Ānlù jí 安陸集
Ān-lù Collection by 張先 (撰)
About the work
The Ānlù jí 安陸集 is a slim posthumous gathering of Zhāng Xiān 張先 (990–1078), the early Northern-Sòng cí-master whose seniority among the founding generation made him the natural elder of Yàn Shū 晏殊, Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修, and the young Sū Shì 蘇軾. The transmitted text — assembled in late Qiánlóng by Gě Míngyáng 葛鳴陽 of Ānyì 安邑 after the older Sòng editions had been lost — preserves only eight shī and sixty-eight cí, with appended biographical notices and exchange-poems from contemporaries. Zhāng’s classical sobriquet Zhāng sānyǐng 張三影 (“Zhāng of the three shadows”) derives from three celebrated cí-lines each turning on the word 影 (“shadow”), and the collection situates him at the prosodic pivot where xiǎolìng begins to expand toward the màncí later developed by Liǔ Yǒng 柳永 and Qín Guān 秦觀.
Tiyao
Ānlù jí, one juǎn, by Zhāng Xiān of the Sòng. In Rénzōng’s reign there were two Zhāng Xiān, both with zì Zǐyě 子野. One was from Bózhōu, grandson of the Privy Councillor Zhāng Xùn 張遜, jìnshì of Tiānshèng 3 (1025), reached the post of Prefect of Bózhōu and died in Bǎoyuán 2 (1039) — for whom Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修 wrote the mùzhì. The other, the present author, was from Wūchéng, jìnshì of Tiānshèng 8 (1030), reached Dūguān lángzhōng. The Dàoshān qīnghuà errs in identifying the present Zhāng Xiān with the Bózhōu one. The Húzhōu fǔzhì compiled by Zhāng Duó 張鐸 says Xiān had a collected works in 100 juǎn, but only his yuèfǔ (i.e. cí) circulates today. The Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì records a Shī jí in 20 juǎn; Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫’s colophon to the Shíyǒng tú 十詠圖 (cited in Zhōu Mì 周密’s Qídōng yěyǔ) says “I happen to hold a zhì of Zǐyě’s poems titled Ānlù jí, the old Capital edition” — so in Chén’s day the collection still existed, yet his Shūlù jiětí lists only a one-juǎn Zhāng Zǐyě cí and no shī collection — strange. Since Míng times the cí collection itself was lost; thus when Máo Jìn 毛晉 cut the Liùshí jiā cí he did not include Xiān. The present text was assembled in recent times by Gě Míngyáng of Ānyì: eight shī and sixty-eight cí, with biographical material and exchange-poems appended. The arrangement places shī before cí, but since the cí are far more numerous, we have followed the larger element and entered it in the cí-tunes category. Sū Shì’s Colophon to the Shījí of Zhāng Zǐyě says, “Zǐyě’s shī-brush is old and marvellous; his cí are mere by-products. The Huázhōu Xīxī poem’s couplet ‘fúpíng pò chù jiàn shān yǐng, yě tǐng guī shí wén cǎo shēng’ 浮萍破處見山影，野艇歸時聞草聲 (where the duckweed splits, you see the mountain’s shadow; when the wild punt returns, you hear the grass’s voice) (— in the Shílín shīhuà and Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ, cǎoshēng is wrongly given as zhàoshēng; in Gě’s edition it has been corrected from the Yúyǐn cónghuà); and the couplet he matched to mine — ‘chóu sì guānyú zhī yè yǒng, lǎn tóng húdié wéi chūn máng’ 愁似鰥魚知夜永，懶同蝴蝶為春忙 — both of these could keep company with the ancients, yet the vulgar world praises only his cí. As when Zhōu Fǎng painted figures all of divine grade, and the world knew only his court-women, this is what is meant by ‘preferring lust to virtue.‘” Yet the two couplets Sū cites both verge on contrivance. Of the other transmitted shī only the Wújiāng piece is at all readable; even there, the couplet yù tú jiāngsè bù shàng bǐ, jìng mì niǎoshēng shēn zài lú 欲圖江色不上筆，靜覓鳥聲深在蘆 has its mannered streak. Fairly judged, his cí are stronger than his shī. The fact that contemporaries dubbed him “Zhāng of the three shadows” was not without reason; Sū’s colophon was high-flown talk and cannot be taken as a final verdict. — Compiled, Qiánlóng 46 / 1781, 12th month, by Zǒngzuǎnguān 紀昀, 陸錫熊, 孫士毅; Zǒngjiàoguān 陸費墀.
Abstract
The Ānlù jí as transmitted is a late-Qīng reconstitution by Gě Míngyáng of Ānyì, working from anthology citations after the Sòng and Yuán editions had been lost; the Sìkù compilers received this and entered it into the imperial library. It preserves only a small fraction of what Zhāng Xiān must have written: the Húzhōu fǔzhì alleges 100 juǎn of collected works in his day. The principal modern critical text is the Zhāng Xiān jí biānnián jiàozhù 張先集編年校注 of Wú Xiónghé 吳熊和 and Shěn Sōngqín 沈松勤 (Zhèjiāng gǔjí, 1996), which collects 165 cí and dates them against Zhāng’s official career. The collection is historically pivotal: Zhāng outlived almost all his peers (he died at eighty-eight in 1078), and his friendship with the young Sū Shì in Hángzhōu and Xúzhōu makes him the bridge between Yàn Shū / Ōuyáng Xiū and the SūHuángQín generation. The “Zhāng sānyǐng” 張三影 sobriquet arises (per Gǔjīn shīhuà) from the three lines: yún pò yuè lái huā nòng yǐng 雲破月來花弄影 (Tiān xiān zǐ 天仙子), jiāo róu lǎn qǐ liánjuǎn huā yǐng 嬌柔懶起簾捲花影 (Guī cháo huān 歸朝歡), and liǔ jìng wú rén, duò qīngxù wú yǐng 柳徑無人，墮輕絮無影 (Mù lán huā 木蘭花) — a sobriquet which Zhāng himself reportedly preferred to a fourth-line variant (“Zhāng sānzhōng” 張三中).
Translations and research
- Kang-i Sun Chang, The Evolution of Chinese Tz’u Poetry from Late T’ang to Northern Sung (Princeton University Press, 1980) — discusses Zhāng Xiān at length as a transitional figure between xiǎo-lìng and màn-cí.
- Wú Xióng-hé 吳熊和 and Shěn Sōng-qín 沈松勤, Zhāng Xiān jí biān-nián jiào-zhù 張先集編年校注 (Zhè-jiāng gǔ-jí chū-bǎn-shè, 1996) — the standard chronological-critical edition.
- Táng Guī-zhāng 唐圭璋 et al., Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1965; rev. 1999) — Zhāng Xiān corpus in vol. 1.
- James J.Y. Liu, Major Lyricists of the Northern Sung (Princeton, 1974) — chapter on Zhāng Xiān.
Other points of interest
Tradition has Zhāng Xiān still composing cí and taking concubines at 80; Sū Shì’s mock-presentation poem Zhāng Zǐyě nián bāshí wǔ shàng nà yāo 張子野年八十五尚納妾 (“Zhāng Zǐyě at 85 takes a new concubine”) — with its famous couplet yīshù líhuā yā hǎitáng 一樹梨花壓海棠 (“a single pear-tree presses down the crab-apple”) — is among the most-quoted occasional poems in Sòng literature. The Sìkù note that the catalog of Bózhōu Zhāng Xiān is found at the Tiānshèng 3 jìnshì list while the cí-poet Zhāng Xiān is at the Tiānshèng 8 list — a textbook example of the homonym confusion that the Sìkù tíyào repeatedly disentangles.
Links
- Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhāng Xiān)
- Wikipedia 張先
- Wikidata Q716168