花閒集

Huājiān jí 花閒集

Among the Flowers by 趙崇祚 (輯) and 溫博 (輯補)

About the work

The Huājiān jí 花閒集 (more commonly written 花間集), in 12 juǎn, is the first and foundational anthology of the Chinese cí 詞 (song-lyric) tradition, and arguably the single most consequential collection of pre-Sòng cí. Compiled in 940 (《後蜀廣政三年》) by Zhào Chóngzuò 趙崇祚, Wèiwèi shàoqīng 衛尉少卿 of the Hòu Shǔ 後蜀 court at Chéngdū, the anthology gathers 500 cí by 18 late-Táng and Five-Dynasties poets — most of them attached to the Shǔ courts before and after the Hòu Shǔ founding. The preface, by Ōuyáng Jiǒng 歐陽炯 (896–971), the leading literary courtier of the Hòu Shǔ regime, is the foundational manifesto of cí poetics: it defends the lyric written for the female entertainers of the elite banquet as a polished and worthy practice, names Lǐ Bái’s Qīngpínglè 清平樂 set as the Táng precedent, and acclaims Wēn Tíngyún 溫庭筠 as the immediate predecessor. The transmitted text adds a 2-juǎn supplement, the Huājiān jí bǔ 花閒集補 by Wēn Bó 溫博 (Sòng, otherwise unknown), gathering 14 further Táng and Five-Dynasties figures (including the Southern Táng Lǐ Jǐng 李景 and Lǐ Yù 李煜).

Sìkù classification note. The Sìkù bibliographic schema in the Kanripo catalog yaml places the Huājiān jí under 集部 詩文評類 (Literary Criticism) following the prefatory tradition. In the actual Sìkù quánshū itself, the work is classified under 集部 詞曲類 (Lyrics and Arias) — the proper category for a cí anthology. The KR4i catalog placement here is a local convention; readers should consult the Sìkù tíyào under 詞曲類 for the imperial editorial verdict on the text.

Tiyao

Abstract

The Huājiān jí is the inaugural anthology of cí and the canonical document of what subsequent criticism would call the Huājiān style — ornamented, sensual, atmospheric short lyrics in the persona of the woman of the inner chamber or the courtesan of the banquet, set to popular tunes (qǔzǐ 曲子) circulating in the Táng–Five Dynasties entertainment culture. Wilkinson §30.2 names it as “the first notable collection” of cí, dating it to 940. The compilation is fixed by Ōuyáng Jiǒng’s 歐陽炯 preface, which is itself dated and gives the compiler as “Wèiwèi shàoqīng [Zhào Chóngzuò], zì Hóngjī” 衛尉少卿字弘基.

The 18 poets included in the original (compiled) order, with the number of pieces each in the standard recension:

1. Wēn Tíngyún 溫庭筠 (Tāng zhùjiào 助教, 66 pieces) — the founding master.
2. Huángfǔ Sōng 皇甫松 (11) — son of the Táng official Huángfǔ Shí 皇甫湜.
3. Wéi Zhuāng 韋莊 (Former Shǔ xiàng 相, 47) — the great late-Táng poet, later Former-Shǔ chief councilor, second only to Wēn in this anthology.
4. Xuē Zhāoyùn 薛昭藴 (Former Shǔ shìláng 侍郎, 19).
5. Niú Qiáo 牛嶠 (Former Shǔ jǐshì 給事, 32) — uncle of Niú Xījì.
6. Zhāng Mì 張泌 (Former Shǔ shèrén 舎人, 27).
7. Máo Wénxī 毛文錫 (Former Shǔ sītú 司徒, 31).
8. Niú Xījì 牛希濟 (Former Shǔ xuéshì 學士, 11).
9. Ōuyáng Jiǒng 歐陽炯 (Hòu Shǔ shèrén 舎人 = compiler of the preface, 17).
10. Hé Níng 和凝 (Hòu Jìn xuéshì 學士, 30).
11. Gù Xiōng 顧夐 (Hòu Shǔ tàiwèi 太尉, 55).
12. Sūn Guāngxiàn 孫光憲 (JīngNán shàojiān 少監, 60) — the second-largest single contribution after Wēn.
13. Wèi Chéngbān 魏承斑 (Hòu Shǔ tàiwèi 太尉, 15).
14. Lù Qiányǐ 鹿虔扆 (Hòu Shǔ tàiwèi 太尉, 6).
15. Yán Xuǎn 閻選 (Hòu Shǔ chùshì 處士, 8).
16. Yǐn È 尹鶚 (Hòu Shǔ cānqīng 参卿, 6).
17. Máo Xīzhèn 毛熙震 (Hòu Shǔ mìshū 秘書, 29).
18. Lǐ Xún 李珣 (Hòu Shǔ jìcái 季才, 37).

Ōuyáng Jiǒng’s preface — composed in dense ornamental piánwén 駢文 — opens with a defense of the polished decorative lyric as a worthy practice (“carving the jade, chiseling the agate, in imitation of the work of Creation; trimming the flower, cutting the leaf, contending for freshness in the spring’s full bloom”). He calls out the contemporary milieu by elegant compression: “no court of the Yīngzhōu but the Jīnmǔ cí sounds clear; no goblet of the Xiálǐ but the Mùwáng xīn turns drunk.” He locates the Táng precedent in Lǐ Bái’s Qīngpínglè set of four lyrics composed for the Xuánzōng court, and the immediate antecedent in Wēn Tíngyún’s lost Jīnquán jí 金筌集. He records the social setting: “[Zhào Chóngzuò], having from the Pluck-Kingfisher Isle obtained the rare plumage … convening the guests, prolonging the fine discussion, gathered the recent songs of the shīkè qǔzǐ 詩客曲子 — 500 pieces, divided into 12 juǎn.” He concludes with the famous citation of the Yángchūn song — the song so refined that only the most polished hearers could sing it — and gives the anthology its name from the same trope: “I command it to be called Among the Flowers, that the songs of Yángchūn may serve the joys of the western garden’s elites and the tunes of the southern kingdom’s beauties replace the Lotus-Boat chants.”

Wilkinson §30.2 places the text in the long arc of pre-Sòng song-poetry: cí is “Tang developed; Song perfected, but lost the connection with songs” — the Huājiān jí is the moment of perfection-in-performance, before the cí would shed its musical function in the Sòng. Subsequent reception placed the Huājiān school of Wēn Tíngyún and Wéi Zhuāng at the head of the cí genealogy; Northern Sòng critics (Yàn Shū 晏殊, Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修) imitated it; the Qīng Chàngzhōu 常州 school of Zhāng Huìyán 張惠言 and Zhōu Jì 周濟 elevated it to canonical status; Wáng Guówéi’s 王國維 Rénjiān cíhuà 人間詞話 (1910) treats it as the touchstone for evaluating Sòng cí.

Transmission. Recorded in the Chóngwén zǒngmù 崇文總目 (Northern Sòng) under 10 juǎn, and in the Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì under 12 juǎn. The earliest extant printed edition is the Sòng Shàoxīng 紹興 18 (1148) Chén Xìn 陳信 cut at Hóngzhōu 洪州; this Sòng impression descended to the Míng and was the basis for the Wànlì 萬曆 rényín (1602) Xuánlǎnzhāi 玄覧齋 recut. The SBCK 四部叢刊 reproduces the 1602 recut. The Wēn Bó 溫博 supplement, Huājiān jí bǔ 花閒集補 in 2 juǎn, is appended in this transmission line; its date and Wēn Bó’s identity are uncertain (Sòng-dynasty, on the standard view, since the supplement includes the historicized Southern Táng rulers Lǐ Jǐng and Lǐ Yù as past figures).

Translations and research

• Lois Fusek, tr., Among the Flowers: The Hua-chien chi (Columbia, 1982) — complete English translation with introduction; the standard reference.
• Anna M. Shields, Crafting a Collection: The Cultural Contexts and Poetic Practice of the Huajian ji 花間集 (Collection from among the Flowers) (Harvard Asia Center, 2006) — the principal monograph in English; cultural and codicological study.
• Kang-i Sun Chang, The Evolution of Chinese Tz’u Poetry: From Late T’ang to Northern Sung (Princeton, 1980) — the foundational English-language history of early cí, with extensive treatment of the Huā-jiān.
• Marsha Wagner, The Lotus Boat: The Origins of Chinese Tz’u Poetry in T’ang Popular Culture (Columbia, 1984) — on the popular-song roots that the Huā-jiān refines.
• Paul Rouzer, Writing Another’s Dream: The Poetry of Wen Tingyun (Stanford, 1993) — major study of the founding master.
• Lǐ Yī-ǎng 李一氓, ed., Huā-jiān jí jiào 花間集校 (Rén-mín wén-xué, 1958; rev. 1981) — the principal modern Chinese critical edition; collates the Sòng cut against the Míng recensions.
• Huá Zhōng-yàn 華鍾彥, Huā-jiān jí zhù 花間集注 (Hé-nán Rén-mín, 1986) — heavily annotated Chinese edition.
• Yáng Jǐng-lóng 楊景龍, Huā-jiān jí jiào-zhù 花間集校注 (Zhōnghuá, 2014) — most recent comprehensive scholarly edition.

Other points of interest

The textual differential between the SBCK base-edition’s title 花閒集 (with 閒 jiān, “leisure”) and the universal received title 花間集 (with 間 jiān, “amidst”) is a graphic variant — 閒 and 間 were interchangeable in pre-modern usage. Ōuyáng Jiǒng’s preface itself writes 花间集 in the SBCK transmission (line 42 of the base file). Modern editions universally use 間.

— The Huājiān anthology’s heavily-feminine voice, written almost entirely by male court officials in the persona of guīyuàn 閨怨 abandoned women, has been the central subject of feminist and gender-theoretic scholarship on early cí; cf. Maija Bell Samei, Gendered Persona and Poetic Voice (Lexington, 2004); Grace S. Fong, “Engendering the Lyric” (in Yu, ed., 1994).

— The Huājiān jí preface is one of the earliest documents in Chinese literary history to articulate a theory of genre by performance context — the lyric as defined by the social setting of the banquet, the female singer, and the wine-cup — and is regularly cited as a foundational document of pre-modern Chinese aesthetics alongside Liú Xié’s Wénxīn diāolóng KR4i0001 and Zhōng Róng’s Shīpǐn KR4i0003.

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §30.2 (“Ci, Tang developed; Song perfected … First notable collection: Huajian ji 花間集 (940)”).
• Wikipedia 花間集
• Wikidata Q1057800.
• Lois Fusek, Among the Flowers (Columbia, 1982).
• Anna M. Shields, Crafting a Collection (Harvard, 2006).