NánSòng záshì shī 南宋襍事詩
Miscellaneous History-Poems of the Southern Sòng by 沈嘉轍, 吳焯, 陳芝光, 符曾, 趙昱, 厲鶚, 趙信
About the work
A 7-juǎn collaborative cycle of yǒngshǐ shī (history-poems) on the Southern Sòng by seven members of the early-18th-century Hángzhōu literary circle: Shěn Jiāzhé (沈嘉轍, zì Luánchéng), Wú Zhuō (吳焯, zì Chìfú 尺鳬), Chén Zhīguāng (陳芝光, zì Wèijiǔ 蔚九), Fú Zēng (符曾, zì Yòulǔ 幼魯), Zhào Yù (趙昱, zì Gōngqiān 功千), Lì È (厲鶚, zì Tàihóng 太鴻), and Zhào Xìn (趙信, zì Yìlín 意林). Shěn, Wú, Fú, and Lì were of Qiántáng; Chén, Zhào Yù, and Zhào Xìn were of Rénhé. Of the seven, only Fú Zēng held substantial office (Hùbù lángzhōng through recommendation), and Lì È was a jǔrén (Kāngxī 59 / 1720); the others remained at the zhūshēng (school-student) level. The compilation was completed c. 1729 (some sources put it 1725).
The compilation’s organising idea: because Hángzhōu was the Southern Sòng’s capital, the seven collaborators set themselves the task of writing yǒngshǐ poems on Southern-Sòng historical anecdotes rooted in the Hángzhōu setting. Each contributor produced 100 poems — totalling 700 poems in 7 juǎn. Every poem is accompanied by source-citation notes beneath, identifying the gùshì (anecdote) and listing the historical documents from which it is drawn. The catalog meta records that the compilation cites nearly 1,000 different source-books (suǒyǐn shū jǐ jí qiānzhǒng) — every line is yī zì yī jù xī yǒu gēndǐ (every character, every phrase has its root) — making the work a veritable bibliographic compendium of Southern-Sòng historical sources in poetic form. The Sìkù tíyào notes that the poetic intent is on recording events rather than on lyrical refinement (yì zhǔ jìshì bù zài xiūcí), with the result that the work contains some jǐngjù (striking lines) but also much qiānzhuì tiánqì (forced-pasting and stuffed-piling). Nevertheless: yīdài gùshí jùxì jiāngāi pō wéi yǒu zī yú kǎozhèng — “the dynasty’s anecdotes, large and small, comprehensively covered, much aiding kǎozhèng (textual investigation) — not to be discussed only as literature.”
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the NánSòng záshì shī in 7 juǎn — jointly composed by Shěn Jiāzhé, Wú Zhuō, Chén Zhīguāng, Fú Zēng, Zhào Yù, Lì È, and Zhào Xìn of our dynasty.
[Names:] Jiāzhé’s zì is Luánchéng; Zhuō’s zì is Chìfú; Zēng’s zì is Yòulǔ; È’s zì is Tàihóng — all of Qiántáng. Zhīguāng’s zì is Wèijiǔ; Yù’s zì is Gōngqiān; Xìn’s zì is Yìlín — all of Rénhé.
Only Zēng by recommendation reached Hùbù lángzhōng; È by Kāngxī gēngzǐ (1720) was raised at the jǔrén level; the rest all ended as zhūshēng (school-students).
This book — yǐ qí xiāng wéi NánSòng gùdū gù zhíjuān yìwén (because their home-region was the old capital of Southern Sòng, they gathered the yìwén / lost-anecdotes). Each person composed 100 poems, with the classical-source citations annotated below each piece. The intent is on recording events, not on phrasing — so jǐngjù pō duō (striking lines quite many), but the qiānzhuì tiánqì zhī chù (forced-pasting and stuffed-piling spots) are also not few.
However, the citations are hàobó (vast) — the books cited are nearly 1,000 zhǒng — yīzì yījù xī yǒu gēndǐ (every character, every phrase has its root). Cuì shuōbù zhī jīnghuá (gathered the shuōbù essence), cǎi cíjiā zhī yúrùn (drew the cíjiā moisture) — the dynasty’s anecdotes, large and small, comprehensively covered — pō wéi yǒu zī yú kǎozhèng (much aiding kǎozhèng) — not merely to be discussed as literature. Reverently submitted, tenth month of Qiánlóng 41 (1776). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date. The compilation is conventionally dated to Yōngzhèng 7 (1729), though some sources place the start of composition earlier. The catalog meta gives “fl. 1729” — corresponding to the printing date.
Significance. (1) The NánSòng záshì shī is the most celebrated Qīng-period yǒngshǐ (history-poem) cycle, both for its scale (700 poems, 7 collaborators) and for its method (each poem doubles as a bibliographic citation). It is the principal pre-modern poetic monument to Southern-Sòng Hángzhōu as a cultural-historical site. (2) The compilation is the canonical bibliographic compendium of Southern-Sòng anecdotal-historical sources — its citation of “nearly 1,000 books” makes it a quasi-bibliographic guide to the shuōbù (anecdotal-section) and bǐjì literature on Southern-Sòng history. (3) The work is closely associated with Lì È (厲鶚) — the most distinguished member of the seven and the principal Qīng Sòng shī (Sòng-poetry) scholar; Lì’s Sòng shī jìshì 宋詩紀事 (his major work, the canonical Sòng-poetry biographical-anecdotal compilation) is in close dialogue with the NánSòng záshì shī. (4) The work crystallises the Hángzhōu literary circle of the early 18th century — a group whose collaborative regional-historical writing parallels the Tóngchéng prose-school in its tight social bonds. (5) The compilation’s combination of poetry-with-citation anticipates the Hónglóu mèng style of citation-embedded prose and the late-Qīng yǒngshǐ tradition.
Lì È’s centrality. Although the compilation is collaborative, Lì È (1692–1753) is by far the most prominent of the seven. His Sòng shī jìshì, Lǎo-Shān-ji 老山集, and Liáoshǐ 遼史 shíyí 拾遺 give him a major role in Qīng SòngLiáoJīnYuán historical scholarship. The NánSòng záshì shī shows the Hángzhōu circle’s commitment to Southern-Sòng as cultural memory — the same project that Lì È pursued in his major individual works.
Comparison to Wáng Yīnglín. The compilation is implicitly the early-Qīng successor to Wáng Yīnglín’s 王應麟 (1223–1296) regional Southern-Sòng compilations — though Wáng worked in Sòng-period documentary mode whereas the seven collaborators work in yǒngshǐ poetic mode.
Translations and research
- Charles Hartman, “Poetry and History: A Reading of Su Shih’s ‘Boudoir’ Poems,” in Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews — methodologically relevant for yǒng-shǐ genre.
- Hilde de Weerdt, Information, Territory, and Networks: The Crisis and Maintenance of Empire in Song China (Cambridge MA, 2016) — comprehensive Southern-Sòng historical context.
- Wai-yee Li, Women and National Trauma in Late Imperial Chinese Literature (Cambridge MA, 2014) — methodological for the yǒng-shǐ tradition.
- 蔣寅 Jiǎng Yín, Qīng-dài shī-xué shǐ 清代詩學史 — modern Chinese survey of Qīng poetics.
Other points of interest
The seven collaborators of the NánSòng záshì shī represent a classic early-18th-century Jiāngnán literary friendship circle: Lì È, the most distinguished, was a jǔrén who declined further office to pursue scholarship; Fú Zēng held substantial office through recommendation rather than examination; the others remained at school-student level. Their collaboration on this single project produced 700 poems on Southern-Sòng historical anecdotes — a remarkable feat of coordinated cultural production. The work’s influence is visible in later Qīng yǒngshǐ cycles, including Wú Wéiyè’s 吳偉業 Wú Méicūn jí historical pieces and Yuán Méi’s 袁枚 Suíyuán shīhuà references.