Sòng bǎijiā shī cún 宋百家詩存
Surviving Poetry of One Hundred Sòng Houses by 曹庭棟
About the work
A 40-juǎn supplementary anthology of Sòng poetry, completed by Cáo Tíngdòng (曹庭棟, 1699–1785) in Qiánlóng 6 (1741) — explicitly designed as the gap-filling supplement to Wú Zhīzhèn’s Sòng shī chāo KR4h0157 (1672). The work collects the biéjí of 100 Sòng poets that Wú’s earlier compilation had either omitted or listed without text. Coverage begins with Wèi Yě 魏野’s Dōngguān jí 東觀集 and ends with the monk Sīzhí 斯植’s Cǎizhī jí 採芝集 — covering the entire Sòng dynasty. Notably, the compilation opens with Hè Zhù 賀鑄’s pieces placed before Wèi Yě, despite Hè Zhù being a late Northern Sòng figure — an editorial irregularity the Sìkù tíyào criticises as a chuànglì gǔsuǒ wú yě (a novelty without precedent). Cáo’s own preface, dated Qiánlóng 6/3/16 (April 1741), explains the motivation: his great-great-grandfather (the late-Míng Tàicháng sì qīng hào Éxuě xiānshēng) and his clan-uncle Cáo Liáo 曹寮 (the senior Sīnóng juànpǔ xiānshēng) had both attempted Sòng-poetry anthologies but their manuscripts were lost; he saw himself completing their work. Cáo notes that Táng-poetry had its imperial Quán Táng shī KR4h0140, Yuán-poetry had Gù Sìlì’s Yuán shī xuǎn KR4h0160 and the MíngQīng compilations of Zhū Yízūn et al. — but Sòng poetry alone had received no comprehensive treatment; the various selections were liáoliáo (sparse) and even Wú Zhīzhèn’s Sòng shī chāo was incomplete due to interrupted printing.
Cáo’s compilation drew on his fellow-townsman Chén Xīféng 陳希馮’s extensive private library plus correspondence with scholars throughout the empire requesting access to rare Sòng biéjí. The compilation includes poets that the Sìkù tíyào identifies as outside the conventional poetic canon — Mù Xiū 穆修 (known for gǔwén), Fù Chá 傅察 (known for loyalty-martyrdom), Lín Yìzhī 林亦之 and Chén Yuān 陳淵 (known as Dàoxué / Lǐxué figures) — observing that not all of these are dāngháng (in-line) for poetic studies. Wáng Shìzhēn’s Jūyì lù had earlier dismissed some of the Jiānghú xiǎojí poets (Xǔ Lè 許樂, Zhāng Zhìlóng 張至龍, Shī Shū 施樞) as having nothing of value; Cáo nevertheless includes them to make the round number 100. The Sìkù tíyào judges that Cáo’s compilation, while not a comprehensive Sòng-poetry treatment, is complementary to Wú Zhīzhèn’s Sòng shī chāo and preserves much material from rare private-library collections (notably Xú Qiánxué’s Chuánshì lóu 28-family compilation and Zhū Yízūn’s Pùshū tíng 50-family compilation, both unpublished and at risk of loss) that would otherwise have been zhǎnzhuǎn chuánchāo kǒng huò sànyì (lost in copy-transmission).
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Sòng bǎijiā shī cún in 40 juǎn — compiled by the Guócháo (Qīng-dynasty) Cáo Tíngdòng. Tíngdòng has the Yì zhǔn etc. — already catalogued.
Initially: Pān Rènshū’s SòngYuán shī and Chén Yányáng’s Sòng shíwǔ jiā shī — neither circulated widely. Wú Zhīzhèn’s Sòng shī chāo — although circulating widely in the world — still has many quēlüè (omissions); and the kānkè wèi jùn (engraving was not completed), so often yǒu lù wú shū (listing without text).
Tíngdòng therefore sōucǎi yìyì (sought-out and gathered the lost-and-scattered), continuing into this present compilation. What is recorded: 100 families — all with surviving collections of the original biéjí. Starting from Wèi Yě’s Dōngguān jí; ending at the monk Sīzhí’s Cǎizhī jí.
Hè Zhù is in origin a late-Northern-Sòng man, yet is shēng yǐ biàn shǒu zhì yú Wèi Yě zhī qián (raised to the head, placed before Wèi Yě). Cáo himself says it was his favourite work in youth. But: in selecting Six-Dynasties poetry, Táo and Xiè were not placed before Pān and Lù; in selecting Táng poetry, Lǐ and Dù were not placed before Shěn and Sòng [Shěn Quánqī and Sòng Zhīwèn]. To move chronology by jiǎyǐ (first-second class) — cǐ Tíngdòng zhī chuànglì gǔ suǒ wú yě (this is Tíngdòng’s novelty without ancient precedent).
In it, such as: Mù Xiū known for gǔwén; Fù Chá known for zhōngjié (loyalty-martyrdom); Lín Yìzhī and Chén Yuān known for Dàoxué — all not dāngháng (specialists) in the poetic-craft. Xǔ Lè, Zhāng Zhìlóng, Shī Shū and other persons listed in the Jiānghú xiǎojí — Wáng Shìzhēn’s Jūyì lù dismissed them as gài wú zú qǔ (with nothing worth taking). Tíngdòng takes them to fill out the juǎnzhì and wù zú bǎijiā (forced to make 100 families) — also could not avoid qiānjiù (forced-accommodation).
However: Sòng-period remnant collections — Xú Qiánxué’s Chuánshì lóu 28-family compilation and Zhū Yízūn’s Pùshū tíng 50-family compilation — both unpublished, zhǎnzhuǎn chuánchāo kǒng huò sànyì (transmitted by copy, at risk of being lost). The other separately-circulating collections each exist as their own zhì (bundles), unable to converge into one.
Tíngdòng póují chéng biān (gathered into one compilation), gè cún yálüè (each preserved its overview). Although not the full grand picture of Sòng poetry — it cannot be said to be without merit. Reverently submitted, fifth month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date. Cáo’s original preface is dated Qiánlóng 6/3/16 (April 1741). The compilation was substantially complete and printed in 1741 — when Cáo was 42 (Chinese counting).
Significance. (1) The Sòng bǎijiā shī cún is the canonical supplement to Wú Zhīzhèn’s Sòng shī chāo KR4h0157 — together the two works constitute the complete pre-modern Sòng-poetry corpus in author-by-author biéjí form. The 16 poets that Wú had listed without text are mostly covered by Cáo, as well as ~84 other poets Wú did not include. (2) The compilation is the major textual-preservation work for many minor Sòng poets — drawing on the unpublished private-library compilations of 徐乾學 Xú Qiánxué (Chuánshì lóu 28-family) and 朱彝尊 Zhū Yízūn (Pùshū tíng 50-family), both of which were at risk of loss. (3) The compilation extends the early-Qīng Sòng-poetry rehabilitation (begun by Wú Zhīzhèn and Lǚ Liúliáng in the 1660s, continued by Zhū Yízūn through the Pùshū tíng and Jīngyì kǎo projects) into the high Qiánlóng period — establishing the Sòng-poetry canon for the rest of the dynasty. (4) The work’s deliberate inclusion of poets from outside the conventional poetic canon (Mù Xiū, Fù Chá, Lín Yìzhī, Chén Yuān, Jiānghú xiǎojí poets) reflects a comprehensive-historiographic principle: to preserve Sòng-period poetry as a historical corpus rather than as a literary canon. (5) Cáo’s own family motivation (continuing his great-great-grandfather’s and clan-uncle’s lost projects) makes the compilation a documentary case of multi-generational Sòng-poetry recovery by a single Jiāxīng / Xiùshuǐ family.
Sìkù-era editorial irregularity. The placement of Hè Zhù at the head of the compilation, before chronologically-earlier figures like Wèi Yě, is the most-noted irregularity. The Sìkù tíyào’s comparison — six-dynasties anthologists did not put Táo and Xiè before Pān and Lù; Táng anthologists did not put Lǐ and Dù before Shěn and Sòng — reinforces the orthodox principle that chronology, not aesthetic preference, must govern arrangement. Cáo’s confession that Hè Zhù was his “favourite in youth” makes the irregularity an admission of biographic rather than scholarly arrangement.
Translations and research
- Yoshikawa Kōjirō, An Introduction to Sung Poetry, tr. Burton Watson (Cambridge MA, 1967) — uses the Sòng bǎi-jiā shī cún.
- 錢鍾書 Qián Zhōng-shū, Sòng shī xuǎn-zhù 宋詩選注 (Běi-jīng, 1957) — substantive modern Sòng-poetry anthology with reference to Cáo’s compilation.
- Stuart Sargent, The Poetry of He Zhu (1052–1125): Genres, Contexts, and Creativity (Leiden, 2007) — modern Hè Zhù monograph.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
Other points of interest
The case of the Sòng bǎijiā shī cún illustrates a broader Qīng practice: the Sìkù commission’s commitment to preserving even imperfect pre-publication private compilations (Xú Qiánxué’s Chuánshì lóu compilation; Zhū Yízūn’s Pùshū tíng compilation) by allowing them to be absorbed into published works (here, Cáo’s Sòng bǎijiā shī cún; elsewhere, the Sìkù’s own recovery of Yǒnglè dàdiǎn materials). The Qīng’s role as textual-preservation institution is one of its principal legacies, and Cáo’s compilation is a characteristic product.
Links
- ctext
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.