Shūzhōu cí 書舟詞
Lyrics of the Book-Boat [Studio] by 程垓 (撰)
About the work
The Shūzhōu cí 書舟詞 is the one-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Chéng Gāi 程垓 (zì Zhèngbó 正伯), a Southern-Sòng cí-writer of Méishān 眉山 in Shǔ — the same town as Sū Shì 蘇軾, to whom Chéng was a maternal cousin (zhōngbiǎo 中表). The title derives from a pavilion in his garden styled like a boat and named Shūzhōu 書舟 (“Book-Boat”); the Gǔjīn cíhuà miscalls the hào “Xūzhōu” 虛舟, a confusion of character-shapes. The text carries the original preface by Wáng Chèng 王稱 (zì Jìpíng 季平), dated Shàoxī jiǎyín 紹熈甲寅 (1194), positioning Chéng below the Qín Guān 秦觀 / Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅 level but firmly above the parental-couplet cí of Yàn Jǐdào 晏幾道. Yáng Shèn 楊慎’s Cí pǐn 詞品 singles out Kù xiāngsī 酷相思, Sìdài hǎo 四代好, and Zhé qiū yīng 折秋英 as Chéng’s finest pieces.
Tiyao
Shūzhōu cí, one juǎn, by Chéng Gāi of the Sòng. Gāi was zì Zhèngbó, a man of Méishān. His household had a boat-shaped pavilion called Shūzhōu, mentioned in his own cí footnotes; the Gǔjīn cíhuà gives his hào as Xūzhōu 虛舟, a graphic error. Mǎ Duānlín’s Jīngjí kǎo records the Shūzhōu cí as one juǎn; some prints give Shūzhōu yǎcí 雅詞 in two juǎn; the Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì further has Chén Zhèngbó Shūzhōu yǎcí in 11 juǎn — both confusing Chéng 程 with Chén 陳 and turning 2 into 11. The present text was cut by Máo Jìn and remains in one juǎn; before it is Wáng Chèng’s preface, agreeing with Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫’s Shūlù jiětí. The preface notes that Shàngshū Yóu Mào 尤袤 had praised Chéng’s prose as surpassing his shī and cí; today his shī and prose are unverifiable, but the cí are quite worth reading. Yáng Shèn 楊慎’s Cí pǐn singles out Kù xiāngsī, Sìdài hǎo, Zhé qiū yīng — being Sū Shì’s zhōngbiǎo, Chéng had a heritage. The piece Tān pò Jiāng shén zǐ · Juānjuān shuāngyuè yòu qīnmén 攤破江神子·娟娟霜月又侵門 is in most prints given to Kāng Yǔzhī 康與之 under the title Jiāngchéng méihuā yǐn 江城梅花引, with only minor character differences. By tradition that tune is built front-half on Jiāngchéng zǐ, back-half on Méihuā yǐn; but the present front-half from opening to huā yòu nǎo is Jiāngchéng zǐ, the back-half is not at all Méihuā yǐn, and after the guò biàn it matches neither tune. The Cí pǔ lists Jiāngchéng zǐ also under the name Jiāng shén zǐ — Tān pò Jiāng shén zǐ is therefore the correct title; its sentence-structure is in Chéng’s own voice; the attribution to Kāng must be a transmission error. — Máo Jìn’s closing colophon claims to have ascertained Yì nán wàng 意難忘, Yī jiǎn méi 一剪梅 etc. as Sū’s and excised them. Examining the Dōngpō cí KR4j0005, Yì nán wàng has indeed been moved in; Yī jiǎn méi has not, and it still stands in this collection. The wording of these cí is shallow and crude — even by Chéng’s measure they are not fine pieces; they must indeed not be Sū’s; but on what basis Jìn decided is not stated. — Compiled, Qiánlóng 46 / 1781, 10th month, by Zǒngzuǎnguān 紀昀, 陸錫熊, 孫士毅; Zǒngjiàoguān 陸費墀.
Abstract
The transmitted Shūzhōu cí preserves about 156 cí (Wáng Chèng’s preface 1194 marking a terminus ad quem for the original three-juǎn circulation noted in the catalogs). Modern editions: the SBCK Shūzhōu cí (parallel to the Sìkù), and the collated version in the Quán Sòng cí (Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋 唐圭璋, rev. 1965/1999, vol. 3). Chéng is best read as a transitional figure between the northern-Sòng xiǎolìng manner inherited from the Sū circle (he was Sū Shì’s zhōngbiǎo) and the increasingly long, increasingly refined Southern-Sòng manner of Jiāng Kuí 姜夔 and his successors. The piece Kù xiāngsī 酷相思 (“Wrenching Love-Longing”) is the most-anthologized of his cí, opening yuèguà xīnán liànrúgōu 月掛霜林寒欲滴 and turning on the famous closure ráo yī qù, hái yīng jì niàn 饒伊去也還應記念 — a typical instance of his idiom: short, technically tight, deceptively plain.
Translations and research
- Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞, ed. Táng Guī-zhāng 唐圭璋 et al. (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1965; rev. 1999), vol. 3 — Chéng Gāi corpus.
- Tāng Xiāng-jūn 唐湘君, Chéng Gāi nián-pǔ 程垓年譜 (in Cí xué jì-kān 詞學季刊 and reprinted in Cí xué 詞學), the principal chronological study.
- Cí pǐn jiào-zhù 詞品校注 of Yáng Shèn 楊慎 — preserves the standard early-Ming reading of Chéng’s cí.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù compilers’ detailed textual-critical engagement with the disputed attribution of Tān pò Jiāng shén zǐ and Yī jiǎn méi is one of the best examples in the Cí qū lèi sub-section of the imperial editors’ philological method: a sustained reading of tune-rule, prosody, and parallel manuscripts to triangulate authorship.