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無住詞

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Text ID
KR4j0026
Date
1115–1138
Dynasty
宋

Wúzhù cí 無住詞

Lyrics of No-Abiding by 陳與義 (撰)

About the work

The Wú-zhù cí 無住詞 is the slim (eighteen cí) Sìkù cí collection of Chén Yǔ-yì 陳與義 (1090–1138; zì Qù-fēi 去非, hào Jiǎn-zhāi 簡齋), the foremost Sòng-Jīn-transition shī-poet of the Jiāng-xī school and one of Fāng Huí 方回’s “Three Patriarchs” of shī (under Dù Fǔ as ancestor, Chén alongside Huáng Tíng-jiān 黃庭堅 and Chén Shī-dào 陳師道). The title comes from his late retreat Wú-zhù-ān 無住菴 (“Hermitage of No-Abiding” — the prajñā term apratiṣṭhita) at Qīng-dūn 青墩. Though few in number and without long-form màn-cí, his cí are unanimously rated at the top: Huáng Shēng 黃昇’s Huā-ān cí xuǎn says they “can rub shoulders with Dōng-pō 蘇軾’s rampart”; Hú Zǐ 胡仔’s Tiáo-xī yú-yǐn cóng-huà calls them qīng-wǎn qí-lì 清婉竒麗 (“clear-restrained, marvellous-resplendent”). The canonical Lín jiāng xiān · Xìng-huā shū-yǐng 臨江仙·杏花疏影 — opening yì xī wǔ-qiáo qiáo-shàng yǐn 憶昔午橋橋上飲 and turning on the famous xìng-huā shū-yǐng lǐ, chuī dí dào tiān míng 杏花疏影裏，吹笛到天明 (“under the apricot’s sparse shadow, blowing the flute till dawn”) — has been since the Sòng one of the supreme single cí of the canon.

Tiyao

Wúzhù cí, one juǎn, by Chén Yǔyì of the Sòng. Yǔyì has the Jiǎnzhāi jí separately catalogued. Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫’s Shūlù jiětí records Wúzhù cí in one juǎn; its residence had the Wúzhùān, hence the title. Yǔyì’s shī takes Lǎo Dù [Dù Fǔ] as model; in his day the verdict went “after ChénHuáng no one surpassed him.” His cí are few and have no long form, but the diction’s meaning is excellent. Huáng Shēng 黃昇’s Huāān cí xuǎn says he can rub shoulders with Dōngpō’s rampart, and the lines of Yú měi rén · jí zhì táohuā kāi hòu què cōngcōng and Lín jiāng xiān · xìnghuā shūyǐng lǐ chuīdí dào tiānmíng are praised; Hú Zǐ’s Yúyǐn cónghuà also calls them clear-restrained, marvellous-resplendent — clearly his cí was esteemed at the time. The present text was cut by Máo Jìn 毛晉, just eighteen cí, but the diction is heaven-plucked — does not assume the Liǔ-shedding-oriole-coquetting manner, nor the vegetable-and-bamboo (Buddhist-monkish) taste; almost every single one is transmissible. One cannot ignore them for fewness. Fāng Huí’s Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ makes Dù Fǔ the founder, Huáng Tíngjiān, Chén Shīdào, and Yǔyì the sānzōng (three patriarchs); judged on cí, Shīdào is awkward in his learning, Tíngjiān is mixed in his sharpness — both far from Yǔyì’s adversary. The opening Fǎjià dǎoyǐn 法駕導引 three pieces — Yǔyì has self-annotated them as imitations; yet various editions credit them to Chìchéng Hán fūrén and list them as xiānguǐ class; cross-reference to this collection corrects the xiǎoshuō’s falsehood.

Abstract

The transmitted Wúzhù cí in the Máo Jìn cutting contains eighteen cí; later editors (Bái Dūnrén 白敦仁, Chén Yǔyì jí jiàojiān 陳與義集校箋, Shànghǎi gǔjí, 1990) restore one additional piece and confirm a corpus of nineteen. Chén’s cí are dated through his life: an early Biànjīng / Yánzhōu group; a southern-flight period (Jiànyán / 1127–1130) during which he composed in flight from the Jīn troops, including the Língjiāng xiān · Xìnghuā shūyǐng (composed at Yuèzhōu 越州, 1130); and a Shàoxīng late retreat at Qīngdūn / Wúzhùān (1135–1138, when he served as Vice-Director of the Imperial Secretariat). The Fǎjià dǎoyǐn set — self-annotated as imitations of a fictional immortal voice — became one of the most-imitated tune-pieces in late-Sòng cí, and Chén’s correction of the Chìchéng Hán fūrén attribution preserved by the Tíyào is the foundational textual fact restoring them to him.

Translations and research

  • Bái Dūn-rén 白敦仁, Chén Yǔ-yì jí jiào-jiān 陳與義集校箋 (Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí, 1990) — the standard modern edition.
  • Michael Fuller, Drifting among Rivers and Lakes: Southern Song Dynasty Poetry and the Problem of Literary History (Harvard, 2013) — chapter on Chén Yǔ-yì’s transitional position.
  • Stuart Sargent, “Can Latecomers Get There First?: Sung Poets and T’ang Poetry,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 4.2 (1982), 165–198 — on Chén’s relation to Dù Fǔ.
  • 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.

Other points of interest

The Lín jiāng xiān · Xìnghuā shūyǐng is the single cí most cited from the SòngJīn transition: its evocation of pre-1127 Biànjīng Wǔqiáo gatherings, viewed from post-1127 Yuèzhōu exile, made it the canonical “lost-world” cí and a model for the later jìyóu (recollection-of-travels) cí-form. The Tíyào’s preservation of the Fǎjià dǎoyǐn attribution-correction is the locus classicus for distinguishing the Chén Yǔyì pieces from the spurious xiānguǐ anthology pieces wrongly assigned to Chìchéng Hán fūrén.

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