Kèzhāi cí 克齋詞
Lyrics of the Self-Mastering Studio by 沈端節 (撰)
About the work
The Kèzhāi cí 克齋詞 is the one-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Shěn Duānjié 沈端節 (fl. Chúnxī, c. 1170–1200; zì Yuēzhī 約之), of Wúxīng 吳興 (or Lìyáng, Chángzhōu) but long-resident in Lìyáng. Per the Húzhōu fǔzhì and Lìyáng xiànzhì, Shěn moved his household to Lìyáng; held magistracies including Wúhúxiàn, Prefect of Héngzhōu, and Tíjǔ Jiāngdōng cháyán; reached Cháosàn dàifū by Chúnxī. The collection-title is wrongly given in those gazetteers as Chōngzhāi jí 充齋集 (“Filled Studio Collection”) — the Tíyào corrects to Kèzhāi 克齋 (Chōng and Kè being graphically similar). The collection preserves a little over forty cí, many bearing tune-titles without topical subtitles (the older Five-Dynasties practice in which the tune-title implicitly named the subject); the Tíyào takes this as evidence of editorial loss — the original subtitles being shed in transmission. The Niàn nú jiāo · Xún yōu lǎn shèng is read as autobiographical (the zìxiào piāolíng 自笑飄零 self-deprecation and yù guà yīguān shénwǔ 欲挂衣冠神武 retirement-topos confirm the senior-court position).
Tiyao
Kèzhāi cí, one juǎn, by Shěn Duānjié of the Sòng. Duānjié, zì Yuēzhī, a man of Wúxīng. The collection is seen in Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫’s Shūlù jiětí, but Chén too gives no details. Máo Jìn 毛晉’s colophon speculates that he is the same as the Shěn Huìzōng who composed at Jiǎ Yúnlǎo’s Tiáoshàng water-pavilion — no firm evidence. Only the Húzhōu fǔzhì and Lìyáng xiànzhì both record that Duānjié resided at Lìyáng, served as Magistrate of Wúhú, Prefect of Héngzhōu, Tíjǔ Jiāngdōng cháyán; in Chúnxī reached Cháosàn dàifū; their report must be founded. Only they record his cí-collection’s name as Chōngzhāi jí — Chōng and Kè are graphically close, hence the error. His cí number only forty-some, many with tune-titles but no topical-titles. Examining the Huājiān and like collections: tune is often subject (Nǚ guàn zǐ on women-Daoists, Hédú shén on receive-and-send divine songs, Yú měi rén on Lady Yú); late-Táng and Five-Dynasties cí originally so practiced; later writers steadily increased topical subtitles, so that title and tune no longer coincide. Where the běnshì (back-story) is not preserved, the cí-meaning is unclear. In the present collection — two Niàn nú jiāo call addressees as tàishǒu; first Qīng yù àn calls addressee shǐjūn; third Qīng yù àn calls addressee xián hóu — but to whom these are addressed cannot be known. The Niàn nú jiāo · Xún yōu lǎn shèng one cí seems to be Duānjié’s self-narration; per the in-cí lines zìxiào piāolíng jīng suìwǎn, yù guà yīguān shénwǔ, and Qúnyù túshū, Guǎnghán gōngdiàn, yīyī jīng xíng chù — Duānjié therefore must have once held a Capital post; but with the topic-titles lost, evidence is gone. Sòng cí collections seldom have this defect; suspect the original assigned both tune and topic, but transmitters in simplifying lopped them off. Cannot now be supplemented; preserved as is. His diction is restrained and graceful, of considerable taste; that he is not picked by the Huāān and Cǎotáng anthologies does not discount him.
Abstract
The transmitted Kèzhāi cí descends through Máo Jìn’s cutting. Modern editions: the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋 preserves around 43 cí. Shěn’s life is fragmentary in the record: the Tíyào’s reconstruction from gazetteer evidence is now standard. The collection is a useful witness to the cí as practised by a mid-Southern-Sòng provincial-and-court official in the Chúnxī decades, in a register inheriting the late-Northern-Sòng Yuányòu tradition. The systematic absence of topical-titles preserved by the Sìkù is noteworthy textually — a rare survival of the older Five-Dynasties cí-collection convention.
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.
Other points of interest
The Tíyào’s observation about the loss of topical-titles in this collection — and the contrasting late-Táng / Five-Dynasties practice in which tune-title was implicitly topical — is one of the most articulate Sìkù statements on the textual history of the cí-collection-form. The volume is a useful case study in paratextual attrition in the Sòng-to-Míng cí transmission.