歷代詩話

Lìdài shīhuà 歷代詩話

Remarks on Poetry across the Ages by 吳景旭 (撰)

About the work

The Lìdài shīhuà 歷代詩話, in eighty juǎn, is the comprehensive Qīng-period synthesis of shīhuà across the Chinese poetic tradition, compiled by Wú Jǐngxù 吳景旭 (b. 1611, zì Dànshēng), a Guīān (Zhèjiāng) literatus active across the MíngQīng transition. The title duplicates the much shorter SòngQīng anthology of the same name compiled by Hé Wénhuàn 何文煥 (1733–1808; not in the Sìkù) — they are different works and should not be confused. Wú’s Lìdài shīhuà organizes itself in ten sets (jí 集) on the Ten Heavenly Stems (jiǎ through guǐ), each set covering a successive period: jiǎ (Shījīng, 6 juǎn), yǐ (Chǔcí, 6), bǐng (fù, 9), dīng (Old yuèfǔ, 6), wù (HànWèiLiùcháo poetry, 6), jǐ (Dù Fǔ, 12 — of which the last 3 are a Dùlíng pǔxì genealogy), gēng (Táng poetry, 9), xīn (Sòng poetry, 7), rén (Jīn and Yuán, 10), guǐ (Míng poetry, 9). The structure is a deliberate echo of Hú Zhènhēng’s 胡震亨 Tángyīn tǒngqiān (the Tángyīn guǐ qiān of which is catalogued as KR4i0055), but expanded to the entire pre-Qīng tradition.

Tiyao

Lìdài shīhuà, eighty juǎn. By Wú Jǐngxù of our dynasty. Jǐngxù, zì Dànshēng, a man of Guīān. This book has no preface or postscript front or back, and within it bears traces of crossing-out and emendation, so it is still apparently an initial draft. It is divided into ten sets, with the Ten Heavenly Stems as headings.

Jiǎ set, 6 juǎn, all on the Shījīng three hundred. Yǐ set, 6 juǎn, all on the Chǔcí. Bǐng set, 9 juǎn, all on the fù. Dīng set, 6 juǎn, all on the old yuèfǔ. Wù set, 6 juǎn, all on Hàn-Wèi-Six-Dynasties poetry. Jǐ set, 12 juǎn: the first 9 juǎn on Dù Fǔ, the last 3 juǎn a Dùlíng pǔxì (Dù Fǔ’s genealogy). Gēng set, 9 juǎn, all on Táng poetry. Xīn set, 7 juǎn, all on Sòng poetry. Rén set, 10 juǎn: the first 3 juǎn on Jīn poetry, the last 7 juǎn on Yuán poetry. Guǐ set, 9 juǎn, all on Míng poetry.

The format is modelled on Chén Yàowén 陳耀文’s Xuélín jiù zhèng 學林就正. Each entry has a standalone heading; first he quotes the old judgment, then variously gathers other books to mutually verify and check it — sometimes adjudicating between right and wrong, sometimes weighing similarity and difference, sometimes drawing out what was not finished, sometimes patching in what was lost — all entered with a single graphic indent. Where there is no prior judgment and Jǐngxù has himself established a position, then only the poem itself is listed first and his own view is developed.

Although all the material is drawn from shīhuà and shuōbù sources, he does not always go back to the root book; he is fond of breadth and greedy for quantity, often taking up a topic and meandering on, and so loses the work of trimming. Nevertheless, with such an abundance of material, his ability to interlace the multiple sayings and cross-check them mutually, weighing their merits and faults among the zájiā (miscellanea) — he may be called a man of comprehensive penetration. Compared with the ancients, it is in no way less than Hú Zǐ’s Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà (KR4i0014) — indeed its junior counterpart. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46, 5th month (1781). Director-General Compilers: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Director-General Collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Lìdài shīhuà is the most ambitious of the Qīng-period shīhuà anthology projects. Where the Sòng tradition’s monumental compilation, Hú Zǐ’s Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà (KR4i0014), had organized shīhuà judgments author by author (with the Táng masters as the principal centers of gravity), Wú Jǐngxù organizes by period and topic, with each Heavenly-Stem set devoted to a distinct phase of the poetic corpus. The result is a working reference framework that effectively covers the whole canon from the Shījīng through the Míng — the first such effort.

Composition window. The work bears no preface or postscript, and Wú Jǐngxù’s death year is not recorded. The Sìkù editors register that the manuscript contains crossing-out marks and emendations, suggesting it was preserved as a working draft. Internal references include extensive late-Míng / early-Qīng critical material, and the very inclusion of a guǐ jí on Míng poetry as a closed period of nine juǎn implies a post-1644 composition. Wú’s index year is 1611; the composition is most plausibly placed in his maturity, sometime in the Shùnzhì or early Kāngxī decades. The bracket 1660–1685 is the standard scholarly judgment.

Method and limitations. The work’s editorial procedure is given clearly in the Sìkù tíyào: head each topic with the prior judgment, then accumulate cross-verifying citations under it, with Wú’s own commentary set off by indent. The procedure is sound, but its execution suffers from two defects flagged by the Sìkù editors: (1) Wú frequently quotes from secondary shīhuà compilations rather than going back to the primary source, so the citations are sometimes garbled; (2) Wú is “fond of breadth and greedy of quantity” (shì bó tān duō 嗜博貪多) and often digresses without editorial trimming. These flaws notwithstanding, the work survives as the most comprehensive single Qīng shīhuà reference for the entire pre-Qīng poetic tradition, and the Sìkù editors’ final judgment — that it is the junior counterpart to Hú Zǐ’s Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà — has been borne out by its use as a working reference for the Qīng kǎozhèng discussions of HànWèi yuèfǔ, the Hàn fù, and the Six-Dynasties shī.

The Sìkù (V1483.1) recension is the first complete printing. The 1985 Jīnghuá chūbǎnshè reprint, edited by Chén Wéizhì 陳衞之, is the standard modern edition.

Translations and research

• Chén Wéi-zhì 陳衞之, ed. Lì-dài shī-huà. 4 vols. Bĕijīng: Jīng-huá, 1985 — the standard modern reprint.
• Cài Zhèn-chǔ 蔡鎮楚, Zhōng-guó shī-huà shǐ 中國詩話史. Húnán wén-yì, 1988 — chapter on Wú Jǐng-xù.
• Zhōu Mǐn-jié 周敏傑, Qīng-dài shī-huà yán-jiū 清代詩話研究. Bĕijīng: Rénmín wénxué, 2007 — treats Wú as the great early-Qīng compiler.
• No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.

Other points of interest

The work is sometimes confused with the much smaller Lìdài shīhuà (and its Xùbiān) compiled by Hé Wénhuàn 何文煥 (1733–1808), which became the principal modern reprint vehicle for canonical shīhuà texts (one-juǎn and three-juǎn works through the Sòng). The two works are entirely distinct: Hé Wénhuàn’s is a collection of received shīhuà texts printed together as an anthology; Wú Jǐngxù’s is a topical critical synthesis with original editorial argument.

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §27 (literary criticism).
• Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào
• Wikidata Q11108564 (歷代詩話).