Quán Chén Wén 全陳文
Complete Prose Writings of the Chen Dynasty compiled by 嚴可均 嚴可均 (編)
About the work
This file contains the Quán Chén Wén 全陳文 section of 嚴可均’s Quán shànggǔ sāndài Qín Hàn Sānguó Liùcháo wén 全上古三代秦漢三國六朝文 (KR4h0176), spanning 22 juàn of prose attributed to writers of the Chen dynasty (557–589), the last of the Southern Dynasties. The file opens with the Shòuchán dàshè zhào 受禪大赦詔 of Emperor Wǔ 武帝, the posthumous title of Chén Bāxiān 陳霸先 (503–559), the dynasty’s founder, citing the Chén shū 陳書·武帝紀. Primary sources cited throughout include the Chén shū 陳書 and Nán shǐ 南史.
The Chen dynasty was the shortest and territorially most reduced of the Southern Dynasties, but its literary output was by no means negligible. Among the notable writers represented are: Emperor Xuān 宣帝 (Chén Xū 陳頊, r. 569–582; edicts and correspondence), Xú Líng 徐陵 (507–583; literary letters, prefaces, and parallel prose — though his career began in the Liang), Jiāng Zǒng 江總 (519–594; the last Southern court littérateur), and Zhì Yuàn 智顗 / Tiāntái Dàzhě 天台大者 (538–597; Buddhist treatise prefaces). The section is modest in size compared to the Liang and Jin sections, reflecting the dynasty’s brevity and reduced geographic scope after the fall of the Liang.
For the structure of the broader anthology, see KR4h0176. The adjacent dynastic sections are KR4h0180 (Liang) and, in the Northern dynasties, KR4h0175 (Northern Zhou).
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The Chen dynasty (557–589) ruled the southernmost rump of what had been the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties cultural sphere, occupying only the territory south of the Huai River. Despite its political weakness, it maintained the literary culture of the Southern courts: the Chen court produced elegant parallel prose (piánwén 駢文), prefaces, and correspondence in the established Southern manner. Xú Líng, who served both the Liang and Chen courts, is one of the most accomplished parallel-prose writers in all of pre-Tang literature and is well represented in the anthology. Jiāng Zǒng, the last chief minister of Chen and a survivor into the Sui period, is also represented.
Yán Kějūn drew primarily on the Chén shū (622) and Nán shǐ (659), both Tang official histories, to assemble this 22-juàn section. The Chen section closes out the Southern Dynasties sequence in the anthology; the Northern Dynasties material runs in parallel in KR4h0174, KR4h0175, and KR4h0182. For full compilation history and scholarly significance of the parent anthology, see KR4h0176.
Translations and research
- Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. §30.3.2.
- Qián Zhōngshū 錢鐘書. Guǎnzhuībiān 管錐編. Vols. 3–4. Zhōnghuá, 1979.