Abstract
The exact authors of the Sui shu 隋書 treatises are unknown with but the exception of one name: Li Chunfeng 李淳風 (602–670), the author of the ‘Lü-li zhi’ 律曆志, ‘Tianwen zhi’ 天文志 and ‘Wuxing zhi’ 五行志. This chapter provides a biographical sketch of the man whose treatises will occupy the first half of this book, putting these ‘histories of science’ in the context of his life, his family, his networks and his various scholarly and political endeavours. The picture that shall emerge of him is that of a contentious and complex polymath, whose footprint in ‘numbers and technics’ (shushu 數術) may have outweighed that which he left in politics, but who was, nonetheless, and in his own way, a politically-engaged member of court. As much as it is this man’s voice, or, at least, editorial hand, that we shall be exploring through the various fields treated in Chaps. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, this chapter aims to provide a touchstone to understand that voice.
Résumé
Les auteurs précis des traités du Sui shu 隋書 ne sont pas connus, à l’exception d’un seul: Li Chunfeng 李淳風 (602–670), auteur du « Lü-li zhi » 律曆志, du « Tianwen zhi » 天文志 et du « Wuxing zhi » 五行志. Le chapitre offre un aperçu biographique de l’homme dont le travail occupe la première partie du présent ouvrage, en replaçant ces «histoires des sciences» dans les contextes de sa vie, de sa famille, de ses réseaux ainsi que dans celui de ses diverses œuvres savantes et politiques. Il ressort de ce portrait l’image d’un polymathe controversé et complexe, dont l’empreinte dans le domaine des « nombres et des techniques » (shushu 數術) a sans doute été plus importante que celle qu’il a laissée en politique, même s’il a été, à sa façon, un membre de la cour engagé politiquement. Étant donné que les sujets abordés dans les chapitres 3, 4, 5, 6 et 7 explorent différentes facettes de son œuvre, la présente contribution vise à cerner la voix éditoriale qui l’unifie.
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Notes
- 1.
Jiu Tang shu, 79.2718.
- 2.
Jiu Tang shu, 66.2463. For the argument that Li Chunfeng is not the author of the current Sui shu ‘Wuxing zhi’, see Chap. 7, Note 28, this volume.
- 3.
Shitong, 12.20a. For more on Liu Zhiji, see Chap. 12, this volume.
- 4.
Li Chunfeng’s biography is located in Jiu Tang shu, 79.2717–2719, a condensed version of which is found also in Xin Tang shu, 204.5798.
- 5.
Twitchett (2002) suggests that the compilation of the Jiu Tang shu biographies of officials living up to the 780s would have been part of Liu Fang’s 柳芳 ‘State History’ to that point. The biographies are thus reliable reflections of the records and evaluations of officials produced in the Historiography Office after 700; these formed the core of each liezhuan 列傳, supplemented by various privately compiled group biographies. Liu Fang’s State History was the pre-780 basis for the Jiu Tang shu, which was edited in the tenth century (presented in 945).
- 6.
An expert in mathematical astronomy and omenology named Xue Yi 薛頤 (d. 646), who became Prefect of the Astrology Office perhaps just before Taizong’s reign and was later an associate of Li Chunfeng in the study of omens, had to ask permission from Taizong to become a Daoist master, and was assigned to a Daoist temple. See Jiu Tang shu, 191.5089; for Xue as astronomer, see Chen (2003: 346).
- 7.
並行於代, Jiu Tang shu, 79.2719.
- 8.
Li’s opinion about Buddhist and Daoist monks is seen in his ‘Seng Dao bu ying bai suzhuang’ 僧道不應拜俗狀, in Quan Tang wen, 159.13b; the same attitude is also seen in his preface to the Jinsuo liuzhu yin 金鎖流珠引 (Guide to the Golden Lock and the Moving Pearls), ibid., 159.15b–16a, for which see Schipper and Verellen (2004, 1076–1079) and Wechsler (1985: 70–72). On religious policy under Gaozong, see Twitchett and Wechsler (1979: 263–265).
- 9.
博涉羣書, 尤明天文、曆、算、陰陽之學, Jiu Tang shu, 79.2719.
- 10.
See Chen (2003: 339–340).
- 11.
See Jiu Tang shu, 36.1311. Coming after Li Chunfeng’s biography in Jiu Tang shu, j. 79 is that of the renowned harmonics expert Lü Cai 呂才 (d. 665; biog. Jiu Tang shu, 79.2719–2727) who also was directed by Taizong to make maps, one concerning the Western Region. Lü was a colleague of Li Chunfeng: he was involved in a team project (finished 642) to edit ‘yin-yang texts’ and was also linked with Li in a large editing project that revamped and illustrated the received Ben cao 本草 text (Jiu Tang shu, 79.2726). Li Chunfeng’s overall superior, Xu Jingzong (see below), was crucial to the Ben cao project as well, and compiled a work titled ‘Xiyu tuzhi’ 西域圖志 ([Carto]graphic Treatise on the Western Regions) seemingly concerned with data brought back from Samarkand and Tokharistan by Tang envoys; see the editor’s introduction to Xu’s Wenguan cilin 文館詞林 in Ri cang Hongren ben Wenguan cilin jiaozheng, 1; cf. Twitchett and Wechsler (1979: 262). For more on maps and geographical writings, see Chap. 10, this volume.
- 12.
E.g., the Yus; Yu Shen 庾詵 (455–532), skilled in the astral sciences, was connected to the Liang court (Liang shu, 51.752), and his descendant Yu Manqian 曼倩 (fl. c. 520–530) produced works on grades of mourning, calligraphy, Zhuangzi 莊子 and Laozi commentaries, computational arts like his ‘Suan jing’ 算經 and what appears to have been an astronomical procedure text (‘Qiyao lishu’ 七曜曆術). Shen’s grandson was the famous expert Yu Jicai 庾季才 (d. 603), who served as Prefect Grand Clerk to the Northern Zhou and Sui courts, was consulted by the Sui emperors about omens and wrote the omen compendium Lingtai miyuan 靈臺秘苑 (Sui shu, 78.1764–1767).
- 13.
On such types of polymathy, see Goodman (2005) and the sources quoted there.
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.
Jiu Tang shu, 79.2717; cf. Guan (2002).
- 17.
今靈臺候儀, 是魏代遺範, 觀其制度, 疏漏實多, Jiu Tang shu, 35.1293 and Tang hui yao, 42.752. The observational device in question here—the ‘watch-sight’ 候儀—is the iron armillary sphere cast under the direction of Chao Chong 晁崇 and Xie Lan 解蘭 in 398 for the Northern Wei court and moved to the Chang’an Numinous Terrace observatory in 583, where it would see continued use well into the eighth century. On the Chao Chong and Xie Lan armillary sphere, see Wu and Quan (2008: 437–438). The Lingtai 靈臺 (Numinous Terrace) was more than simply an observatory and adjunct to the Office of the Grand Clerk (the astronomer royal), it was a mythical notion used off and on for propaganda surrounding the mystique of the imperial cult and the Mingtang 明堂. For an overall history of the Mingtang-Lingtai complex and related devices (clocks, armillaries, bells), esp. during the Tang, see Forte (1988: 98 ff).
- 18.
黃道渾儀之闕, 至今千餘載矣, Jiu Tang shu, 79.2717–2718; Quan Tang wen, 159.13a.
- 19.
Li Chunfeng’s device is described in a passage of about 160 characters recorded in Jiu Tang shu, 79.2718 and Tang Hui yao, 42.752. For more on Li’s armillary sphere, see Chen (2003: 352–353) and Wu and Quan (2008: 438–439). On the problem of coordinate conversion with pre-Tang armillary spheres, see Morgan (2016).
- 20.
論前代渾儀得失之差, Jiu Tang shu, 79.2718. Chen (2003: 352) claims that Li Chunfeng composed the Fa xiang zhi only after 662, based on Yixing’s 一行 (683–727) identification of the author’s official title as Palace Gentleman of the Imperial Library (appointment no 8, occurring in 662, for which see the following section). The Jiu Tang shu biography, however, places the event immediately after his instrument-making project, and the ‘Tianwen zhi’ places it likewise under Taizong’s rule (Jiu Tang shu, 36.1311, 79.2718).
- 21.
See Hucker (1985: 129) on the subaltern status of chengwulang. I believe that a ‘passport posting’ (my term) was a clearance for individuals of known skills and/or textual learning for entrance and research in offices to which they did not actually belong hierarchically. The phenomenon grew throughout the Eastern Han and Western Jin bureaucracies. In the Eastern Han, the passport type of post (e.g., boshi, lang, langzhong, zhuzuo and shizhong) was associated with researchers and history drafters, archivists, antiquarian curators and experts in mathematical astronomy and harmono-metrology and the practice was resumed in Western Jin. Originally, at certain times during the Han the physical sites for private lessons, archives and research in sciences had been in Southern Palace venues for eunuchs and court women, and thus clearance was needed for obvious reasons; but in early Tang the situation was different, and this clearance was strictly to get a skilled man into an office where his work was needed, yet where his rank did not permit a normative posting.
- 22.
See Jiu Tang shu, 35.1293.
- 23.
淳風新術, 以甲子合朔冬至, Xin Tang shu, 25.536. For more on this episode, see Chap. 5, this volume.
- 24.
In Han times, Erudits served in the Imperial Academy (Taixue 太學), which was under the Grand Master of Ceremonies (Bielenstein’s rendering of Taichang). Later on, they became more strictly vetted as teachers of the classics and in the Eastern Han were more firmly rooted in a revamped Imperial Academy. Erudits swelled greatly in number all through Han, but especially from the 130s forward. By Sui–Tang times, a clearer distinction was laid between the Court of Sacrifices Erudits and those Erudits associated with the early Tang schools for law, mathematics and calligraphy. See Bielenstein (1980: 138–141) and Hucker (1985: 389).
- 25.
尋轉太史丞, Jiu Tang shu, 79.2718.
- 26.
See Jiu Tang shu, 43.1855.
- 27.
The Library (known also as the San’ge 三閣) had an outer and inner department. The outer was inside the Imperial City and was multi-storied, with beautiful fittings and a commanding view. It clearly was an institutional, even architectural, renewal of the Eastern Han’s Dongguan, or Eastern Observatory, which also had been a commanding site. And, as in the Eastern Han, Tang writers (e.g., Xu Jingzong) commented that postings there were not prestigious in rank and salary but that true scholars found it desirable. (One thinks of the sylvan glade, the little shuttle bus and the automatic espresso machine at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study.) The Library was one of the state’s four main academic agencies: the others were the State Academy Directorate—or Guozi jian 國子監, Court of Sacrifices—or Taichang si 太常寺 and the Historiography Office—Shiguan 史館. The Library was responsible chiefly for the books and illustrations belonging to the Tang state and for many types of prose drafting including inscriptions and prayers; for these points about official tracks and the Tang’s academic departments, see McMullen (1988: 17–22).
- 28.
See McMullen (1988: 212).
- 29.
Jiu Tang shu, 66.2463.
- 30.
Several sources give variants for the Jin shu start date, making it as early as 644; see Goodman (2015).
- 31.
Note that the locution yu zhuan 預撰 in Li’s Jiu Tang shu biography, while potentially suggestive of the reading that he had ‘completed beforehand’ the treatises, is actually a common expression referring to the ‘co-’ or ‘participatory authoring’ of a collective work. Li’s Xin Tang shu biography clarifies, reading here instead that Li ‘worked in consort with numerous ru-exegetes on editing documents’ 與諸儒修書 (Xin Tang shu, 204.5798). There is otherwise no evidence that Li had done any preparatory writing prior to 641 other than his history of cosmology and instrumentation in the Fa xiang zhi.
- 32.
Jin shu, 19.512.
- 33.
Liu (1987).
- 34.
See Goodman (2015) and the sources cited there.
- 35.
Xu’s Jiu Tang shu biography (Jiu Tang shu, 82.2764) implies that Xu was crucial in the Wudai shi and Jin shu treatise projects; yet Linghu’s biography (Jiu Tang shu, 73.2598) claims Linghu was chosen as their leader.
- 36.
For an argument about the politics of Li Chunfeng’s treatise-writing, see Chap. 4, this volume.
- 37.
- 38.
- 39.
Yisi zhan, preface, 3a.
- 40.
See Twitchett (2002: 128) and the sources listed in his note 41.
- 41.
See Jiu Tang shu, 82.2763.
- 42.
See Jiu Tang shu, 73.2599.
- 43.
復以修國史功封, Jiu Tang shu, 79.2719. Li was one of four subeditors honoured on this occasion whose official and noble rank were below that of Xu and Linghu; all but one (including Li) of the four received awards below the level of Duke. See Tang hui yao, 63.1093.
- 44.
- 45.
- 46.
- 47.
Li Chunfeng’s own Jin shu ‘Tianwen zhi’ states that at the mouth of the Gouchen 鉤陳 asterism (within the Purple Palace 紫宮 Polar area and symbolising the emperor’s private abode) was the star Tianhuang dadi 天皇大帝 (Polaris α), whose deity was Yaopobao 耀魄寶, which ‘governs the numerous spirits and holds the chart of the ten thousand deities’ (tr. Ho 1966: 67–69). The relation to the Wang Su vs Zheng Xuan debate is ambiguous, but Li’s text does not directly link Yaopobao to ‘Haotian shangdi’, and so, in that sense at least, would seem anti-Zheng.
- 48.
Sources on the bureaucracy show a certain confusion about the exact referent in this period of Tang, and the term bige sometimes referred to the Imperial Library (or Archives), but we are clearly dealing here with a simple renaming of the Clerk’s Office; see Jiu Tang shu, 43.1855; cf. Hucker (1985: 376). Chen (2003: 352) suggests that for Li Chunfeng it was a meaningful official title and the last such of his career. Li’s biography (and no other source) states that he authored a work titled ‘Bige lu’. One can guess that it resulted from a commission to record the findings that issued from the newly renamed bureau and perhaps was a tool to broadcast whatever ideological point was being made about name changes occurring in Tang offices under Wu Zhao.
- 49.
See Jiu Tang shu, 32.1152; cf. Xin Tang shu, 26.559.
- 50.
Xu Jingzong’s biography can be found in Jiu Tang shu, 82.2761–2765 and Xin Tang shu, 223A.6335–6339. In what follows I have drawn heavily on Twitchett and Wechsler (1979: esp. 252).
- 51.
For Xu on a Daoist-master theme, see Quan Tang shi, 35.464.
- 52.
See Twitchett and Wechsler (1979: 260–262).
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Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Zhu Yiwen for introducing me at an early point in the preparation of this article to his interpretation of Li Chunfeng’s career steps (Chap. 4, Table 4.2, this volume), which differs somewhat from my own. Moreover, I thank Daniel P. Morgan for smoothing out several garbled passages concerning Li’s astronomical knowledge, the technical aspects of which were beyond my skill level, as well as for pointing out interpretive paths that I had not seen.
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Goodman, H.L. (2019). The Life and Intellectual World of Li Chunfeng (602–670). In: Morgan, D., Chaussende, D. (eds) Monographs in Tang Official Historiography. Why the Sciences of the Ancient World Matter, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18038-6_2
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