師友詩傳錄

Shīyǒu shīzhuàn lù 師友詩傳錄

Record of Poetic Transmission from Teachers and Friends by 郎廷槐 (編)

About the work

The Shīyǒu shīzhuàn lù 師友詩傳錄 is the principal documentary record of Wáng Shìzhēn 王士禎 (1634–1711)‘s shényùn 神韻 poetic doctrine in dialogue form. As preserved in the Sìkù, it comprises two juǎn: (i) the main record proper, compiled by the Hànjūn (Chinese-Bannerman) Láng Tínghuái 郎廷槐 (CBDB index year 1667), in which Láng poses fifty-odd questions on poetics and the three masters of the Shāndōng Yúyáng circle — Wáng Shìzhēn himself; Zhāng Dǔqìng 張篤慶 (zì Lìyǒu 歷友), Wáng’s nephew; and Zhāng Shíjū 張實居 (hào Xiāotíng 蕭亭), Wáng’s brother-in-law — answer in turn; (ii) the Xù lù 續錄 (“continued record”), compiled by Liú Dàqín 劉大勤, with the same question-and-answer format but with Wáng Shìzhēn the sole respondent. The catalog source-meta records the work as “1 juǎn” (probably counting Láng’s compilation as the work proper); the Sìkù recension at V1483.4 contains both juǎn and so does the modern reprint tradition.

Tiyao

Abstract

The Shīyǒu shīzhuàn lù is one of the two principal direct documentary records of Wáng Shìzhēn’s poetic doctrine (the other being the Yúyáng shīhuà 漁洋詩話, KR4i0058), and its dialogue format makes it the single most useful source for understanding the shényùn programme in its working form — the what-Wáng-said-when-asked as opposed to what-Wáng-wrote-when-composing. The work was produced in two stages. The first, compiled by Láng Tínghuái and styled at the head of the Sìkù edition “Hànjūn Láng Tínghuái biān” (compiled by the Hànjūn Láng Tínghuái), gathers Láng’s questions and the three Shāndōng masters’ answers. The second, compiled by Liú Dàqín and called Xù lù, gathers Liú’s questions and Wáng’s sole answers.

Composition window. The work is undated, but the bracket is determined by the participants. Wáng’s death is 1711; Zhāng Shíjū died 1713; Zhāng Dǔqìng died 1715. The participation of all three in juǎn 1 requires composition during Wáng’s late maturity, plausibly after 1696 when he was firmly established as the central voice of the Kāngxī literary world. The Xù lù of Liú Dàqín must postdate the main Lù; its terminus ad quem is 1711 (Wáng’s death). The bracket 1696–1711 is the standard scholarly judgment.

Doctrinal content. The dominant themes in juǎn 1 are: (a) the xìngqíng / xuélì (innate nature / learned craft) balance — Wáng affirms that “depth of learning is what allows true xìngqíng to emerge”; (b) the origins of five-syllable poetry — the three masters take up the question of whether the Gǔshī shíjiǔ shǒu 古詩十九首 (Nineteen Old Poems) are indeed by Méi Shèng 枚乘 as the Yùtái xīnyǒng claims, with all three landing on Western-Hàn authorship while acknowledging the Méi attribution as uncertain; (c) HànWèi yuèfǔ and the lineage of five-syllable verse through Cáo Cāo, Cáo Zhí, and the WèiJìn poets; (d) the zhèngbiàn (orthodox-deviating) framework as a tool for periodizing the Táng. Throughout, Wáng’s shényùn theory functions as the operative criterion. In juǎn 2 (Liú’s Xù lù) the focus is more technical: qīngzhuó (clear-and-turbid) and yìyáng (rising-and-falling) tonal distinctions, the zhāngfǎ (compositional plan) of five- and seven-syllable old-style verse, and the implications of the famous “língyáng guà jiǎo” (antelope-hangs-by-horns) figure from the preface to the Tángxián sānmèi jí — Wáng’s clearest emblem of shényùn.

Critical position. The work is the central document for Qīng poetic theory’s understanding of shényùn and is the immediate object of Zhào Zhíxìn 趙執信’s polemic in the Tánlóng lù 談龍錄 (KR4i0061), where Zhào (a disciple of Wáng who broke with the master in 1690) attacks the shényùn programme as too soft and substitutes a more fǎdù-centred poetics. The Sìkù editors’ decision to catalogue Láng Tínghuái’s record in shīwén píng (詩文評類) — the first Qīng shīhuà to appear there after Wáng’s own Yúyáng shīhuà — secured its canonical status.

Transmission. The original printing was a Kāngxī manuscript / private printing. The Sìkù recension at V1483.4 is the standard text. Modern collected editions of Wáng Shìzhēn (e.g. the Yúyáng shānrén jīnghuá lù 漁洋山人精華錄 series, Qílǔ shūshè) and Guō Shàoyú 郭紹虞’s Qīng shīhuà 清詩話 reprint the work.

Translations and research

• Guō Shào-yú 郭紹虞, ed. Qīng shī-huà 清詩話, 2 vols. Shàng-hǎi: Zhōnghuá, 1963 — includes both juǎn of the Shī-yǒu shī-zhuàn lù.
• Richard John Lynn, “Orthodoxy and Enlightenment: Wang Shih-chen’s Theory of Poetry and its Antecedents”, in The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism, ed. W. T. de Bary (Columbia, 1975), pp. 217–69. The principal English-language study.
• Richard John Lynn, “Wang Shizhen’s Poetic Theory and its Antecedents”, Bulletin of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy (Academia Sinica) 4 (1992): 67–112.
• Wú Hóng-yī 吳宏一, Qīng-dài shī-xué chū-tàn 清代詩學初探. Tái-běi: Mù-tóng, 1976; rev. 1986.
• Jiǎng Yīn 蔣寅, Wáng Yú-yáng shì-jì zhēng-lüè 王漁洋事跡徵略. Bĕijīng: Rénmín wénxué, 2001. The standard chronological biography.
• Zhāng Jiàn 張健, Qīng-dài shī-xué yán-jiū 清代詩學研究. Bĕijīng: Bĕi-jīng dà-xué, 1999, ch. 2.

Other points of interest

The work is structurally interesting as one of the few classical Chinese shīhuà compiled in genuine dialogue form (the yǔlù 語錄 of Sòng dàoxué is the only major prior precedent). The triple-master structure of juǎn 1 — three masters answering the same questions in their own voices — is unprecedented in the shīhuà tradition. The format would later be adopted for the late-Qīng Hé Shàojī 何紹基 and Cài Yuánpéi 蔡元培 critical exchanges.

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §27 (literary criticism); §50.2 (Kāngxī literary world).
• Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào: http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/db-machine/ShikoTeiyo/0439401.html (entry for the larger Wáng Shìzhēn complex).
• Wikidata Q56262112 (師友詩傳錄).