Shíwǔ jiā cí 十五家詞
Fifteen Masters’ Lyrics edited by 孫默 (編)
About the work
The Shíwǔ jiā cí 十五家詞 is the great anthology of the early-Qīng cí revival: 37 juǎn in 15 component personal collections, edited and published by Sūn Mò 孫默 (Huángyuè shānrén) of Yángzhōu across 14 years (1664–1677). The 15 authors are: Wú Wěiyè 吳偉業 (Méicūn cí 梅村詞, 2 juǎn); Liáng Qīngbiāo 梁清標 (Tángcūn cí, 3 juǎn); Sòng Wǎn 宋琬 (Èrxiāngtíng cí, 2 juǎn); Cáo Ěrkān 曹爾堪 (Nánxī cí, 2 juǎn); Wáng Shìlù 王士祿 (Chuīwén cí, 2 juǎn); Yóu Tóng 尤侗 (Bǎimò cí, 2 juǎn); Chén Shìxiáng 陳世祥 (Héyǐng cí, 2 juǎn); Huáng Yǒng 黃永 (Xīnán cí, 2 juǎn); Lù Qiúkě 陸求可 (Yuèméi cí, 4 juǎn); Zōu Zhìmó 鄒祗謨 (Lìnóng cí, 2 juǎn); Péng Sūnyù 彭孫遹 (Yánlù cí, 3 juǎn); Wáng Shìzhēn 王士禎 (Yǎnbō cí, 2 juǎn); Dǒng Yǐníng 董以寧 (Róngdù cí, 3 juǎn); Chén Wéisōng 陳維崧 (Wūsī cí 烏絲詞, 4 juǎn); Dǒng Yú 董俞 (Yùfú cí, 2 juǎn). Each is preceded by the yuánxù of the personal collection and the contemporary editorial commentary.
Tiyao
Shíwǔ jiā cí, 37 juǎn. Edited by Sūn Mò of the present dynasty. Mò’s zì was Wúyán; a man of Xiūníng. The volume gathers cí of the present dynasty, 15 men in all: Wú Wěiyè Méicūn cí 2 juǎn; Liáng Qīngbiāo Tángcūn cí 3 juǎn; Sòng Wǎn Èrxiāngtíng cí 2 juǎn; Cáo Ěrkān Nánxī cí 2 juǎn; Wáng Shìlù Chuīwén cí 2 juǎn; Yóu Tóng Bǎimò cí 2 juǎn; Chén Shìxiáng Héyǐng cí 2 juǎn; Huáng Yǒng Xīnán cí 2 juǎn; Lù Qiúkě Yuèméi cí 4 juǎn; Zōu Zhìmó Lìnóng cí 2 juǎn; Péng Sūnyù Yánlù cí 3 juǎn; Wáng Shìzhēn Yǎnbō cí 2 juǎn; Dǒng Yǐníng Róngdù cí 3 juǎn; Chén Wéisōng Wūsī cí 4 juǎn; Dǒng Yú Yùfú cí 2 juǎn. Each is arranged within itself by xiǎolìng / zhōngdiào / chángdiào, with the personal collection’s original preface attached at the head and the contemporary critical evaluations at the end of each piece.
Now, Wáng Shìzhēn’s Jūyì lù 居易錄 records: “the bùyī of Xīnān, Sūn Mò, lives at Guǎnglíng; though poor he loved to entertain guests, and when a famous shì from any region of the empire came he would go on foot to visit him. He once told me he wanted to cross the Yangtze to Hǎiyán to call on Péng Shí 彭十 Xiànmén (Péng Sūnyù) for a new cí sequence — together with my own and Zōu Chéngcūn 邹程村’s work to print as a Sānjiā cí 三家詞.” Chén Wéisōng presented him a poem: “Qín Qī 秦七, Huáng Jiǔ 黄九 are fine indeed: but what has this to do with your fasting?” (i.e. Sūn Mò would skip meals to print fine cí; even the SòngYuán masters did not require him to fast.) The first cutting was in Kāngxī jiǎchén / 1664: Zōu Zhìmó, Péng Sūnyù, Wáng Shìzhēn — that is the “Sānjiā cí” of the Jūyì lù. By dīngwèi / 1667 it was supplemented with Cáo Ěrkān, Wáng Shìlù, Yóu Tóng — six men in all. In wùshēn / 1668 he added Chén Shìxiáng, Chén Wéisōng, Dǒng Yǐníng, Dǒng Yú — four more. The 15-man version was settled in dīngsì / 1677, fourteen years after the first cutting. The editor’s standard remained the biāobǎng shēngqì (literary-society advertising) of late-Míng times — a vice — but the early-Qīng best cí are essentially gathered here, and the volume is worth preserving for the guóchū (founding-era of the present dynasty) cultural document it is. Each piece’s appended evaluative comment is similar to xuǎnkè shíwén (selecting compositions for the examinations), a bad practice; we have deleted them all so as not to clutter the page. — Qiánlóng 46 / 1781, 12th month.
Abstract
The Shíwǔ jiā cí is the principal anthology of the early-Kāngxī cí revival — the cultural moment in which cí re-emerged as a major poetic genre after its YuánMíng eclipse. The 15 authors run from the early Wú Wěiyè (representing the late-Míng survivors) through Liáng Qīngbiāo and the Jìfǔ statesmen to the Yángzhōu / Chángzhōu (Yángxiànpài) circle around Chén Wéisōng and the Yǎnbō line around Wáng Shìzhēn. The volume’s growth from 3 → 6 → 10 → 15 authors across 14 years is itself the documentary record of how this revival self-consolidated. The Sìkù editors’ editorial decision to strip the apparatus of late-Míng wénshè-style critical commentary at the end of each piece — exactly as they had stripped the same apparatus from Cáo Zhēnjí’s Kēxuě cí KR4j0061 — is consistent with their general distaste for the biāobǎng habit. Modern editions of the Quán Qīng cí take the Shíwǔ jiā cí as a first-tier source.
Translations and research
- David R. McCraw, Chinese Lyricists of the Seventeenth Century (Hawaii, 1990) — major study of the Shí-wǔ jiā cí revival.
- Yán Dí-chāng 嚴迪昌, Qīng cí shǐ 清詞史 (Jiāng-sū gǔ-jí, 1990).
- Quán Qīng cí 全清詞 (Nán-jīng dà-xué) — collated texts.
- Stuart Sargent, “Tz’u,” in Mair, ed., Columbia History of Chinese Literature.
Other points of interest
Sūn Mò’s biography in the Sìkù tíyào — a bùyī poor but unstinting, walking on foot to find each fine poet, skipping meals to print their cí — became a culturally cherished image of the Kāngxī cí revival’s bohemian heroism. Chén Wéisōng’s quip (“Qín Qī and Huáng Jiǔ are fine indeed: but what has that to do with your fasting?”) is the most-cited single line about Sūn Mò.