Cháo Wújiù cí 晁无咎詞
Lyrics of Cháo Wú-jiù by 晁補之 (撰)
About the work
The Cháo Wújiù cí 晁无咎詞 is the six-juǎn Sìkù gathering of the cí of Cháo Bǔzhī 晁補之 (1053–1110; zì Wújiù 无咎, hào Guīláizǐ 歸來子), one of the Sū mén sì xuéshì 蘇門四學士 (“Four Disciples of the Sū Gate”). Cháo was both a major cí-writer and the most articulate Sòng critic of Sòng cí: the Tíyào preserves his two famous verdicts on his peers (recorded by Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫’s Shūlù jiětí) — that the cí-hands of his time were “only Qínqī (Qín Guān 秦觀) and Huángjiǔ (Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅),” and that even Qín Guān’s xiéyáng wài, hányā shù diǎn, liúshuǐ rào gūcūn 斜陽外，寒鴉數㸃，流水繞孤村 “any unlettered man would recognize as natural fine language.” Cháo’s own cí are placed by the Tíyào as “in spirit and grace genuinely shoulder-to-shoulder with Sū Shì” — high praise for a Sū disciple.
Tiyao
Cháo Wújiù cí, six juǎn, by Cháo Bǔzhī of the Sòng. Bǔzhī, zì Wújiù, a man of Jùyě. The Nénggǎi zhāi mànlù and Fùzhāi zálù both record that he took jìnshì in Yuánfēng 2 / 1079 (己未); the Liǔ táng cí huà makes him a Yuányòu jìnshì, a copying-error. Early Yuányòu he was Zhùzuòláng; end of Shàoshèng he was demoted to the wine-tax post of Xìnzhōu; subsequently restored as Prefect of Sìzhōu; entered into the proscription list. He has the Jīlèi jí 雞肋集 separately catalogued. The present collection is given by Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí as one juǎn, titled only Cháo Wújiù cí; the Liǔ táng cí huà says his cí collection is also named Jīlèi, and that Bǔzhī inscribed his own tomb-name as Táochán cí 逃禪詞 — but Yáng Bǔzhī (Yáng Wújiù 楊无咎)‘s name was 无咎 and his cí collection was named Táochán; surely a writer’s zì and the title of his collection should not coincide with another’s; the report must merge the two men. Another printing by Máo Jìn 毛晉 is titled Qínqù wàipiān 琴趣外篇 — his colophon says the shīyú (cí) were not entered into the main collection, hence “outer pieces”; he divided it into six juǎn. The end-of-collection Dòng xiān gē 洞仙歌 is Bǔzhī’s last brushstroke of Dàguān 4 / 1110; the old text lacked it, and we have supplemented from Huáng Shēng 黃昇’s Huāān cí xuǎn KR4j0066. Bǔzhī was one of the Four Disciples of the Sū-gate; in this collection, the second Dòng xiān gē, filled-out from a Lú Tóng shī, has the imitative streak of Sū Shì’s “filled-out Guī qù lái cí.” But in spirit and grace his cí truly stand shoulder to shoulder with Sū’s. — The cuttings have many errors; we have corrected as we read. The Yǐn jià xíng one piece: examining it against Liǔ Yǒng 柳永’s Yuèzhāng jí KR4j0003 hòu jí Chūnyún qīng suǒ one piece, it has truly lost its second half, which cannot be supplemented; we follow it as is. As for Qínqù wàipiān: among Sòng writers, Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修, Huáng Tíngjiān, Cháo Duānlǐ 晁端禮, and Yè Mèngdé 葉夢得 all have cí-collections under this name; adding Cháo Bǔzhī makes five — extreme confusion. We follow the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo and title it Cháo Wújiù cí for distinction. — Compiled, Qiánlóng 46 / 1781, 12th month, by Zǒngzuǎnguān 紀昀, 陸錫熊, 孫士毅; Zǒngjiàoguān 陸費墀.
Abstract
The transmitted Cháo Wújiù cí descends through Máo Jìn 毛晉’s six-juǎn Qínqù wàipiān cutting (where Chén Zhènsūn’s earlier catalog gave the work as one juǎn of Cháo Wújiù cí). The Sìkù editors take the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo (Mǎ Duānlín 馬端臨) title as authoritative, retain Máo Jìn’s six-juǎn division, and supplement Cháo’s last Dòng xiān gē (Dàguān 4 / 1110) from Huáng Shēng 黃昇’s Huāān cí xuǎn KR4j0066 — that supplemented piece serves as the terminus ad quem of the collection. Modern editions (Liú Nǎichāng 劉乃昌, Cháo Bǔzhī cí jiàozhù 晁補之詞校注, QíLǔ shūshè 1984; the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋) restore around 165 cí. Cháo’s cí are conventionally placed with those of Huáng Tíngjiān, Qín Guān, and Zhāng Lěi 張耒 (his fellow Sū mén disciples) just below the SūSūLǔZhí (蘇黃) line, but the Tíyào’s claim that his cí rise to genuine Sū-tier registers reflects the special status the late-Sòng cí-historians accorded him.
Translations and research
- Liú Nǎi-chāng 劉乃昌, Cháo Bǔ-zhī cí jiào-zhù 晁補之詞校注 (Qí-Lǔ shū-shè, 1984) — the standard modern critical edition.
- Táng Guī-zhāng 唐圭璋 et al., Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1965; rev. 1999), vol. 1 — collated text.
- Kang-i Sun Chang, The Evolution of Chinese Tz’u Poetry from Late T’ang to Northern Sung (Princeton, 1980) — places Cháo within the Sū mén generation.
Other points of interest
The two Cháo Bǔzhī verdicts on the Sū mén cí preserved in Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí — quoted both at Shāngǔ cí KR4j0006 and at Huáihǎi cí KR4j0008 — are among the foundational documents of Sòng cí-criticism; the present Tíyào concludes by quoting them in full to mark Cháo’s special standing as both practitioner and critic.
Links
- Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Cháo Bǔzhī)
- Wikipedia 晁補之
- Wikidata Q716125