Complete Notes on the Song Dynasty (Volume 1, Part 4)

Author: Zhu Yian
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-10-01
Features: Upon reviewing this book, the editor found that it possesses the following characteristics: First, based on a scientific definition of the term "notes," the book attempts to collect as many notes written by Song Dynasty scholars as possible, truly reflecting the "comprehensiveness" of the Complete Notes of the Song Dynasty and avoiding omissions and disorganization. The compilers adhere to the principle that "notes are spontaneous records rather than deliberately composed works." They limit the collection to "collected works of notes by Song Dynasty scholars" and exclude "scattered individual notes that have not formed a complete collection," "specialized collections with focused themes and rigid structures," such as "poetic discussions, recorded sayings, catalogs like The Tea Manual, Painting Spectra, Records of Renowned Officials, and Official Precepts," and certainly not "novels or biographies that narrate stories in detail." Comparing this book to the Grand Collection of Notes and Fiction published by Taiwan's Emerging Books Company in 1984, the latter, while including many Song Dynasty notes, has two shortcomings: first, it mixes Song Dynasty notes with fiction, genealogies, popular narratives, poetic discussions, and the like; second, some of its versions are not refined. Of course, the author evaluates this book from the perspective of Song Dynasty notes and does not deny its overall documentary value. Comparing it to the Comprehensive Collection of Notes and Fiction of Dynasties·Song Dynasty Notes and Fiction published by Hebei Education Press in February 1995, the latter's shortcomings include: first, it only includes 188 Song Dynasty notes, and some important notes are inexplicably excluded, such as Hong Mai's Rongzhai, Zhou Mi's Guixin, Zhou's Qingbo, Wang Guanguo's Xuelin, Yue Ke's Muchen History, Luo Daqing's Helin, Wang Bi's Mianshui YanTan, Ouyang Xiu's GuiTian, He's Chunzhu, Peng's Moke HuiXi (which has already included ten volumes of Continued Moke HuiXi), Zhao Liantian's Houling, Ye Mengde's Shilin YanYu, Lu You's LaoXue An BiJi, and Gong Mingzhi's Zhongwu JiWen (among others). The absence of these notes makes it difficult to reflect the full picture of Song Dynasty notes, which is a great regret. Additionally, the catalog of Song Dynasty notes and fiction compiled in the latter contains numerous errors, such as the author of YanYi YiMou being mistakenly listed as "Wang Muyong" instead of "Wang Yong," the author of Ding Jin Gong TanLu being listed as "Ding Wei" instead of "Ding Wei," the author of Song Jingwen Gong BiJi being listed as "Song Qi" instead of "Song Qi," the character "zhou" in Pingzhou KeTan being mistakenly written as "zhou," the character "ji" in JiYou BiLun being mistakenly written as "yi," the character "zhu" in ZhuLian Xulu being mistakenly written as "shu," the author Dai Hu being listed as "Dai Zhi" instead of "Dai Zhi," the author Zhao of YangKuang ManBi being listed as "Zhao of Zhao" instead of "Zhao of Zhao," and the author Chen of FuXuan YeLun being listed as "Chen" instead of "Chen," and so on. Second, most of the Song Dynasty notes in this book are presented to the public for the first time after being collated and punctuated, reflecting the "new" characteristic. Among the 49 notes in the first volume, 13 have already been collated and punctuated by Zhonghua Book Company and Shanghai, while 36 have been newly collated and punctuated, accounting for over 73% of the total. Among these newly collated and punctuated notes, some of the more important ones include Zhang Ji's Jia Shi TanLu, Wang Zeng's Wang Wen Zheng Gong BiLu, Song Qi's Song Jing Wen Gong BiJi, Jiang Xiufu's Jiang Lin Ji ZaZhi, Zeng Bu's Zeng Gong YiLu, Su Shi's QiuChi BiJi, Su Shi's YuQiao XianHua Lu, Chao Shuozhi's Chao Shi KeYu, Wang Qinruo's Wang Shi TanLu, and so on. These notes, though not lengthy, contain valuable historical materials related to the social economy, politics, and customs of the time, leaving behind treasures for future generations. Third, compared to previously collated and punctuated Song Dynasty notes, this book has the relatively "accurate" characteristic, with the collation and punctuation being more precise. The compilers and collators of this book are mostly scholars with outstanding achievements in ancient Chinese history and literature, particularly in Tang and Song literature and history. Although it is not daring to call them the best in the world, they can be considered first-class. Taking the collation and punctuation of the first volume as an example, especially Kong Fanli, who collated and punctuated works such as Dongpo ZhiLin, QiuChi BiJi, YuQiao XianHua Lu, Longchuan LueZhi, and Longchuan BiZhi, Deng Guangming and Zhang Xiqing, who collated and punctuated Sishui JiWen, Yu Yunuo, who collated and punctuated NanBu XinShu, JinShi HuiYuan, DiaoJi LiTan, and Ding Jin Gong TanLu, and Huang Chunyan, who collated and punctuated works such as Sun WeiMin ZhengNan Lu, are all renowned experts in Song Dynasty history or Song Dynasty literature. This is sufficient to ensure that the collation, punctuation, and collation of this book are presented to readers with high quality. For example, the previously published XiangShan YeLu by Shi Wenying (Zhonghua Book Company, 1984 edition) contains some punctuation errors, such as the original text in the first volume: "The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, Wang Gong, of the Zidao era, served as the director of the Qiao military office in the Bingwei year" (page 23), mistakenly taking the last reign title of Emperor Taizong of Song, "Zidao," as the name of "Vice Minister Wang Gong." This has now been corrected to: "The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, Wang Gong, served as the director of the Qiao military office in the Bingwei year of the Zidao era." Another example is Song Minqiu's ChunMing TuiChao Lu (Zhonghua Book Company, 1980 edition), where the first volume originally read: "In the eleventh month of the Kaobao eighth year, Jiangnan was pacified, and the Bian River was left to await the boat of the Liguang ruler" (page 5). This has now been corrected to: "In the eleventh month of the Kaobao eighth year, Jiangnan was pacified, and the Bian River was left to await the boat of the Liguang ruler." These improvements are evident, thus ensuring that the quality of the punctuation in this book has further improved. In conclusion, The Complete Notes of the Song Dynasty is the third large-scale anthology in the field of Song Dynasty literature and history after The Complete Poems of the Song Dynasty and The Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty. Although it has only published the first volume so far and inevitably contains some shortcomings such as incorrect annotations and punctuation errors, according to the compiler's plan, the entire book is divided into about 10 volumes and will be completed within five to six years. The author believes that as the compilers accumulate more experience and the collators gradually improve their skills, they will eventually present a new and high-quality documentary anthology to the readers.