Xīxiāng yuèfǔ 惜香樂府
Yuè-fǔ Cherishing the Fragrance by 趙長卿 (撰)
About the work
The Xīxiāng yuèfǔ 惜香樂府 is the ten-juǎn Sìkù cí collection of Zhào Chángqīng 趙長卿 (fl. late twelfth / early thirteenth century; zì uncertain, self-styled Xiānyuán jūshì 仙源居士), of Nánfēng 南豐 (Jiāngxī), an imperial-clan (zōngshì 宗室) gentleman. The collection has an unusual editorial structure — uniquely so in the Sòng cí-canon: it is divided not by juǎn-sequence but by season, Chūnjǐng 春景 (3 juǎn) + Xiàjǐng 夏景 (1) + Qiūjǐng 秋景 (1) + Dōngjǐng 冬景 (1) + Zǒngcí 總詞 (3) + Shíyí 拾遺 (1). The Máo Jìn 毛晉 colophon attributes this scheme to a contemporary xiānggòng jìnshì Liú Zé 劉澤; the Sìkù tíyào finds the structure ungainly and notes mis-categorizations (a willow-piece classed under summer, a Yǒngyù lè under autumn that should be winter). The collection contains around 339 cí (one of the largest single-author Sòng cí corpora after Xīn Qìjí 辛棄疾), making Zhào Chángqīng a major if minor-rated writer — the Tíyào characterizes him as “easygoing about advancement, content with wine-and-poem self-pleasure, casually composing — getting plain-distant, sparse-quiet effects.”
Tiyao
Xīxiāng yuèfǔ, 10 juǎn, by Zhào Chángqīng of the Sòng. Chángqīng self-styled Xiānyuán jūshì, a man of Nánfēng, zōngshìzǐ. The collection: chūnjǐng 3 juǎn, xiàjǐng 1, qiūjǐng 1, dōngjǐng 1, zǒngcí 3, shíyí 1. Per Máo Jìn 毛晉’s colophon, the layout was made by his contemporary xiānggòng jìnshì Liú Zé; the scheme is awkward. And in xiàjǐng — Jiǎn zì mùlán huā · yǒng liǔ (chanting willow) belongs to spring; Shūtáng chūn · Niǎnxià yóu Xīhú (riding under [his] palanquin around West Lake) belongs to spring; in dōngjǐng — Yǒngyù lè belongs to autumn — sorting also imperfect. The cí mixes flaw and merit: juǎn 2 Shuǐlóng yín 4th uses liǎo-shǎo-qiào rhyme with zhòu-xiù — pure Jiāngyòu dialect — not standard prosody; juǎn 5 Yī jiǎn méi tail cáixià méi jiān, qiàshàng xīntóu — verbatim copying Lǐ Qīngzhào’s 李清照 original two characters altered — bordering on turning-gold-to-iron; juǎn 6 Dāodāo lìng purely bàitǐ (clown register), already Běiqǔ (Yuán-zaju). To juǎn 7 Yī cóng huā — matching Zhāng Xiān 張先; front-half line-4 Zhāng’s 3+4, here 7-character one line; back-half last 3 lines Zhāng’s 4+4+5, here 3+5+5 — even prosody widely incompatible. But Chángqīng is content-and-not-pressing about advancement; wine-and-poem self-pleasing; chant casually as he likes; mostly gets plain-distant, sparse-quiet taste; one-spot blemishes do not warrant rejection. Others: Xiǎo chóng shān front-half tail line uses shūyǔ yùn rù bājiāo — 6 characters — also non-tune-rule; perhaps Máo’s cut wrongly added two characters. The juǎn 6 méicí one piece titled Yī jiǎn méi, noted “some cut Tān pò chǒu núér” — that tune is not Yī jiǎn méi; should follow the variant title. juǎn 5’s Sì niángér = juǎn 8’s Qīngxìngér = same tune also called Chǒu núér; Jìn notes “Sì niángér: some cut Qīngxìngér”; “Qīngxìngér: old cut Tān pò chǒu núér — wrong” — not knowing the error is in Tān pò two characters; Chǒu núér is not wrong; another Míng proof-reading flaw, not Chángqīng’s fault. — Compiled, Qiánlóng 46 / 1781, 9th month.
Abstract
The transmitted Xīxiāng yuèfǔ descends through Máo Jìn’s cutting and the Liú Zé seasonal arrangement; modern editions (the Quán Sòng cí of Táng Guīzhāng 唐圭璋) preserve a corpus of around 339 cí. Zhào’s exact life-dates are unrecorded; his chángchóu network places him in the late Guāngzōng / Níngzōng decades (c. 1185–1230). Among Sòng-imperial-clan cí-writers — Zhào Yànduān 趙彥端, Zhào Shīshǐ 趙師使, Zhào Yǐfū 趙以夫 — Zhào Chángqīng has the largest corpus and is conventionally placed at the head of the Sòng zōngshì cí tradition.
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. 4 — collated corpus.
Other points of interest
The seasonal-classified editorial structure of the Xīxiāng yuèfǔ is unique among Sòng single-author cí-collections; it is the closest a personal collection comes to imitating the cí-anthology arrangements of the Huājiān jí KR4j0062 and the Yuèfǔ yǎcí KR4j0065. The Tíyào’s sustained dissatisfaction with the scheme — and detailed enumeration of mis-classifications — is a textbook case of Sìkù editorial taste preferring chronological or genre-based ordering.