Zhúpō cí 竹坡詞
Lyrics of the Bamboo Slope by 周紫芝 (撰)
About the work
The Zhúpō cí 竹坡詞 is the three-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Zhōu Zǐzhī 周紫芝 (1082–ca. 1155; zì Shǎoyǐn 少隱, hào Zhúpō jūshì 竹坡居士), of Xuānchéng 宣城. Zhōu’s other works — the Tàicāng tímǐ jí and the Zhúpō shīhuà — are separately catalogued; the present is the cí-only volume. The collection carries the Qiándào 2 / 1166 preface of Sūn Jīng 孫兢 of Gāoyóu, which records 148 cí in three juǎn — solving the discrepancy with Mǎ Duānlín 馬端臨’s one-juǎn figure. Zhōu’s son Lán 栞 re-cut the collection in Qiándào 9 / 1173, adding two later-found cí (Yì wángsūn as the closing juébǐ, plus Jiǎn zì mùlán huā and Cǎisāng zǐ); the present count of 150 matches Lán’s expanded form. Zhōu’s cí — by his own self-annotation at the close of the thirteen Zhègū tiān — were initially modelled on Yàn Jǐdào 晏幾道, and only in late years did he prune the floral surface to develop his own register; Sūn Jīng’s preface mistakenly names Zhāng Lěi 張耒 and Lǐ Zhīyí 李之儀 as his masters, but those are the masters of his shī and prose, not his cí.
Tiyao
Zhúpō cí, three juǎn, by Zhōu Zǐzhī of the Sòng. Zǐzhī has the Tàicāng tímǐ jí and the Zhúpō shīhuà separately catalogued. Mǎ Duānlín’s Wénxiàn tōngkǎo records Zhúpō cí in one juǎn; this is in three. The opening Gāoyóu Sūn Jīng preface says “split into three juǎn” — so the Tōngkǎo one-juǎn is in error. Sūn’s preface gives 148 cí; this text gives 150. Per his son Lán’s Qiándào 9 / 1173 re-cut colophon, the Yì wángsūn was the juébǐ; the first cutting ended at that piece; Jiǎn zì mùlán huā and Cǎisāng zǐ are pieces Lán recovered from lost drafts and appended at the end — hence the difference. The collection has thirteen Zhègū tiān; at the third-from-last Zǐzhī self-annotates: “I in my youth deeply loved Xiǎoyàn 晏幾道’s cí; therefore my compositions sometimes resemble his manner — these three are such; in late years I do not chant them with satisfaction, but include them here for the record.” So Zǐzhī’s cí-training was through Yàn Jǐdào; only late did he cut the ornate-floral and create his own register. Sūn Jīng’s preface saying he studied Zhāng Lěi in youth and Lǐ Zhīyí 李之儀 in maturity refers to shī and prose, not cí. Lán’s colophon says: the collection was first cut at Xúnyáng with many errors; he proof-read in person. But the XiāoXiāng yèyǔ tune in the collection is in fact Mǎn tíng fāng: the two tunes resemble each other but are not the same; the true XiāoXiāng yèyǔ tune is verified by a Zhào Yànduān 趙彥端 piece; this collection mistakes Mǎn tíng fāng for it; the Cí huì mistakenly combines the two into one; the Xuǎn shēng tradition under XiāoXiāng yèyǔ drops Zhào’s piece and keeps only Zhōu’s — error compounded. Dìng fēngbō lìng in juǎn 3 is in fact the Qín diào xiāngsī yǐn, also verified by a Zhào Yànduān piece; the proper Dìng fēngbō has its own standard form distinct from this. All these are mis-cuttings — probably later editorial reshuffling, not Lán’s hand-collation. — Compiled, Qiánlóng 44 / 1779, 8th month.
Abstract
The transmitted Zhúpō cí descends through Zhōu Lán’s Qiándào 9 / 1173 second cutting and the late-Míng Máo Jìn 毛晉 reissue. Modern editions: the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋 preserves the 150 cí. Zhōu’s birth-date 1082 is firmly established; his death is conventionally placed in the mid-Shàoxīng / early Lóngxīng period (ca. 1155), though no precise year is recorded. The biography (Sòng shǐ has no separate zhuàn; Sūn Jīng’s preface is the principal source) places him at the Xuānchéng gentry circle around Lǐ Zhīyí, who served at neighboring Tàipíngzhōu after his exile. The cí are conventionally periodized into a Yàn Jǐ-dào-affiliated xiǎolìng phase (early), a yìngzhì / banquet phase (Huīzōng-era), and a late post-southern-crossing private-retirement phase at Zhúpō.
Translations and research
- Wáng Zhào-péng 王兆鵬, Sòng nán-dù cí-rén yán-jiū — chapter on Zhōu Zǐ-zhī.
- Táng Guī-zhāng 唐圭璋 et al., Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1965; rev. 1999), vol. 2 — collated corpus.
Other points of interest
Sūn Jīng’s Qiándào 2 / 1166 preface preserves the canonical Sòngcí critical formula attributed to Cài Bóshì 蔡伯世 (Cài Tāo 蔡絛): “Sū Dōngpō: diction surpasses feeling; Liǔ Qíqīng: feeling surpasses diction; only Qín Shàoyóu 秦觀 balances both.” The formula — quoted in countless later treatises — finds its earliest textual location here. Lán’s Qiándào 9 colophon explaining the Yì wángsūn as the final brush-stroke is also one of the most explicit Sòng-era documents of cí posthumous editing.