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東堂詞

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Text ID
KR4j0014
Date
1090–1124
Dynasty
宋

Dōngtáng cí 東堂詞

Lyrics of the East Studio by 毛滂 (撰)

About the work

The Dōngtáng cí 東堂詞 is the one-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Máo Páng 毛滂 (ca. 1060/64–ca. 1124; zì Zémín 澤民), of Jiāngshān 江山 (Zhèjiāng). The title comes from the studio Máo built when serving as Magistrate of Wǔkāng 武康, renaming the former Jìnxīn táng 盡心堂 as Dōngtáng — an event Máo’s own Mò shān xī 驀山溪 cí documents in self-annotation. The Dōngtáng jí in 15 juǎn was lost by Qiánlóng times; the Sìkù compilers reconstructed it from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn fragments and catalogued it separately; the present cí-only volume is the late-Míng Máo Jìn 毛晉 cutting. Máo Páng’s cí are conventionally placed in the second tier behind the SūHuángQín line; his most-cited single piece is the parting-cí Xī fēn fēi · Fù Mò líng 惜分飛·賦淥檢樓憶妓 with the famous line jīnyè shān shēn chù, duànhún fēnfù cháo huíqù 今夜山深處，斷魂分付潮回去 (“tonight in the mountains’ depth, my broken soul I leave with the returning tide”), reportedly admired by Sū Shì 蘇軾 when Máo was a court-clerk at Hángzhōu.

Tiyao

Dōngtáng cí, one juǎn, by Máo Páng of the Sòng. Páng, zì Zémín, a man of Jiāngshān. The Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì records his Dōngtáng jí in 15 juǎn, long since lost; today we have recompiled it from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn into a separate catalog. The present cí-collection in one juǎn is Máo Jìn’s cutting. Mǎ Duānlín 馬端臨’s Jīngjí kǎo records Dōngtáng cí in one juǎn; quoting the Bǎijiā shī xù it notes that when Páng was at Hángzhōu as a fǎcáo, his parting-cí to a singing-girl, with the line jīn yè shān shēn chù, duàn hún fēnfù cháo huíqù, was admired by Sū Shì — that cí is the Xī fēn fēi, now in the collection. But the collection also has several cí for the birthday of the Grand Preceptor, written for Cài Jīng 蔡京; and the Huīzhǔ hòu lù records that Páng first attached himself to Zēng Bù 曾布, later to Cài Biàn 蔡卞, and at Biàn’s banquet composed a mandarin-duck shī with the line wéi liàn ēnbō bùkěn fēi 惟戀恩波不肯飛 (“only longing for the gracious waves it would not fly away”), to the point that Biàn’s wife Wángshì jibed “the mandarin-duck has just flown over from Lord Zēng’s pond.” So Páng was not exactly a man of integrity. Fāng Huí’s Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ takes him for a man of upright defence — a slip; Fāng simply had not done the research. But his cí in elegance and resonance is genuinely fine; Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫’s opinion that “Páng’s other cí, though well-made, never come up to the one Sū Shì admired” is the verdict of a follow-the-leader, not sound criticism. — When Máo Páng was Magistrate of Wǔkāng he renamed the Jìnxīn táng as Dōngtáng; his Mò shān xī tunes-piece self-annotates the matter in full, hence the title of the collection. The hand-copies have many missing characters, none supplementable; we follow as is. — Compiled, Qiánlóng 44 / 1779, 3rd month.

Abstract

The transmitted Dōngtáng cí is the Máo Jìn one-juǎn form descending from a Sòng-cut original (lost). Modern editions: the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋 preserves around 195 cí. Máo Páng’s biography in the Sòng shǐ (separate appendix) and the Huīzhǔ hòu lù of Wáng Míngqīng 王明清 confirm his career trajectory through Zēng Bù and Cài Biàn that the Tíyào picks out censoriously. The signature piece Xī fēn fēi · Fù dìngshuǐlóu yì jì 惜分飛·赋定水樓憶妓 (Hángzhōu, c. 1090) marks his early career; later pieces address the Yǐn 殷 retreat at Wǔkāng and the imperial birthday cí for Cài Jīng (early Xuānhé, c. 1119–1124). The two registers — refined private parting-cí on the one hand, courtly yìngzhì 應制 birthday-cí on the other — make Máo Páng a useful witness to the dual functions the cí form had taken on by the late Northern Sòng.

Translations and research

  • Zhōu Mǎn-jiāng 周滿江, Máo Páng cí jiào-zhù 毛滂詞校注 (Bā-Shǔ shū-shè, 1990s) — the principal 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. 2 — collated corpus.
  • Kang-i Sun Chang, The Evolution of Chinese Tz’u Poetry (Princeton, 1980) — places Máo Páng in the late-Northern-Sòng setting.

Other points of interest

The “jīn yè shān shēn chù” anecdote — Sū Shì returning to the yámen in the evening, hearing the Xī fēn fēi sung, asking who had written it, and praising the unknown junior clerk — is the most cited single piece of Sòng-cí anecdote outside the Sū vs Liǔ contrast; it is the canonical staging of the “elder writer recognizes the talented junior” topos.

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