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Jingxianglu 敬鄉錄

Oct 24, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Jingxianglu 敬鄉錄 "Records of Respected Personalities from the Village" is a collection of biographies of poets written by the Yuan period 元 (1279-1368) scholar Wu Shidao 吳師道 (1283-1344), courtesy name Zhengchuan 正傳, who also authored a commentary to the history Zhanguoce 戰國策.

The 14-juan long book was written as a kind of supplement to Hong Zun's 洪遵 (1120-1174) collection Dongyangzhi 東陽志. It includes the biographies of persons from the Liang 梁 (502-557) to the Southern Song period 南宋 (1127-1279), with an explanation of the literary achievements of each person. Wu Shidao adds his own comments to the literary quality of their works.

The arrangement of the collection follows that of Yuan Haowen's 元好問 (1190-1257) collection Zhongzhouji 中州集, but with a focus on the persons, and not their writings, as is the case in the Zhouzhouji. In some biographies, therefore, only titles of poems or writings are listed, but the original is not quoted. The biographies of Song period writers are of a special interest because they were compiled before the finalization of the official dynastic history Songshi 宋史, and therefore differ in many points from this authoritative work, and add information to the latter.

There was a manuscript version owned by Li Xiaoya 李小雅 that was commented by Miao Quansun 繆荃孫 (1844-1919) and Qu Xibang 瞿熙邦 during the late Qing period 清 (1644-1911). Zhang Junheng 張鈞衡 (1872-1927) wrote a critical chapter.

The Jingxianglu is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Shiyuan congshu 適園叢書 and Xu jinghua congshu 續金華叢書.

Sources:
Jin Xiaogang 金曉剛 (2014). "Wu Shidao de shicheng ji qi Jingxianglu banben kaoshu 吳師道的師承及其《敬鄉錄》版本考述", Jinhua Zhiye Jishu Xueyuan xuebao 金華職業技術學院學報, 2014 (1).
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰, eds. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 1, 973.