Jiǔbiān cí 酒邊詞
Lyrics by the Wine-Cup by 向子諲 (撰)
About the work
The Jiǔbiān cí 酒邊詞 is the two-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Xiàng Zǐyīn 向子諲 (1086–1152; zì Bógōng 伯恭, hào Xiānglín jūshì 薌林居士), maternal-great-nephew of Empress Qīnshèng Xiànsù 欽聖憲肅后 and one of the most prominent literary officials of the SòngJīn transition. Xiàng’s life-arc — peace-time yìngzhì poet in the Huīzōng court, war-time defender of Tánzhōu 潭州 against the Jīn invasion, post-1142 retiree at Qīngjiāng 清江 (after refusing to serve Qín Guì 秦檜) — produces the explicit two-volume structure of this collection: the xià (lower) volume Jiāngběi jiù cí 江北舊詞 (“Old Lyrics from North of the River”) gathers Huīzōng-era pieces, the shàng (upper) volume Jiāngnán xīn cí 江南新詞 (“New Lyrics from South of the River”) gathers post-southern-crossing pieces. Hú Yín 胡寅’s original preface — one of the most cited single Sòng essays on cí-history — is preserved at the head of the volume; it formulates the classic Liǔ Yǒng 柳永 → Sū Shì 蘇軾 genealogy of the cí and praises Xiàng as a “Sūtáng” 蘇堂 (“Sū-court”) follower who has tasted of the master’s substantial meat.
Tiyao
Jiǔbiān cí, two juǎn, by Xiàng Zǐyīn of the Sòng. Zǐyīn, zì Bógōng, a man of Línjiāng, distant nephew of Empress Qīnshèng Xiànsù; in early Yuánfú he was admitted to office on grace, and under Gāozōng reached Huīyóugé zhí xuéshì and Prefect of Píngjiāngfǔ; biography in the Sòng shǐ. Late in life he resisted Qín Guì, retired, and built his residence at Qīngjiāng’s Wǔliǔfāng, Yáng Zūndào guānglù’s separate estate; called his residence Xiānglín. He composed a 7-character quatrain to mark the event and amplified its music into a Zhègū tiān. Lóu Yào 樓鑰’s Gōngkuì jí records the matter, but Lóu speaks only of his shī, not his cí. And Zǐyīn’s hào Xiānglín — per the Xījiāng yuè “Wǔliǔfāng zhōng yān lǜ” self-annotation, should be set in the Zhènghé period; Lóu had not researched in full. Mǎ Duānlín’s Jīngjí kǎo records Jiǔbiān cí in one juǎn; the Yuèfǔ jìwén gives four. The present text was cut by Máo Jìn 毛晉 in two: upper Jiāngnán xīn cí, lower Jiāngběi jiù cí — the xīn cí’s self-annotation cyclical dates are all Shàoxīng; the jiù cí’s self-annotation cyclical dates are all Zhènghé / Xuānhé. The volume opens with Hú Yín’s preface: “withdrew the post-river-crossing compositions to the back; advanced the pre-river-crossing compositions to the front; from a withered-tree mind he produces flowering branches; from the cup of grain-water he discards distilled flavours.” Reading the cí — the collection seems to have been edited by Zǐyīn himself. But the Jiǎn zì mùlán huā · Xié hóng dié cuì one piece self-annotates “Shàoxīng rénshēn spring, at Xiānglín the ruìxiāng came into full bloom; I composed this cí; this year on 3rd-month-16th the duke departed; this is the duke’s last brush-stroke” — so already posterity has done some inserting; cí later than this are many; the dates are not arranged by cyclical sequence — clearly posterity has further reshuffled it, not the original. The Huàn xī shā · Yǒng yánguì second cí — biéyàng qīngfēn pūbí lái — note: “Zēng Duānbó 曾端伯 matched”; clearly Duānbó’s matching cí appended into the collection, yet the original index treats it as Zǐyīn’s cí, with title Huàn xī shā shíèr shǒu — not the original arrangement, clearly. — Compiled, Qiánlóng 44 / 1779, 8th month.
Abstract
The transmitted Jiǔbiān cí is the Sìkù form of a two-juǎn text divided into the Jiāngběi jiù cí (pre-1127) and Jiāngnán xīn cí (post-1127) — one of the most explicit period-divided personal collections in the Sòng. Modern editions: the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋 preserves around 174 cí; Wáng Zhàopéng 王兆鵬’s Sòng nándù círén yánjiū contains an extended chapter. Xiàng’s biography (Sòng shǐ 377; Wáng Zhìfāng 王質方’s Xiàng wénjiǎn gōng niánpǔ) anchors the periodization: Zhènghé–Xuānhé service in the capital and southern circuits; Jiànyán defense of Tánzhōu against Wáng Zhuó’s Jīn troops (1129–1130); restoration under Shàoxīng; retirement to Qīngjiāng after refusing Qín Guì’s terms (post-1142); death in Shàoxīng 22 / 1152. Hú Yín’s preface, framing the cí genealogy as Huājiān → Liǔ Yǒng → Sū Shì with Sū as the breaker of “qǐluó xiāngzé” 綺羅香澤 (silken-scented) decadence and the inaugurator of yì huái hào qì 逸懷浩氣 (free-breast / mighty-breath), is a foundational document of Sòng cí-criticism — quoted by every later treatise from the Sìkù tíyào of the Dōngpō cí KR4j0005 onward.
Translations and research
- Hú Yín 胡寅 (1098–1156), preface to Jiǔ-biān cí — translated in part in Stephen Owen, Readings in Chinese Literary Thought (Harvard, 1992).
- Wáng Zhào-péng 王兆鵬, Sòng nán-dù cí-rén yán-jiū 宋南渡詞人研究 — extended chapter on Xiàng Zǐ-yīn.
- 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.
- Sòng shǐ 377 — zhuàn of Xiàng Zǐ-yīn.
Other points of interest
Hú Yín’s preface to the Jiǔbiān cí is the locus classicus of the Sū-led háofàng line in Sòngcí historiography: the dichotomy “Huājiān wèi zàolì, Liǔshì wèi yútái” 花間為皁隸，柳氏為輿臺 (“Huājiān is the menial, Liǔ is the carriage-driver”; both relegated to servant-tier compared to Sū) was the founding formulation that the Sìkù, Wāng Sēn 汪森, and modern textbooks all reproduce. The volume’s explicit Jiāngběi / Jiāngnán split is the most articulate structural response in personal-collection terms to the 1127 catastrophe.
Links
- Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Xiàng Zǐyīn)
- Wikipedia 向子諲
- Wikidata Q15914062