Lúchuān cí 蘆川詞
Lyrics of the Reed-Stream by 張元幹 (撰)
About the work
The Lúchuān cí 蘆川詞 is the one-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Zhāng Yuángàn 張元幹 (1091–1170; zì Zhòngzōng 仲宗, hào Lúchuān jūshì 蘆川居士), the foremost cí-writer of the post-1127 patriotic-protest line. The collection — descending through the late-Míng Máo Jìn 毛晉 cutting from a Sòng-cut text — is set in canonical history by the two Hè xīn láng 賀新郎 cí that open it: one composed in Wùwǔ / Shàoxīng 8 / 1138 (the Tíyào corrects Máo Jìn’s Xīnyǒu / 1141 dating) for Hú Quán 胡銓 (胡銓) when Hú was banished to Xīnzhōu for his memorial demanding the execution of Qín Guì 秦檜; the other sent to Lǐ Gāng 李綱 (李綱) after Lǐ’s memorial against the SòngJīn peace treaty, also of Shàoxīng 8 / 1138. Both pieces cost Zhāng his official position. The Tíyào notes that these two head the collection deliberately — to mark the work’s political register. The remainder of the corpus is in fact “fluent and graceful” cí in the manner of Qín Guān 秦觀 and Zhōu Bāngyàn 周邦彥: Zhāng was a two-register writer.
Tiyao
Lúchuān cí, one juǎn, by Zhāng Yuángàn of the Sòng. Yuángàn has the Lúchuān guīlái jí separately catalogued. The Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì records his cí in two juǎn; Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫’s Shūlù jiětí records only one juǎn, agreeing with the present. Yuángàn took loyalty-and-righteousness as his self-mark; on the demotion of the dàizhì Hú Quán to Xīnzhōu he composed a Hè xīn láng in farewell, and was struck off the rolls for it. Per the Sòng shǐ Hú Quán zhuàn, Hú’s memorial seeking the execution of Qín Guì was in Wùwǔ / Shàoxīng 8 / 1138, 11th month; Yuángàn’s striking-off should be of this period. Máo Jìn 毛晉’s colophon dating it Xīnyǒu / 1141 is in error. Lǐ Gāng’s memorial against the peace treaty was likewise in Shàoxīng 8 / 1138, 11th month; Gāng was at that time Tíjǔ Dòngxiāogōng. Yuángàn composed a sending-cí for him too; this volume places these two cí at the head — clearly there is design in it. Their cí are heroic-grieving; centuries later, one can still feel his hindered-and-towering breath. But the rest of his cí are mostly clear-graceful and turning-restrained, on a plane with Qín Guān and Zhōu Bāngyàn. Máo Jìn’s colophon says: “People say he is fine in grief-and-rage; reading the Huāān and Cǎotáng selections, his cí are very tender-and-fine too” — well said. As to his praise of sǎ chuāngjiān wéi jìxuě 洒窓間惟稷雪 quoting the Máo shī shū — that case is plausible-seeming but not real; cí takes běnsè (natural register) as the hardest thing; it prizes neither obscure characters nor weighty ones; jìxuě 稷雪 in a cí is finally a biégé (variant register) and cannot be a standard. The Hè chōng tiān 鶴沖天 tune should be Xǐ qiān yīng 喜遷鶯; Jìn notes “previously erroneously Xǐ qiān yīng, now corrected to Hè chōng tiān” — not knowing that Xǐ qiān yīng is also called Hè chōng tiān from Wéi Zhuāng’s Xǐ qiān yīng line zhēng kàn hè chōng tiān 爭看鶴沖天 — but that other tune has only 47 characters; Yuángàn properly uses this form; Jìn took the late name as standard and called the proper name an error — yet more loose proof-reading. We have deleted this note and appended the correction here.
Abstract
The transmitted Lúchuān cí descends through Máo Jìn’s late-Míng cutting from a Sòng-cut original. Modern editions: the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋 preserves around 184 cí; the principal modern critical edition is Cào Jǐpíng 曹濟平, Lúchuān cí jiàozhù 蘆川詞校注 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 1991). Zhāng’s biography is anchored in his Lúchuān guīlái jí and supporting historical sources: jìnshì of Zhènghé 2 / 1112; service under Lǐ Gāng during the 1126 Bianjing siege; demoted with Lǐ; later restored and serving in the southern circuits through Shàoxīng; broken from the rolls in 1138 for the two Hè xīn láng pieces; long retirement at Lúchuān (Yǒngfúxiàn, modern Fújiàn); death in Qiándào 6 / 1170. The two-Hè xīn láng are the canonical Sòng-era cí of explicit political opposition to the zhǔhé (peace) faction. The remainder of the corpus is in the courtly-private register — the Tíyào’s “QínZhōu” parallel, accurate as a stylistic note but understating the patriotic register that defines half the canon.
Translations and research
- Cào Jǐ-píng 曹濟平, Lú-chuān cí jiào-zhù 蘆川詞校注 (Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí, 1991) — the standard modern critical edition.
- Wáng Zhào-péng 王兆鵬, Sòng nán-dù cí-rén yán-jiū 宋南渡詞人研究 — extended chapter.
- Táng Guī-zhāng 唐圭璋 et al., Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1965; rev. 1999), vol. 2.
- David Hawkes, “The Sources of the Tz’u,” in J.D. Frodsham, ed., Studies in Chinese Lyrical Poetry (Australian National University, 1971) — context on the patriot-cí tradition.
Other points of interest
The Hè xīn láng · Sòng Hú Bānghéng dàizhì biǎn Xīnzhōu 賀新郎·送胡邦衡待制謫新州 (1138) — its closing liángyè dú yǐ yǐ, bēifēng tī 涼夜獨倚兮悲風悽 type cadence — and Hè xīn láng · Jì Lǐ Bójì zhàngshǐ 賀新郎·寄李伯紀丈師 are the locus classicus of the Sòng patriot-cí of explicit political opposition. Both have been continuously anthologized from the Sòng to modern times as central texts of the post-1127 literary resistance. The Tíyào’s correction of Máo Jìn’s Xīnyǒu / 1141 dating against the Sòng shǐ record of Hú Quán’s memorial is one of the most cited cases of philological dating in the cí-tradition.
Links
- Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhāng Yuángàn)
- Wikipedia 張元幹
- Wikidata Q15903943