Piànyù cí 片玉詞
Lyrics of Jade-Slips by 周邦彥 (撰)
About the work
The Piànyù cí 片玉詞 is the Sìkù two-juǎn gathering (plus one juǎn supplement) of Zhōu Bāngyàn 周邦彥 (1057–1121; zì Měichéng 美成, hào Qīngzhēn jūshì 清真居士), the great Northern-Sòng prosodist and the supreme musical theorist of the cí. Zhōu was head of the Imperial Music Bureau (Dàyuè zhèng 大樂正) under Huīzōng, founded or refined many of the cí-tunes (the Dàshèng yuè 大晟樂 reform), and brought the prosody of the form to a precision unmatched in any earlier author: not only flat-vs-oblique but the three sub-categories of oblique (shàngqùrù 上去入) had to be observed. The transmitted text descends from a Sòng cutting of Piànyù jí, with a one-juǎn supplement assembled by Máo Jìn 毛晉 from anthologies. Wang Anzhōng 王安中 [Qiáng Huàn 強煥]‘s 1189 Lìshuǐ preface (with which the volume opens) frames the collection as the cí output of Zhōu’s brief tenure as Magistrate of Lìshuǐ 溧水 (Yuányòu guǐyǒu / 1093). The work is the textual basis of the Hé Qīngzhēn cí KR4j0019 of Fāng Qiānlǐ 方千里 and three companion matching-cí collections (Yáng Zémín 楊澤民, Chén Yǔnpìng 陳允平); the Tíyào uses Fāng’s matching cí throughout to triangulate disputed Zhōu readings.
Tiyao
Piànyù cí, two juǎn, supplement one juǎn, by Zhōu Bāngyàn of the Sòng. Bāngyàn, zì Měichéng, a man of Qiántáng. In the Yuánfēng period he presented the Biàndū fù and was summoned to be Dàyuè zhèng; under Huīzōng he reached Huīyóugé dàizhì, then went out to govern Shùnchāng fǔ and was transferred to Chǔzhōu, where he died. He styled himself Qīngzhēn jūshì. The Sòng shǐ Wényuànzhuàn says: “Bāngyàn was somewhat unrestrained and ungovernable, not respected in his locality; he loved music and could compose his own tunes; his yuèfǔ chángduǎnjù are clear in rhyme and luxuriant in feeling.” The Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì records Qīngzhēn jūshì jí in 11 juǎn — his complete shīwén collection, long since scattered; whether the shīyú (cí) were appended cannot be checked. Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫’s Shūlù jiětí records his cí as Qīngzhēn jí 2 juǎn, hòu jí 1 juǎn. This text is titled Piànyù — per Máo Jìn’s 毛晉 colophon it is a Sòng-cut printing under that title, original two juǎn; the supplementary juǎn Jìn has supplied from anthologies. The supposed old two juǎn are presumably the Qīngzhēn jí; what Jìn has gathered is the hòu jí. The volume opens with a preface by Qiáng Huàn 強煥, agreeing with Chén Zhènsūn’s record. His cí repeatedly takes Táng poets’ lines and frames them into the tune; the long pieces are especially rich, ornate, and precisely-made, fine at pūxù 鋪敘 (extended description). Chén Yù’s Cángyī huàyú 藏一話腴 says he stood alone in yuèfǔ; high-born scholars, men of the markets, and singing-girls all knew his cí as the lovable one — no exaggeration. Bāngyàn was a master of music; his choice of characters and use of rhymes all observed system; hence Fāng Qiānlǐ 方千里’s matching cí fit his pattern slot by slot, not daring to overstep by a fraction. — (The editors then list five textual corrections derived from Fāng Qiānlǐ’s matching cí, including the Gé pǔ lián jìn pāi 隔浦蓮近拍, Lìzhī xiāng jìn 茘枝香近, Línglóng sìfàn 玲瓏四犯, Xīpíng yuè 西平樂, and the closing zè-pattern of Lánlíng wáng 蘭陵王; further citation of Cáo Sháo 曹杓 (zì Jìzhōng 季中, hào Yīhú jūshì 一壺居士)‘s lost two-juǎn commentary on the Qīngzhēn cí, recorded by Chén Zhènsūn but no longer extant.) — Compiled, Qiánlóng 46 / 1781, 10th month.
Abstract
The transmitted Piànyù cí descends through Máo Jìn’s Jígǔgé cutting and the late-Sòng Lìshuǐ recension of Qiáng Huàn (preface 1189). Modern critical editions — Lóng Yúshēng 龍榆生, Qīngzhēn jí jiàoshì 清真集校釋 (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1981); Sūn Hóng 孫虹 and Xuē Ruìshēng 薛瑞生, Qīngzhēn jí jiàozhù 清真集校注 (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 2002) — reconstruct around 186 cí. Zhōu’s birth and death dates (1057–1121) are reasonably well-established from the Sòng shǐ and from his preface to the Biàndū fù. The collection’s musical-prosodic precision made it the model for the entire Southern-Sòng gélǜ 格律 school (Wāng Sēn 汪森’s “cífù gélǜ” line): the Southern-Sòng matching-cí collections of Fāng Qiānlǐ KR4j0019, Yáng Zémín, and Chén Yǔnpìng, taken collectively, constitute the largest single set of homage-cí in the Chinese tradition, modeling their tone-distribution character by character on Zhōu’s pattern. Modern critical work — Glenn Tiffert, “Zhou Bangyan as Musician” (in Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies), and the chapter in Sun Chang and Owen, Cambridge History of Chinese Literature — recovers Zhōu’s musical-theoretic contribution as a distinct legacy alongside his lyrics.
Translations and research
- Lóng Yú-shēng 龍榆生, Qīng-zhēn jí jiào-shì 清真集校釋 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1981); reissued.
- Sūn Hóng 孫虹 and Xuē Ruì-shēng 薛瑞生, Qīng-zhēn jí jiào-zhù 清真集校注 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 2002) — the most recent critical edition.
- Kang-i Sun Chang, The Evolution of Chinese Tz’u Poetry from Late T’ang to Northern Sung (Princeton, 1980) — extended treatment of Zhōu Bāng-yàn as the culmination of the Northern-Sòng cí.
- Lin Shuen-fu, The Transformation of the Chinese Lyrical Tradition: Chiang K’uei and Southern Sung Tz’u Poetry (Princeton, 1978) — chapters tracing Jiāng Kuí 姜夔’s engagement with Zhōu’s prosody.
- Stephen Owen, “Meaning the Words: The Genuine as a Value in the Tradition of the Song Lyric,” in P. Yu ed., Voices of the Song Lyric in China (Berkeley, 1994), 30–69 — treats Zhōu Bāng-yàn as a paradigm case.
Other points of interest
Zhōu Bāngyàn’s prosodic exactness has made him the most-imitated and most-debated Sòng cí-writer in the late-imperial and modern cí-revival traditions: every major late-Qīng and Republican cí-school takes the Piànyù cí as a point of reference. The fact that the matching cí-corpus of Fāng Qiānlǐ KR4j0019 is preserved in WYG specifically so that the Sìkù editors could cross-collate against Zhōu is the most explicit Sìkù assertion of the cí’s philological-prosodic seriousness.
Links
- Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhōu Bāngyàn)
- Wikipedia 周邦彥
- Wikidata Q706876