Jièān cí 介菴詞
Lyrics of the Plain-Hermitage by 趙彥端 (撰)
About the work
The Jièān cí 介菴詞 is the one-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Zhào Yànduān 趙彥端 (1121–1175; zì Dézhuāng 德莊, hào Jièān 介菴), seventh-generation descendant of Wèiwáng Tíngměi 魏王廷美 (third son of Sòng Tàizǔ’s father — i.e. an imperial-clan member). Zhào served as Prefect of Jiànníngfǔ during Qiándào–Chúnxī, with the Zhí Bǎowéngé title; ended as Zuǒ sī lángguān. The collection survives in Máo Jìn 毛晉’s late-Míng cutting, derived from a Wénxiàn tōngkǎo one-juǎn text, though the Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì recorded both a Jièān jí in 10 juǎn + wài jí in 3 juǎn and a Jièān cí in 4 juǎn — most lost. Gāozōng famously praised Zhào’s Yè jīn mén · West-Lake 謁金門·西湖 line bō dǐ xiéyáng hóng shī 波底斜陽紅濕 (“at the wave’s bottom, the slanting sun’s red, drenched”); the imperial verdict was Wǒ jiā lǐ rén yě huì zuò cǐ děng yǔ 我家裡人也會作此等語 (“even our own household-people can write such language” — i.e., a clansman as good a cí-poet as any).
Tiyao
Jièān cí, one juǎn, by Zhào Yànduān of the Sòng. Yànduān, zì Dézhuāng, hào Jièān, seventh-generation descendant of Wèiwáng Tíngměi. Qiándào and Chúnxī he was Zhí Bǎowéngé and governed Jiànníngfǔ; ended Zuǒ sī lángguān. The Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì records Yànduān’s Jièān jí in 10 juǎn, wài jí in 3 juǎn; and Jièān cí in 4 juǎn. Mǎ Duānlín’s Jīngjí kǎo gives only Jièān cí in one juǎn. The present text was cut by Máo Jìn — also only one juǎn, agreeing with the Tōngkǎo; but per the colophon at end, it appears the old cut was scattered and only this juǎn survives — uncertain. Yànduān composed a Yè jīn mén · Xīhú with the line bō dǐ xiéyáng hóng shī — which Gāozōng liked, saying “our own household-folk can also produce such language” — a verdict on it. His other pieces too are mostly grace-and-restraint, no shame to a master. At the end ten Zhègū tiān for the jiǎojì (entertaining girls) of Jīngkǒu — Xiāo Xiù 蕭秀, Xiāo Yíng 蕭瑩, Ōu Yì 歐懿, Sāng Yǎ 桑雅, Liú Yǎ 劉雅, Ōu Qiàn 歐倩, Wén Xiù 文秀, Wáng Wǎn 王婉, Yáng Lán 楊蘭, Wú Yù 吳玉 — the cí-register is vulgar-and-low, with no merit; their names listed in-collection is moreover a Běilǐ zhì (Pleasure-Quarter Record) gesture quite at odds with elegant sound. From TángSòng on, shìdàfū were not banned from indulging in such; Yànduān’s pieces are immersed in custom; preserve them without comment. — Compiled, Qiánlóng 46 / 1781, 10th month.
Abstract
The transmitted Jièān cí descends through Máo Jìn’s late-Míng cutting; modern editions (the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋) preserve a corpus of around 142 cí. Zhào’s birth-date 1121 and death-date 1175 are confirmed. The Sòng-imperial-clan attachment links Zhào to the broader SòngZhào cí-tradition (Zhào Shīshǐ 趙師使, Zhào Chángqīng 趙長卿, Zhào Yǐfū 趙以夫). The Gāozōng anecdote — preserved widely in Sòng bǐjì — is the principal early imperial endorsement of the cí form within the Sòng court; the Wǒ jiā lǐ rén dictum became a topos for inter-clan literary self-congratulation. The ten Jīngkǒu jì-cí (Zhègū tiān set) at the end of the collection are a useful prosopographical record of the Línān / Jiànkāng entertainment-quarter as it existed in the Qiándào years.
Translations and research
- Táng Guī-zhāng 唐圭璋 et al., Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 1965; rev. 1999), vol. 3 — collated corpus.
- Wáng Zhào-péng 王兆鵬, Sòng dài cí-rén nián-pǔ — Zhào Yàn-duān chronology.
Other points of interest
The Wǒ jiā lǐ rén yě huì zuò cǐ děng yǔ anecdote is the locus classicus for the Sòng-imperial-clan cí tradition — implicitly endorsing the form within the Zhào family network that ran continuously from Tàizǔ’s siblings through to the Southern Sòng’s literary-clan members.