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Suihua jili 歲華紀麗

Nov 5, 2023 © Ulrich Theobald

Suihua jili 歲華紀麗 "Annals of the year written in beautiful language" is an encyclopaedia written during the very late Tang period 唐 (618-907) by Han E 韓鄂 (fl. 900), who is also known as the author of the agricultural book Sishu zuanyao 四時纂要.

The book imitates the structure of the encyclopaedias Beitang shuchao 北堂書鈔 and Baishi liutie 白氏六帖 but is divided into chapters reflecting the seasons and solar terms of the year (see calendar). This arrangement is reflected in the title of the book. The expression suihua is a hint at the sources which the author mainly selected for each lemma, namely refined expressions of high literature, primarily written in paired-sentence style (piantiwen 駢體文).

Quotation 1. From the chapter on Spring (Chun 春)
春為青陽。(《爾雅》云,春為青陽,謂萬物生也。) Spring is Green Yang. (The [glossary] Erya says, "Spring is Green Yang, which means that the ten thousand beings are being produced.")
雲成白鶴(《易說》曰:「春有白鶴之雲也。」) Clouds become white cranes. (The [explanations to the Changes] Yishuo say, "In Spring, there are clouds of white cranes.")
太簇司律(正月律管也。) The pitch pipe Taicu dominates the pitch pipes. ([Taicu] is the pitch pipe of the first month.)
蒼靈奉塗(《文選》云,句芒神奉塗引道。) Azure spirits lead the path. (The [anthology] Wenxuan says, [the spirit] Gou Mang guides along the path.)
樂正習舞(《禮》將舍奠于先師也。) The music master practices the dance. (According to the Rites, this refers to the ritual offerings toward the late teachers.)
女夷鼓歌(《淮南子》曰:「二月之夕,女夷鼓歌以司天和。」女夷者,神名也。) Nü Yi beats the drum and sings. (The Huainanzi says, on the evenings of the second month, Nü Yi beats the drum and sings to harmonize the heavens. Nü Yi is the name of a deity.)
風回解凍(《月令》。) When the [east] wind returns, the ice melts. (From the Yueling.)

The Suihua liji is mentioned in the bibliographies of the Song period 宋 (960-1279), and also the Zhizhai shulu jieti 直齋書錄解題, but no transmitted version was known for a long time. The received version with a length of 4 juan is a print of Hu Zhenheng 胡震亨 (1569-1645), who obtained a copy from the collection of Zheng Jinbo 鄭藎伯, but Wang Shizhen 王士禎 (1526-1590) rated this copy as a forgery of Hu (see his Juyilu 居易錄). Qian Zeng 錢曾 (1629-1701) explained in his Dushu minqiu ji 讀書敏求記 that in an original manuscript of the book, many parts of the last fascicle were missing. The same was observed by Li Zhonglu 李中麓, who inspected a Song-period print. However, the alleged Song-period version includes only plain prose, but no paired phrases, and quotes from the texts Duyang zabian 杜陽雜編 and Tangzhiyan 唐摭言 which Han E could not have known. Hu Zhenheng's preface is even more puzzling because he identifies Han E with the great writer Han Yu 韓愈 (768-824).

Quotations from the Suihua jili are found in the encyclopaedia Tang leihan 唐類函. It is included in the series Xuejin taoyuan 學津討原, Tang-Song congshu and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.

The Suihua jili must not be confounded with Fei Zhu's 費著 (c. 1300) Suihua jili pu 歲華紀麗譜, which is a book on the customs and habits of the region of Sichuan written during the Yuan period 元 (1279-1368).

Sources:
Li Xueqin 李學勤, and Lü Wenyu 呂文郁, eds. 1996. Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典, vol. 2, 2036. Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe.
Wang Jinyue 王金躍. 2011. "Han E yu Suihua jili kaolüe 韓鄂與《歲華紀麗》考略." Chuancheng 傳承 2011 (28): 74-75+88.
Wu Feng 吳楓, ed. 1994. Zhonghua gu wenxian da cidian 中華古文獻大辭典, vol. Wenxue 文學卷, 225. Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe.
Zhao Hankun 趙含坤, ed. 2005. Zhongguo leishu 中國類書, 56. Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin chubanshe.