for the Kāngxī-Yōngzhèng transition.
Other points of interest
The Kāngxī Qiānsǒu yàn of 1722 is one of the most-cited single court ceremonies of the late-imperial period — a definitive image of Kāngxī’s reign as harmonious, prosperous, and presiding over a contentful empire. The collection of poems is a primary source for both the ceremonial reality of the banquet and its political-symbolic content. The contrast with the Yōngzhèng emperor’s first months in office — characterized by ruthless purges of his brothers and erstwhile rivals — gives the Qiānsǒu yàn shī an additional poignancy as the last of the Kāngxī period’s golden-age literary monuments.