Xīnkān Dàsòng Xuānhé Yíshì 新刊大宋宣和遺事
Newly Printed Surviving Events of the Great Song’s Xuanhe Period
About the work
An anonymous vernacular prose narrative preserved in a Yuan-period printing (the “newly printed,” xīnkān, title signals a Yuan reissue of earlier material). Organized in four sections labeled with the four trigrams-derived terms yuán 元, hēng 亨, lì 利, zhēn 貞 (from the Yìjīng hexagram qián), the text covers Chinese history from the Yellow Emperor through the fall of the Northern Song in 1127 CE. The “Xuanhe period” (Xuānhé 宣和, 1119–1125) of Emperor Huizong’s reign receives particular attention, including the career of the outlaw band of Song Jiang 宋江 — making this text a crucial precursor to Shuǐhǔ zhuàn 水滸傳 KR4k0066.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The Dàsòng Xuānhé Yíshì is the most important surviving transitional text between Song oral storytelling and the great Ming vernacular novels. Its significance is twofold. First, it provides the earliest sustained prose account of the outlaw Song Jiang and his 36 companions, including several named outlaws who reappear in Shuǐhǔ zhuàn (though with significant differences — the band has only 36 members, not 108, and the narrative is much shorter). Second, it preserves the most extensive Northern Song vernacular-style account of the Xuanhe-era political crisis — the disastrous alliance with the Jurchen Jin (Hǎishàng zhī méng), the Jin invasion, and the Jingkang catastrophe.
The structure of the four-section (yuán hēng lì zhēn 元亨利貞) division reflects the organizational conventions of the Song-Yuan storytelling tradition rather than a classical historiographic scheme. The text draws on court gossip, anecdote, and earlier prose-fictional treatment of the period, mixed with elements from historical chronicles. The prose style mixes early vernacular forms with more formal literary language.
The sole surviving Yuan woodblock edition is an important textual witness; the text was likely compiled in the Southern Song period (12th–13th century) and reprinted in the Yuan (hence “newly printed”). Anne McLaren (1998) and other scholars have analyzed this text in the context of the Song shuōhuà 說話 storytelling tradition.
Translations and research
- McLaren, Anne E. 1998. Chinese Popular Culture and Ming Chantefables. Brill. Genre context.
- Hanan, Patrick. 1973. The Chinese Short Story. Harvard UP.
- For the Song Jiang precursor tradition: Ma Chengying 馬成源 and others in Chinese scholarship; see also Rolston, David L., ed. 1990. How to Read the Chinese Novel. Princeton UP.
Links
- Wikidata: Xuanhe yishi