Hé Qīngzhēn cí 和清真詞
Lyrics Matching the Qīng-zhēn [cí of Zhōu Bāng-yàn] by 方千里 (撰)
About the work
The Hé Qīngzhēn cí 和清真詞 is the one-juǎn matching-cí collection of Fāng Qiānlǐ 方千里 of Xìnān 信安 (Southern Sòng, fl. early thirteenth century, sub-prefectural Vice-Magistrate of Shūzhōu 舒州). The book consists of cí composed slot-by-slot in the precise tonal-prosodic pattern of every cí in the Piànyù cí KR4j0015 of Zhōu Bāngyàn 周邦彥 — a homage-corpus that is the most precise prosodic exercise in the Sòng cí tradition and a textual goldmine for collation. The Sìkù tíyào attached to the Piànyù cí uses Fāng’s cí throughout to triangulate Zhōu’s disputed readings; this volume is therefore better read as a critical apparatus to the Piànyù cí than as an independent corpus. Two parallel matching-collections — one by Yáng Zémín 楊澤民 of Lèān 樂安, another by Chén Yǔnpìng 陳允平 — were sometimes printed alongside Fāng’s as the Sānyīng jí 三英集 (“Collection of Three Talents”). Máo Jìn 毛晉’s closing colophon notes that the Yáng Zémín matching is no longer extant in his Liùshí jiā cí.
Tiyao
Hé Qīngzhēn cí, one juǎn, by Fāng Qiānlǐ of the Sòng. Qiānlǐ, a man of Xìnān, held office as Vice-Magistrate of Shūzhōu. He has a Tí Zhēnyuángōng one shī in the Yìpǔ jí. This is his cí matching Zhōu Bāngyàn’s Qīngzhēn cí. Bāngyàn was a master of musical principles; his cí are the chief of the form; the tunes he composed observe not only píngzè but also the three zè sub-categories shàngqùrù — observing the smallest distinctions in great profundity. So Qiānlǐ’s matching cí, character for character, took Zhōu’s as standard. Of the tune-titles, some have small variation. E.g. Huàn xī shā in the zǒngmù is the same as in Zhōu, but the title in the body is wrongly given Huàn shā xī; Lìzhī xiāng in Zhōu’s is Lìzhī xiāng jìn (also in Wú Wényīng 吳文英’s Mèngchuāng gǎo the same as here), only this collection lacks jìn; Làng táo shā in Zhōu’s is Làng táo shā màn — Làng táo shā was originally created by Huángfǔ Sōng as a 7-syllable quatrain, doubled by Lǐ Hòuzhǔ to a 54-character version; Zhōu’s reaches 133 characters; hence màn is added. Without màn this is not the same tune. These are all engraving-errors, not original to Qiānlǐ. As for the differing characters and lines: e.g. Lìzhī xiāng second cí’s front-half shìchù chíguǎn chūn biàn 是處池館春徧, Zhōu’s reads dàn guài dēng piān, lián juǎn 但怪燈偏簾巻 — not only does the sound differ, the píngzè differs; or Zhōu’s is a corruption of dàn guài lián juǎn dēng biàn. — (The editors then list six further textual differentials, each citing Zhōu’s reading, Fāng’s reading, and where appropriate Wú Wényīng’s 吳文英 reading of the same tune; concludes that Máo Jìn 毛晉’s closing colophon notes Yáng Zémín 楊澤民 of Lèān 樂安 also has a matching-Qīng-zhēn cí-collection, sometimes printed alongside as the Sānyīng jí; but Jìn’s own Liùshí jiā cí lacks Yáng — probably the text was already lost in his day.) — Compiled, Qiánlóng 44 / 1779, 3rd month.
Abstract
The Hé Qīngzhēn cí is the most extensive single homage-corpus in Sòng cí: every tune Zhōu wrote, in Zhōu’s order, in Zhōu’s exact tonal pattern. Fāng’s dates are uncertain — Wāng Sēn 汪森 places him in the early Níngzōng period (fl. 1190–1230), and the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋 preserves this corpus of ca. 95 cí, exactly matching the count of Zhōu’s Piànyù cí tunes. The collection is the principal documentary basis for the Southern-Sòng gélǜ 格律 cí-school, which made the tonal precision of Zhōu’s cí its standard. Modern critical editing of Zhōu’s Piànyù cí — Lóng Yúshēng 龍榆生, Qīngzhēn jí jiàoshì (1981); Sūn Hóng 孫虹 and Xuē Ruìshēng 薛瑞生, Qīngzhēn jí jiàozhù (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 2002) — invariably draws on Fāng’s matching cí to disambiguate disputed readings, exactly as the Sìkù compilers already did. The parallel matching-collections of Yáng Zémín (preserved in the Jiàncí tradition but missing from Máo Jìn) and Chén Yǔnpìng (Xīlú cí 西麓詞) make the trio that scholars sometimes call the “Hé Qīngzhēn sān jiā” 和清真三家.
Translations and research
- Lóng Yú-shēng 龍榆生, Qīng-zhēn jí jiào-shì 清真集校釋 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1981) — collates Zhōu against Fāng Qiān-lǐ, Yáng Zé-mín, and Chén Yǔn-pìng.
- 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) — uses Fāng as a principal apparatus witness.
- Táng Guī-zhāng 唐圭璋 et al., Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1965; rev. 1999) — Fāng Qiān-lǐ corpus in vol. 3.
- Lin Shuen-fu, The Transformation of the Chinese Lyrical Tradition (Princeton, 1978) — chapters on the prosodic-school cí.
Other points of interest
That the Sìkù imperial library admitted Fāng’s matching-cí as a freestanding text — not merely as an apparatus to Zhōu — is itself a remarkable editorial decision: it elevates the prosodic dimension of cí-composition to first-class textual status. The volume is the best single instrument for hearing what late-Southern-Sòng prosodists could and could not hear in the late-Northern-Sòng tunes.