The ''Taiping Guangji'' (), sometimes translated as the ''Extensive Records of the Taiping Era'' or ''Extensive Records of the Taiping Xinguo Period'', is a collection of stories compiled in the early

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

. The work was completed in 978, and printing blocks were cut, but it was prevented from official publication on the grounds that it contained only ''xiaoshuo'' (fiction or "insignificant tellings") and thus "was of no use to students." It circulated in various manuscript copies until it was published in the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

. It is considered one of the ''

Four Great Books of Song The ''Four Great Books of Song'' () was compiled by a team of scholars during the Song dynasty (960–1279). The term was coined after the last book ('' Cefu Yuangui'') was finished during the 11th century. The four encyclopedias were published an ...

'' (宋四大書). The title refers to the Taiping Xinguo era (太平興國, "great-peace rejuvenate-nation", 976–984 AD), the first years of the reign of

Emperor Taizong of Song Zhao Jiong (20 November 939 – 8 May 997), known as Zhao Guangyi from 960 to 977 and Zhao Kuangyi before 960, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizong of Song, was the second emperor of the Song dynasty of China. He reigned from 9 ...

. The collection is divided into 500 volumes () and consists of about 3 million

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

. It includes 7,021 stories selected from over three hundred books and novels from the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

to the early

, many of which have been lost. Some stories are historical or naturalistic anecdotes, each is replete with historical elements, and was not regarded by their authors as

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

, but the topics are mostly

supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

, about

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and

Taoist priest A ''daoshi'' () or Taoshih, translated as Taoist priest, Taoist monk, or Taoist professional is a priest in Taoism. The courtesy title of a senior is ''daozhang'' (, meaning "Tao master"), and a highly accomplished and revered is often cal ...

s, immortals,

ghosts In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

, and various

deities A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

. They include a number of

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

stories, especially '' chuanqi'' (tales of wonder), that are famous works of literature in their own right, and also inspired later works. In the 17th century, the vernacular novelist and short story writer

Feng Menglong Feng Menglong (1574–1646), courtesy names Youlong (), Gongyu (), Ziyou (), or Eryou (), was a Chinese historian, novelist, and poet of the late Ming Dynasty. He was born in Changzhou County, now part of Suzhou, in Jiangsu Province. Life Feng wa ...

produced an abridged edition, ''Taiping Guangji Chao'' (太平廣記鈔), reducing the number of stories to 2,500 in 80 volumes.

Pu Songling Pu Songling ( zh, t= , 5 June 1640 – 25 February 1715) was a Chinese writer during the Qing dynasty, best known as the author of '' Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio'' (''Liaozhai zhiyi''). Biography Pu was born into a poor merchant famil ...

was said to have been inspired by ''Taiping Guangji''; the short story " A Sequel to the Yellow Millet Dream" parallels one of ''Taiping'' stories.

The Taiping Guangji was compiled by Wang Kezhen (王克贞), Song Bai (宋白), Hu Meng (扈蒙), Xu Xuan (徐铉), Zhao Linji (赵邻几), Lü Wenzhong (吕文仲), Li Fang (李昉), Li Mu (李穆), and others.

Translations

*''Into the Porcelain Pillow: 101 Tales from Records of the Taiping Era'', translated by Zhang Guangqian (Foreign Languages Press, 1998) *''Tales from Tang Dynasty China: Selections from the Taiping Guangji'', translated by Alexei Ditter, Jessey Choo and Sarah Allen (Hackett Publishing Company, 2017). *'' The Tale of Li Wa'' by Bai Xingjian, translated as ''The Story of Miss Li'' by

Arthur Waley Arthur David Waley (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 188927 June 1966) was an English orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Among his honours were ...

in ''More Translations from the Chinese'' (Alfred A. Knopf, 1919) *''The Tale of Liu Yi'', translated as ''The Dragon King's Daughter'' by Yang Xianyi and

Gladys Yang Gladys Yang (; 19 January 1919 – 18 November 1999) was a British translator of Chinese literature and the wife of another noted literary translator, Yang Xianyi. Biography She was born Gladys Margaret Tayler at the Peking Union Medical Col ...

in ''The Dragon King's Daughter: Ten Tang Dynasty Stories'' (Foreign Languages Press, 1954) *''Huo Xiaoyu's Story'' by Jiang Fang, translated by Stephen Owen in ''An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 1996)

References

Sources

The original Classical Chinese text in Wikisource

in

Simplified characters Simplified Chinese characters are one of two standardized character sets widely used to write the Chinese language, with the other being traditional characters. Their mass standardization during the 20th century was part of an initiative by t ...

, with translations into Modern Standard Chinese. * Allen, Sarah M. (2014), ''Shifting Stories: History, Gossip, and Love in Narratives from Tang Dynasty China.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press. * Charles E. Hammond, "T'ang Legends: History and Hearsay" ''Tamkang Review'' 20.4 (summer 1990), pp. 359–82. * . *Cheng, Yizhong
"Taiping Guangji" ("Extensive Records of the Taiping Era ")
''

Encyclopedia of China The ''Encyclopedia of China'' () is the first large-entry modern encyclopedia in the Chinese language. The compilation began in 1978. Published by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, the encyclopedia was issued one volume at a time, be ...

'' (Chinese Literature Edition), 1st ed., via archive.org. *Kurz, Johannes. "The Compilation and Publication of the Taiping yulan and the Cefu yuangui", in Florence Bretelle-Establet and

Karine Chemla Karine Chemla (born 8 February 1957) is a French historian of mathematics and sinologist who works as a director of research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). She is also a senior fellow at the New York University In ...

(eds.), Qu'est-ce qu'écrire une encyclopédie en Chine?. ''Extreme Orient-Extreme Occident Hors série'' (2007), 39–76. {{Authority control Chinese literature Chinese prose texts 10th-century Chinese books Song dynasty literature Chinese short story collections Leishu 978 Chinese anthologies Encyclopedias in Chinese

Contents

Translations

References

Sources