Yǒugǔ cí 友古詞
Lyrics of the Befriender-of-Antiquity by 蔡伸 (撰)
About the work
The Yǒugǔ cí 友古詞 is the one-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Cài Shēn 蔡伸 (1088–1156; zì Shēndào 伸道, hào Yǒugǔ jūshì 友古居士), grandson of the great calligrapher Cài Xiāng 蔡襄 (1012–1067), and an official who served as Vice-Magistrate of Péngchéng 彭城 in the Xuānhé period and reached Zuǒ zhōng dàifū 左中大夫 in his late career. Cài served alongside Xiàng Zǐyīn 向子諲 in the Péngchéng cáoshǔ (transport bureau), an association documented in his many cí addressed to Xiàng — though, as the Tíyào notes, Xiàng’s own Jiǔbiān cí KR4j0025 mentions many chángchóu (offering-and-response) correspondents but oddly not Cài. The collection survives in the late-Míng Máo Jìn 毛晉 cutting; the Tíyào rates Cài’s cí as “slightly below Xiàng Zǐyīn” but “in talent and brush-force roughly his peer.”
Tiyao
Yǒugǔ cí, one juǎn, by Cài Shēn of the Sòng. Shēn, zì Shēndào, a man of Pútián, grandson of [Cài] Xiāng 蔡襄. He styled himself Yǒugǔ jūshì. In Xuānhé he served as Vice-Magistrate at Péngchéng (Xúzhōu); progressed in rank to Zuǒ zhōng dàifū. The Shūlù jiětí records Shēn’s Yǒugǔ cí in one juǎn; this text agrees. Shēn once served alongside Xiàng Zǐyīn 向子諲 at the Péngchéng transport bureau, and so has many cí offered to Zǐyīn; but Zǐyīn’s Jiǔbiān cí KR4j0025 records many chángchóu names yet omits Shēn — unclear why. Shēn’s cí is slightly inferior to Zǐyīn’s, but in talent-streak and brush-force roughly his peer. As his Nán xiāng zǐ one cí self-annotates “because Xiàng’s cí has the line píng shū xù duàncháng 慿書續斷腸, I made this,” — but Xiàng’s piece is in fact a Nán gē zǐ not a Nán xiāng zǐ; comparing Shēn’s piece to it, the restraint and refinement do not at all fall behind. Máo Jìn’s cutting has many slips: e.g., Fēi xuě mǎn qún shān 飛雪滿羣山 — Jìn notes “also called Piānzhōu xún jiù yuē 扁舟尋舊約”, not knowing this is a later derivative title from the back-half’s opening line, not a variant tune, and certainly not to be used for the present cí. Xī nú jiāo 惜奴嬌 — Jìn notes “also called Fěn diéér 粉蝶兒”; but Fěn diéér is in fact a separate tune entirely different from Xī nú jiāo. As for Qīng yù àn matching Hè Fānghuí 賀方回 (賀鑄)‘s rhyme: the front-half’s chù 處-rhyme has been mis-cut as dì 地. Hè’s tune was matched by many in his day; if Jìn cannot cross-check the errors, this is the more an oversight. — Compiled, Qiánlóng 46 / 1781, 10th month.
Abstract
The transmitted Yǒugǔ cí descends through Máo Jìn’s Sòng-cut form. Modern editions: the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋 preserves about 175 cí, the second-largest single-author cí-corpus of the Yǒugǔ / Xiàng Zǐyīn / Lǚ Bīnlǎo generation. Cài’s birth-date 1088 and death-date 1156 are reasonably secure from his official record. His best-known piece is the parting-cí Sù zhōng qíng · Yīlì lóutóu 蘇中情·一籬樓頭 and a series of Nán xiāng zǐ (one of which is the matching-piece to Xiàng Zǐyīn discussed in the Tíyào); together they show the dual register — courtly parting-lyric and friendship-correspondence — that the post-1127 cí generation made its principal mode.
Translations and research
- Táng Guī-zhāng 唐圭璋 et al., Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1965; rev. 1999), vol. 2 — collated text.
- Zhāng Cuì 張翠, Cài Shēn nián-pǔ 蔡伸年譜 (in Cí xué 詞學 journal) — chronological study.
- Wáng Zhào-péng 王兆鵬, Sòng nán-dù cí-rén nián-pǔ 宋南渡詞人年譜 — covers the Péng-chéng circle including Cài Shēn and Xiàng Zǐ-yīn.
Other points of interest
The CàiXiàng chángchóu relationship — and the Tíyào’s observation that the Jiǔbiān cí fails to record it — is a useful case in the editorial history of Sòng biéjí: matching-cí survive in single collections in cases where the original-cí has been edited out, making cross-reading the cí alongside the recipient’s collection essential.
Links
- Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Cài Shēn)
- Wikipedia 蔡伸
- Wikidata Q15909106