Huāān cíxuǎn 花菴詞選
Selected Lyrics from the Flower Hermitage edited by 黃昇 (編)
About the work
The Huāān cíxuǎn 花菴詞選 — also known as Juémiào cíxuǎn 絕妙詞選 — is the great Southern-Sòng cí anthology compiled by Huáng Shēng 黃昇 (hào Huāān cíkè 花菴詞客) and prefaced by him on the bǎiyī (hundredth day after winter solstice) of Chúnyòu jǐyǒu / 1249. In the WYG, the work appears in a single binding: ten juǎn “TángSòng zhūxián juémiào cíxuǎn” 唐宋諸賢絕妙詞選 (covering the late-Táng to Northern-Sòng poets) plus ten juǎn “Zhōngxīng yǐlái juémiào cíxuǎn” 中興以來絕妙詞選 KR4j0067 (covering Southern-Sòng poets from Kāng Yǔzhī 康與之 down to Hóng Cuǐ 洪瑹). 88 Southern-Sòng poets are anthologized in the second part; Huáng appended forty of his own cí at the end, following the precedent of Wáng Yì appending his own Chǔcí pieces. The principal critical innovation of the Huāān anthology, beyond its scope, is its biographical apparatus: each author is introduced with a brief notice of zì, hào, native place, and bibliographic stub — a feature that became the model for all subsequent Southern-Sòng cí-anthology design.
Tiyao
Huāān cíxuǎn, 10 juǎn; Xùjí 10 juǎn. Edited by Huáng Shēng of the Sòng. Shēng’s zì was Shūyáng 叔暘, hào Yùlín 玉林 (or Huāān cíkè 花菴詞客). Máo Jìn’s printing of the Liùshí jiā cí has Shēng miswritten as Zè 昃 and Shūyáng miswritten as Shūyáng 叔陽 — both errors corrected here per the seal-script and the textual witnesses already discussed under the Sànhuāān cí KR4j0056. The text is by Southern-Sòng cí-writers from Kāng Yǔzhī down to Hóng Cuǐ, in all 88 men, with Huáng’s own works appended at the end — together over 750 pieces. This is what is also called the Zhōngxīng yǐlái juémiào cíxuǎn. Huáng’s intent is to continue the tradition of Zhào Hóngzuò’s 趙崇祚 Huājiān jí KR4j0062 and Zēng Zào’s 曾慥 Yuèfǔ yǎcí KR4j0065; thus the very wide net. Under each writer’s name he adds several sentences of biographical detail, much to be welcomed in a critical anthology. But the writers number only this many, while his preface says “thousands” (得數百家) — a mild exaggeration. Huáng most reveres Jiāng Kuí, so the selections are predominantly diǎnyǎ qīngjùn (canonically refined and clean-edged), not at all the popular-text Cǎotáng shīyú line. Where Cǎotáng texts have many errors and many lost names, this anthology preserves them; the two can be cross-collated. — Qiánlóng 46 / 1781, 9th month.
Abstract
The Huāān cíxuǎn is composed of two parts, often catalogued separately in later bibliography:
- TángSòng zhūxián juémiào cíxuǎn 唐宋諸賢絕妙詞選 (10 juǎn): late-Táng, Five-Dynasties, and Northern-Sòng poets.
- Zhōngxīng yǐlái juémiào cíxuǎn 中興以來絕妙詞選 (10 juǎn) KR4j0067: Southern-Sòng poets (88 men) plus Huáng Shēng’s own 40 pieces.
These are bound in the Sìkù and the SBCK separately (the second being the better-known and more-cited part of the anthology, since its Southern-Sòng coverage is uniquely valuable). The 1249 dating reflects the surviving copy’s Chúnyòu preface; the Northern-Sòng selection was probably already complete by Chúnyòu 8 / 1248. Transmission is principally through Máo Jìn’s Jígǔgé and through the Shīrén yùxiè line. The collection’s biographical apparatus made it the favorite Southern-Sòng cí reference of the JīngYì kǎo compilers and of Zhū Yízūn (whose Cízōng KR4j0075 explicitly takes the Huāān cíxuǎn as a model).
Translations and research
- Stuart Sargent, “Tz’u,” in Mair, ed., Columbia History of Chinese Literature — extended treatment.
- Kang-i Sun Chang, The Evolution of Chinese Tz’u Poetry — situates the Huā-ān cí-xuǎn in Southern-Sòng cí anthologizing.
- Lin Shuen-fu, The Transformation of the Chinese Lyrical Tradition: Chiang K’uei and Southern Sung Tz’u Poetry (Princeton, 1978) — argues that the Huā-ān cí-xuǎn effectively canonized the Jiāng Kuí line.
- Wú Xióng-hé 吳熊和, Táng-Sòng cí tōng-lùn — anthology-history.
Other points of interest
Huáng’s biographical notices for the 88 Southern-Sòng poets — many of whom are otherwise undocumented — are the earliest extant record of basic life-data for a swathe of late-Sòng cí-poets, and underpin entries for these men in modern reference works (the Quán Sòng cí indices, Zhōngguó wénxué jiā dàcídiǎn, etc.). The pairing of selected anthology + editor’s own poems (the Wáng Yì / Xú Líng precedent) is a deliberate authorial gesture; Huáng wished to insert his own cí into the canon at the moment of constituting it.