Mínghuáng Zálù 明皇雜錄
Miscellaneous Records of Emperor Xuanzong by 鄭處誨
About the work
A bǐjì 筆記 in two juàn (upper/lower) with a supplement (bǔyí 補遺), compiled by 鄭處誨 Zhèng Chǔhuì and focused primarily on the reign of Tang Xuanzong 唐玄宗 (Emperor Ming 明皇, r. 712–756). The work records court anecdotes, accounts of Daoist practitioners and their interactions with the emperor, stories of Yang Guifei 楊貴妃, musicians, artists, and other cultural figures of the Kaiyuan-Tianbao golden age and its catastrophic end. It is an important source for Tang court culture and for the legendary elaboration of Xuanzong’s reign.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
鄭處誨 Zhèng Chǔhuì (fl. 844–864 CE; CBDB id 33161) was a late Tang official with biographies in both the Jiù Tángshū 舊唐書 (158.4168–9) and the Xīn Tángshū 新唐書 (75A.33b). He compiled the Mínghuáng Zálù looking back at Xuanzong’s court from the remove of roughly a century; his sources include court memorials, earlier bǐjì, oral tradition, and perhaps fragments from the Kāiyuán Tiānbǎo yíshì 開元天寶遺事.
The opening anecdote (regarding Fang Guan 房琯 and a Daoist fortune-teller named Hé Pǔ 和卜) is characteristic of the work’s mixture of Daoist supernatural lore and court politics. The work proceeds through anecdotes about Xuanzong’s personal predilections — his love of horses (the famous zhāo yè bái 照夜白), his patronage of court musicians and dancers, his relationship with Yang Guifei 楊貴妃, and his reliance on Gao Lishi 高力士 — alongside stories of Daoist adepts performing miracles at court. The supplement (bǔyí) adds additional items not included in the main text.
The text was included in the Sìkù quánshū and given a tiyao there. Zhèng Chǔhuì is one of a generation of late Tang bǐjì writers who consciously documented the vanished splendor of Xuanzong’s reign as a topos of dynastic nostalgia.
Translations and research
- 裴汝誠、許德楠 eds. 明皇雜錄 (combined with 諫證錄). Zhōnghuá, 1994. Standard critical edition.
- Schafer, Edward H. The Vermilion Bird: T’ang Images of the South. UC Press, 1967. — cites the text for cultural material.
- Twitchett, Denis. “Hsüan-tsung.” In The Cambridge History of China, vol. 3 (Sui and T’ang China). Cambridge UP, 1979, pp. 333–463.
Links
- Wikidata: no dedicated entry located