Zhào Tàizǔ Sān Xià Nán Táng 趙太祖三下南唐
Emperor Taizu of Song Thrice Campaigns Against the Southern Tang by 好古主人 (著, “composed by”)
About the work
Zhào Tàizǔ Sān Xià Nán Táng 趙太祖三下南唐 is a Qīng-dynasty zhānghúi 章回 novel in fifty-three chapters (huí 回), attributed to the pen name Hào Gǔ Zhǔrén 好古主人 (“The Antiquarian Master”). It is also known under the alternate title Xiáyì Qínǚ Zhuàn 俠義奇女傳 (“Tales of Chivalrous and Remarkable Women”). The earliest identified edition is the Tóngzhì 甲子 (1865) Dānguìtáng 丹桂堂 block-print copy held in the Beijing Normal University Library. The novel is a sequel to the earlier Fēilóng Quánzhuàn 飛龍全傳, which had already mentioned Sòng Tàizǔ’s three campaigns against the Southern Táng and his entrapment at Shòuzhōu 壽州 city.
Prefaces
The source file preserves a preface (xù 序) without a date or author signature. It argues that the Sòng founder Zhào Kuāngyìn 趙匡胤 was a legitimate ruler despite the irregular circumstances of the Chénqiáo biànfǎ 陳橋兵變 (military coup), comparing him favorably to Hàn Gāo 漢高 (Liú Bāng 劉邦) and Táng Tàizōng 唐太宗, while also acknowledging the moral complexity of taking power from the Zhou child emperor. The preface praises Tàizǔ’s policy of restraint in killing (jiè shā 戒殺) — exemplified by the general Cáo Bīn 曹彬’s refusal to sack Nánjīng — and his early promotion of Confucian learning. It concludes with the self-deprecating phrase “特此傳之，以博一笑” (“I hereby transmit this account, to provoke a laugh”).
Abstract
The novel narrates three campaigns by Sòng Tàizǔ Zhào Kuāngyìn 趙匡胤 against the Southern Táng kingdom, focusing on his entrapment at Shòuzhōu city by the Southern Táng military advisor Yú Hóng 余鴻, a practitioner of supernatural arts. The sons of the Sòng founding generals — Zhèng Yín 鄭印 and Gāo Jūnbǎo 高君保 — and daughters of former Northern Hàn officials — Liú Jǐndiǎn 劉錦殿 and Yú Shèngxiāng 余勝香 — come to the emperor’s rescue through martial valor and magical counter-arts. The narrative features magical formation battles (zhèn 陣), Daoist immortal interventions (notably the immortal Chén Tuán 陳摶 and the seer Miáo Xùn 苗訓), and romance subplots between the heroes and heroines. The love story between Gāo Jūnbǎo and Liú Jǐndiǎn — an encounter through a martial contest (bǐ wǔ pèi yīng 比武配英) — follows established conventions of the genre. The novel inherits the broad structural conventions of the “Shuō Táng” 說唐 and “Shuō Sòng” 說宋 cycles of popular martial-arts fiction and adds a substantial supernatural overlay.
The identity of Hào Gǔ Zhǔrén 好古主人 is unknown. The date range 1858–1865 follows the bibliographic information that the novel may have been composed ca. 1858 and was first printed in the Tóngzhì 甲子 (1865) Dānguìtáng edition. The Kanripo text presents fifty-three chapters, consistent with the standard recension.
Translations and research
- Chen, Pingyuan. 2016. The Development of Chinese Martial Arts Fiction. Victor Peterson, tr. Cambridge University Press. (Genre context.)
- Keulemans, Paize. 2014. Sound Rising from the Paper: Nineteenth-Century Martial Arts Fiction and the Acoustic Imagination. Harvard University Press.
No English translation located. No monograph specifically devoted to 趙太祖三下南唐 located.