Jiàxuān cí 稼軒詞
Lyrics of [Xīn] Jià-xuān by 辛棄疾 (撰)
About the work
The Jiàxuān cí 稼軒詞 is the four-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Xīn Qìjí 辛棄疾 (1140–1207; zì Yòuān 幼安, hào Jiàxuān jūshì 稼軒居士) — the supreme master of the háofàng 豪放 line of the cí and, by common reckoning, one of the two greatest cí-writers of the Sòng (with Sū Shì 蘇軾) and one of its great patriots: a youth who had fought against the Jīn in Jiāběi, who joined the Sòng with a group of insurgents in 1162, and who spent the rest of his life proposing northern recovery and being repeatedly dismissed from office. Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫’s Shūlù jiětí records the Jiàxuān cí in four juǎn (the “Chángshā cut”) with a note that the “Xìnzhōu cut” was in twelve juǎn. The Sìkù form is the four-juǎn Máo Jìn 毛晉 cutting, evidently a Cháng-shā-line descendant. The Tíyào’s verdict — “his cí is mighty-and-roaming, freewheeling, with the air of looking down on his whole age; in the cí-form he is a biàndiào (variant register) and a special army rising apart, who outside the cut-flower decorative line stands up to found a separate school that has not lost ground to this day” — is the canonical historiographical placement. The Tíyào also preserves Yuè Kē 岳珂’s Téngshǐ anecdote: Xīn would chant out his Hè xīn láng and Yǒngyù lè and ask his guests to point out flaws; on hearing the criticism that the Hè xīn láng’s opening and closing stanzas had similar phrasing and the Yǒngyù lè used too many allusions, Xīn revised the cí in tens of versions over months — proof that even the háofàng-master’s compositions were the product of painstaking craft.
Tiyao
Jiàxuān cí, four juǎn, by Xīn Qìjí of the Sòng. Qìjí has the Nánjǐn jìwén separately catalogued. His cí is heroic-and-vertical, with the air of looking down on the whole age; in the cí-form he is a biàndiào (variant register) and a special army rising apart; outside the cut-flower decorative line he stands up to found a separate school; to this day it has not given way. From his outstanding talent and bold breath, his cí seem to come from the brush in one stroke; yet Yuè Kē’s Téngshǐ records that Xīn would self-recite his Hè xīn liáng and Yǒngyù lè, asking guests for criticism; Kē said the Hè xīn liáng opening and closing stanzas’ phrasing resembles, and the Yǒngyù lè uses too many allusions; Xīn then revised his diction over tens of versions in months and still had not stopped — his deliberate effort thus. Indeed not always miàoshǒu ǒudé (lucky fortune). Shūlù jiětí records Jiàxuān cí in four juǎn, also notes “Xìnzhōu cut in 12 juǎn, more than Chángshā cut.” The present text was cut by Máo Jìn also in four juǎn, with a note in the zǒngmù “original 12 juǎn” — presumably the Xìnzhōu cut compressed. The collection has long had errors: e.g. Chǒu núér jìn in juǎn 2, front half is Chǒu núér jìn but tail is missing; from Fēi liú wàn hè onward, the entire piece is from Dòng xiān gē — clearly the old cutting wrongly tore the first piece of the Dòng xiān gē (five pieces follow next) into the Chǒu núér jìn gap; in the resulting five-Dòng xiān gē set only four now stand. Wàn Shù 萬樹’s Cí lǜ KR4j0087 sorts this out clearly; this text has not yet been corrected. The line tàn qīngshān mào jǐxǔ hóng chén — by sense, above mào a character is dropped; Wàn too had not gone over it; cleaning-the-leaves trope cited! We have now fully proof-read; uncleansible places we follow quē yí convention. — Compiled, Qiánlóng 44 / 1779, 2nd month.
Abstract
The transmitted Jiàxuān cí descends through Máo Jìn’s late-Míng cutting in four juǎn, derived from the Sòng “Xìnzhōu cut” of twelve juǎn by way of compression. Modern critical editions — Dèng Guǎngmíng 鄧廣銘, Jiàxuān cí biānnián jiānzhù 稼軒詞編年箋註 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, rev. 1993) is the standard — reconstruct a corpus of around 626 cí, the largest single-author cí corpus of the Sòng. Xīn’s biography (Sòng shǐ 401; Dèng Guǎngmíng’s Xīn Jiàxuān niánpǔ) anchors the chronology: born in Shàoxīng 10 / 1140 in Lìchéng (Jǐnán); joined the Jīn-resisting insurgent army of Gěng Jīng 耿京 at age 22; led a 50-man raid into the Jīn camp to capture the defector Zhāng Ānguó 張安國 in 1162 (one of the iconic exploits of Sòng history) and brought him to the Sòng court for execution; served as Vice-Magistrate and Prefect across the southern circuits through Lóngxīng–Chúnxī; long forced retirement at his Shàngráo 上饒 Jiàxuān estate during Chúnxī–Shàoxī (the years of his greatest cí production); briefly recalled to office under Hán Tuōzhòu 韓侂胄’s Kāixǐ Běifá preparations; died disillusioned in Kāixǐ 3 / 1207 just as the campaign was failing. His cí fall by convention into: youthful Jīn-resistance pieces; mature serving-official pieces (Yǒngyù lè · Qiāngǔ jiāngshān, Mó yú ér · Gēng néng xiāo); long Shàngráo retirement pieces (the Jiàxuān period); and the late Kāixǐ recall pieces.
Translations and research
- Irving Lo, Hsin Ch’i-chi (Twayne, 1971) — the standard English-language critical study.
- Dèng Guǎng-míng 鄧廣銘, Jià-xuān cí biān-nián jiān-zhù 稼軒詞編年箋註 (Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí, rev. 1993) — the standard modern critical edition; also Dèng’s Xīn Jià-xuān nián-pǔ 辛稼軒年譜 (Shàng-hǎi rén-mín, rev. 1979).
- Liú Yáng-zhōng 劉揚忠, Xīn Qì-jí cí xīn shì jí píng 辛棄疾詞新釋輯評 (Zhōng-guó shū-diàn, 2006).
- Cui Jie 崔潔, Sòng Xīn Qì-jí yán-jiū 宋辛棄疾研究 — collected modern essays.
- Stephen Owen, Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, ch. on Sòng cí (with Kang-i Sun Chang) — extended placement of Xīn.
Other points of interest
The Yuè Kē Téngshǐ anecdote of Xīn’s self-correction across tens of versions of a single cí is the locus classicus for the artisanal-craft reading of Xīn against the háofàng myth of inspired ease. The Yǒngyù lè · Qiāngǔ jiāngshān (composed at Jīngkǒu, Kāixǐ 1 / 1205, with its closing Píng shuí wèn, Lián Pō lǎo yǐ, shàng néng fàn fǒu 憑誰問，廉頗老矣，尚能飯否) is the single most-quoted Xīn cí and one of the most cited in all Chinese literature. Liú Kèzhuāng 劉克莊’s judgment, preserved in the Tíyào — “always carrying his book-bag, that’s a real fault” 時掉書袋要是一病 — is the canonical critical comment on Xīn’s heavy use of allusion.
Links
- Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (Xīn Qìjí)
- Wikipedia 辛棄疾
- Wikidata Q316208