Hòusòng Cíyún Zǒuguó Quánzhuàn 後宋慈雲走國全傳
The Complete Tale of Ciyun’s Flight Through the Realm in the Later Song
by 無名氏 (anonymous, Qīng dynasty)
About the work
Hòusòng Cíyún Zǒuguó Quánzhuàn 後宋慈雲走國全傳 is an anonymous Qīng vernacular novel in 35 chapters (huí 回), belonging to the genre of historical-chivalric fiction (英雄傳奇 yīngxióng chuánqí) set in the Northern Sòng dynasty. The narrative follows Cíyún 慈雲, apparently a crown prince or young imperial kinsman, who is forced to flee the court due to the machinations of the treacherous minister Páng 龐 (a stock villain drawn from the larger Yángjiājiàng 楊家將 / Páng villainous-minister tradition) and a corrupt court faction. The 35-chapter structure interweaves the classic loyal-minister/treacherous-villain (忠奸 zhōngjiān) opposition with military campaigns, supernatural episodes, and the eventual restoration of justice under righteous lords.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The text opens by invoking the reign of Emperor Shénzōng 神宗 of the Sòng 宋 and his early reliance on Wáng Ānshí 王安石, whose New Policies brought hardship to the realm — a conventional framing device that locates the story in the morally troubled mid-Northern Sòng. The plot then shifts to the misfortunes of the protagonist Cíyún, who becomes entangled in court intrigue centered on the malevolent Páng family (Duke Páng 龐國丈 and his daughter Páng Guìfēi 龐貴妃), supported by the military villain Zhèng Biāo 鄭彪. As Cíyún is separated from his supporters and forced to wander, he gathers allies — including figures associated with the loyal Chái 柴 royal lineage and an ensemble of virtuous generals — before the final annihilation of the Páng faction and the restoration of proper imperial succession.
The novel belongs to the extended cycle of popular Sòng-dynasty heroic fiction that proliferated in the Qīng, drawing on the same cast of stock figures (the Páng 龐 clan as villains, Bāo Zhěng 包拯 as judge, various loyal generals) that appear in texts such as Hūjiājiàng 呼家將 (KR4k0142) and the broader Yángjiājiàng tradition. The author is anonymous; no preface or colophon survives to provide dating information. On internal textual grounds and the conventions of the genre, a Qīng composition date — probably mid-Qīng (eighteenth to early nineteenth century) — is most defensible. No external attribution or edition history has been located in standard bibliographies; the text is evidently a popular fiction circulated without literati sponsorship.
The chapter titles follow the standard couplet format typical of Qīng popular fiction, and the opening chapter includes a verse-and-prose introduction (詩曰 + 散文) framing the moral stakes of the narrative. There is no indication of woodblock-print publication date in the Kanripo source file.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
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