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Editions of Tao Yuanming’s Collection
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289 Editions of Tao Yuanming’s Collection an annotated list of important premodern editions of tao’s collection Pre-Tang There were at least five different manuscript copies of Tao Yuanming’s collection before the Tang, none of which is still extant. Yang Xiuzhi (courtesy name Zilie) records a copy of eight juan with no preface and a copy of six juan including a preface by an unknown author and a table of contents. He describes them as “disorganized in terms of ordering, and not complete” (see Yuan Xingpei, Tao Yuanming ji jianzhu, 614). There was a copy of eight juan compiled by Xiao Tong, and this copy is referred to as Xiao Tong’s edition (Xiao Tong ben) or the Crown Prince Zhaoming ’s edition (Zhaoming Taizi ben). From this edition only Xiao Tong’s preface, his Tao Yuanming biography, and Yan Yanzhi’s elegy have survived. Yang Xiuzhi’s comment on this copy is, “Although this edition lacks The Biographies of Five Filial Pieties [Wu xiao zhuan] and A Category of Fours and Eights [Si ba mu], its compilation follows an appropriate format and the works are put in good order.” Si ba mu is also designated as A Record of Sages, Worthies, and Their Various Assistants (Shengxian qunfu lu). These two works are considered spurious by most modern scholars. We cannot be certain that Tao Yuanming must have written those two works, and yet there is not enough proof against it. A copy of Tao Yuanming’s collection was compiled by Yang Xiuzhi, consisting of ten juan, which is referred to as Yang Xiuzhi’s edition (Yang Xiuzhi ben), whose foreword survives. There was another copy in nine juan, as recorded by the bibliography section of The Sui History (Sui shu). The Sui History also notes that during the Liang there was a copy of six juan, with one juan being a table of contents. It might be the same one as described in Yang Xiuzhi’s account. 290 editions of tao yuanming’s collection Tang During the Tang, there must have been numerous copies of Tao Yuanming’s collection in circulation. The Old Tang History (Jiu Tang shu) and The New Tang History (Xin Tang shu) record two versions: one in five juan and one in twenty juan. Neither is extant. Song Two Northern Song editions deserve mentioning, although neither of them is extant. The first is Song Xiang’s edition (Song Xiang ben), often simply referred to as “the Song edition” (Song ben). It is presumably a printed edition, which would have made it the earliest-known printed edition of Tao Yuanming’s collection, but we cannot be certain about it. The only thing left from this edition is Song Xiang’s colophon (referred to as his “private note”). Song Xiang’s edition, although lost, is often used as a reference in other editions for marking down textual variants, in the form of “also as X in the Song edition” (Song ben zuo mou). It is a shadowy presence, and yet a powerful one, as many textual variants are preserved this way. The second Northern Song edition is called Si Yue’s edition (Si Yue ben), with a colophon dated 1066 (the year of Song Xiang’s death). We know practically nothing about Si Yue, except that he was a monk at a temple of Tiger Hill in Suzhou (see the twelfth-century author Zeng Jili’s Tingzhai shihua in Song shihua quanbian, 3.2632). This edition is interesting because of its two surviving sections: Si Yue’s colophon, and a piece of commentary contending Shen Yue’s statement about Tao Yuanming’s loyalty to the Eastern Jin (see chapter two). He writes in the colophon, “Crown Prince Zhaoming’s compilation [of Tao Yuanming’s works] is quite old; moreover, in the process of transmission it has accumulated many mistakes as well as many omissions. Although later people tried to integrate and put things together, there has never been a complete and correct version. I have collected different versions and collated them.” He praises Song Xiang’s edition: “When it comes to filling in missing characters and resolving doubtful points, it has proved most helpful” (see Yuan Xingpei, Tao Yuanming ji jianzhu, 616). The subsequent editions are all extant, either in the original, or as reprints, and are the most important editions in identifying early textual variants. [44.204.65.189] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 12:04 GMT) editions of tao yuanming’s collection...