Huáihǎi cí 淮海詞
Lyrics of Huái-hǎi by 秦觀 (撰)
About the work
The Huáihǎi cí 淮海詞 is the one-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Qín Guān 秦觀 (1049–1100; zì Shàoyóu 少游 / 太虛, hào Huáihǎi jūshì 淮海居士), the foremost lyricist among Sū Shì’s 蘇軾 inner circle (the Sū mén sì xuéshì 蘇門四學士). The collection is famously short — eighty-seven cí in the Máo Jìn 毛晉 cutting (the original was three juǎn, per Mǎ Duānlín 馬端臨) — but no Sòng cí-corpus has been more consistently rated at the top of the form. The Tíyào’s judgment that Qín’s shī falls below Sū and Huáng but his cí “in feeling and timbre wins over both” 詞則情韻兼勝在蘇黄之上 is the canonical SòngYuán placement, and it is anchored in Qín’s mastery of the most demanding xiǎolìng and middle-form tunes (Mǎn tíng fāng 滿庭芳, Tà suō xíng 踏莎行, Jiāngchéng zǐ 江城子, Què qiáo xiān 鵲橋仙).
Tiyao
Huáihǎi cí, one juǎn, by Qín Guān of the Sòng. Guān has the Huáihǎi jí separately catalogued. Mǎ Duānlín’s Jīngjí kǎo records Huáihǎi cí in one juǎn; the transmitted printings all call it three juǎn. This text was cut by Máo Jìn — eighty-seven tune-pieces, gathered into one juǎn, drawing miscellaneously from several books to make it up. Its zǒngmù still notes the original three juǎn, preserving the old form. Although Jìn’s colophon claims to “have corrected errors and retrieved lost pieces,” the proof-reading still has many leaks. For example: Cháng xiāngsī · Tiěwèng chéng gāo 長相思·鐵甕城髙 uses Hè Fānghuí 賀方回 (賀鑄)‘s rhyme; its closing line is given as yuānyāng wèi lǎo fǒu 鴛鴦未老否, whereas the Cí huì 詞滙 has yuānyāng wèi lǎo, chóumóu 鴛鴦未老綢繆. Yáng Wújiù 楊无咎 likewise has this tune-piece, composed alongside Qín’s; the note says “uses Fānghuí’s rhyme”; his closing line is jiāqī yǒng bǔ chóumóu 佳期永卜綢繆; clearly the Cí huì reading is right. Again Hé chuán 河傳 closing line mèn sǔn rén tiān bùguǎn 悶損人天不管: Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅 also has this tune, closing line hǎo shā rén tiān bùguǎn 好殺人天不管 with self-annotation: “I substituted 好 hǎo for 瘦 shòu in response to Shàoyóu’s cí, in jest.” Qín’s original was therefore shòu shā rén tiān bùguǎn 瘦殺人天不管; the mèn sǔn of this text is a later corruption. As for Huàn qǐ yī shēng rén qiǎo 喚起一聲人悄 — that piece was composed at Huángzhōu in praise of crab-apple, tune Zuì xiāng chūn 醉鄉春, recorded in detail in Lěngzhāi yèhuà; this text leaves the cí-title blank with three empty boxes — another oversight. We have corrected all these and restored the old form. Qín’s shī did not reach SūHuáng; but his cí, in feeling and resonance, prevailed over both. Few though the surviving pieces are, he must be reckoned a giant among cí-writers. — Cài Tāo’s Tiěwéishān cóngtán records: Qín’s son-in-law Fàn Wēn 范溫 was at a banquet at the house of a noble; the noble’s serving-girl, fond of singing Qín Shàoyóu’s chángduǎnjù, sat right through the gathering ignoring Fàn. When drink and joy thickened, she finally asked, “who is this gentleman?” Fàn rose, folded his hands, and said: “I am ‘Mountains-smeared-with-faint-cloud’s’ son-in-law” (shān mǒ wēi yún 山抹微雲 — the famous Mǎn tíng fāng incipit); the company rolled in laughter. Cài Tāo was Cài Jīng’s son, so when even he records this we may know how Qín’s cí was esteemed at the time. — Compiled, Qiánlóng 44 / 1779, 3rd month, by Zǒngzuǎnguān 紀昀, 陸錫熊, 孫士毅; Zǒngjiàoguān 陸費墀.
Abstract
The transmitted Huáihǎi cí descends through Máo Jìn’s Jígǔgé cutting of an originally three-juǎn Sòng-cut text. Modern critical editions — Xú Pèijūn 徐培均, Huáihǎi jí jiānzhù 淮海集箋注 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 1994) and Huáihǎi jūshì chángduǎnjù jiàozhù 淮海居士長短句校注 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 1996) — reconstruct a corpus of approximately 92 cí. Qín died in 1100 on the road back from his Hǎinán exile, age 51; his cí are written across the whole arc of his Yuányòu–Shàoshèng career, from the Sū circle in Biànjīng to the southern exiles at Chu-zhōu, Héngzhōu, and Léizhōu. The signature piece is the Tà suō xíng · Chēn zhōu lǚ shè 踏莎行·郴州旅舍 written in his last years — with its closing Chēn jiāng xìng zì rào Chēn shān, wèi shuí liúxià Xiāo Xiāng qù 郴江幸自繞郴山，為誰流下瀟湘去 (“the Chēn river of itself wound round Chēn mountain — for whom did it flow down to the XiāoXiāng?“) — quoted by Sū Shì in the closing colophon to Qín’s funerary stele as the prophecy of his death.
Translations and research
- Yu-shih Chen, Su Shih and Ch’in Kuan: A Friendship in Letters (Princeton, n.d.; also as articles) — the principal Sū-Qín relationship study.
- Xú Pèi-jūn 徐培均, Huái-hǎi jí jiān-zhù 淮海集箋注 (Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí, 1994); same author, Huái-hǎi jūshì cháng-duǎn-jù jiào-zhù 淮海居士長短句校注 (Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí, 1996) — the two standard modern editions.
- Kang-i Sun Chang, The Evolution of Chinese Tz’u Poetry from Late T’ang to Northern Sung (Princeton, 1980) — extended treatment of Qín.
- James J.Y. Liu, Major Lyricists of the Northern Sung (Princeton, 1974) — chapter on Qín.
- Táng Guī-zhāng 唐圭璋 et al., Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1965; rev. 1999).
Other points of interest
The “Shān mǒ wēi yún” anecdote preserved by Cài Tāo became proverbial for Qín’s reputation: every Sòng cí-anthology after the early twelfth century cites this Mǎn tíng fāng as one of the canonical pieces of the form. The piece on the magpie bridge — Què qiáo xiān · Qiānniú zhīnǚ 鵲橋仙·牛織女, with its couplet liǎng qíng ruò shì jiǔchángshí, yòu qǐ zài cháocháo mùmù 兩情若是久長時，又豈在朝朝暮暮 — has been the most-quoted Chinese love-poem in modern popular culture.
Links
- Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Qín Guān)
- Wikipedia 秦觀
- Wikidata Q706895