Fengan yuhua 分甘餘話

Fengan yuhua 分甘餘話 "Leftover talks sharing sweetness" is a "brush-notes"-style book (biji 筆記) written during the early Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Wang Shizhen 王士禎 (1634-1711). The term fengan "sharing sweetness" was taken from a phrase in a letter from Wang Xizhi 王羲之 (303-361) to Xie Wan 謝萬 (320-361). The book catalogue Guangutang cangshu mu 觀古堂藏書目 lists the book in the section of fiction (xiaoshuo lei 小說類).

The book of 4 juan was written in 1685 after Wang was dismissed from his office as Minister of Justice (xingbu shangshu 刑部尚書). Wang spent his days leisurely with brush and books, recording his thoughts informally and mostly noting trivial matters, without the intention of scholarly verification.

As a result, this work does not resemble earlier texts like Juyilu 居易錄 or Chibei outan 池北偶談, which offer thorough and precise discussions. For example, in citing the book Lanzhenzi 懶真子, Wang notes that in the history book Hanshu 漢書, the consort of Liu He 劉賀 (92-59 BCE), Prince of Changyi 昌邑, was named Luo Zhou 羅紂, also known as Luo Fu 羅敷, but he fails to explain why the characters zhou 紂 and fu 敷 would be interchangeable. In fact, the Hanshu uses the character fu 紨, which was wrongly crippled to 紂. Wang Shizhen indiscriminately adopted the wrong version of the Lanzhenzi. Other such anecdotes and reports, though recorded, are mostly unsubstantiated and speculative in nature.

The text is, nonetheless, found in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Shuoling 說鈴, Gujin shuobu congshu 古今說部叢書 and in Wang's collected writings Wang Yuyang yishu 王漁洋遺書.