唐代校書郎考釋

The Collator in Tang China

唐代的校書郎是士人釋褐最主要官職之一。以唐代主要詩人或文士為例，從校書郎起家的，就有十一人之多：楊炯、張說、張九齡、王昌齡、劉禹錫、白居易、元稹、李德裕、杜牧、李商隱和韋莊。但今人對此官幾乎一無研究。本文詳考唐代校書郎的各個面貌：此官在唐代官署的設置、分布、定員和官品；當時人對校書郎的觀感和期望；任校書郎的十種途徑；中晚唐時士人如何以「試校書郎」官銜在方鎮使府出任從事；校書郎的三種類型；校書郎的「校勘」職務和相關工作，以及他們的日常生活。校書郎的仕宦前景極佳，不少人由此官拜相。唐代十一位從校書郎起家的詩人或文士當中，就有四位官至宰相：張說、張九齡、元稹和李德裕。其他則升任中書舍人、給事中、侍郎、郎中等高官。校書郎雖九品小官，但任官資歷要求很高，需進士或同樣條件。流外和視品官出身者被禁止充當此官。唐代校書郎的職務，《通典》等政書說是「校讎」或「校勘」。但本文從各方面考察，發現此「校讎」的意義並不等於現代所說的「校讎」或「校勘」，而祇等於今人所說的「校對」，即抄寫經籍後的簡單校對。這種單純的工作，很適合剛出來做官的讀書人，可以讓他們在此取得做官經驗，再由此遷轉他官。唐代詩文中所見的校書郎生活是優閒的。他們的工作場所在京城書庫，人事較單純，是個備受「保護」的環境，生涯遠比另一釋褐官縣尉寫意。

The Collator (Jiaoshu lang 校書郎) was one of the most important ''entry-level'' posts available to those who just started their official career under the Tang dynasty (618-907). Among major Tang poets and men of letters, as many as eleven began their civil service as a Collator. But little scholarly study has been done on this subject. This paper investigates 1) the distribution and the number of Collators in Tang government agencies; 2) the contemporary views of Collators and their career prospects; 3) the entry requirements and the ten avenues through which a person could become a Collator; 4) the issue of the so-called ''Nominal Collator'' (Shi Jiaoshu lang 試校書郎), or how a person assumed the title of Collator but served as an official in the provincial government in mid- and late Tang; 5) the three types of Collators; 6) the real nature of their job and their related duties; and 7) their daily life. The career prospects of a Collator were excellent. Of the eleven major Tang poets or literati who started out as Collator, four later became Chief Ministers, and many rose to high-ranking positions. Though Collator was a minor post at Grade 9, the entry qualification was high and required at least a jinshi 進士 degree or equivalents. Those who began their career in liu-wai 流外 or ''out-of-the-current'' clerical offices were barred from serving as Collator. According to Tang sources, a Collator's job was to ''collate'' (choujiao 讎校). This phrase and a similar term jiaokan 校勘 are still used in modem times, but with a different meaning. Both terms now carry with them the modem scholarly meaning of preparing a critical variorum edition of classical works. However, sources show that Collators in Tang times were quite incapable of working on a critical variorum edition, nor were they expected to do so. In an age before wood-block printing was popular, what they did was simply ''proofreading'' after a book had been hand-copied by a scribe. This simple job was consistent with the nature of Collator as an ''entry-level'' post: as a stepping stone toward higher positions. The daily life of Collators as depicted in Tang prose writings and poems was leisurely and gracious. Their working environment, among bookshelves in imperial libraries, was well secluded and protected, away from the harsh realities encountered by, say, the District Defender (Xianwei 縣尉), another major entry-level post.