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The Leishuo 類說 "Categorized tales" is a collection of short stories, many of them of the phantastic genre of chuanqi 傳奇 "strange happenings", compiled by the Song period 宋 (960-1279) Zeng Zao 曾慥. The book was finished in 1136. The stories included in the 50 juan "scrolls" are intended to serve as model in government, as of educational value, or simply to entertain. There are also version with 60 juan. The Leishuo includes 252 stories from the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) to the early Song period. Zeng Zao selected the stories from older books, polished them and so transformed into a higher literary category. The content is very rich and includes poems, interesting events from older persons' lives, stories of ghosts and immortals, the spread of Buddhism and Daoism, and so on. The stories are preserved in their original form, and the Leishuo is therefore an important source for this literary genre. It is the third important source of ancient short stories, after Wei Zheng's 魏徵 Qunshu zhiyao 群書治要 and Ma Zong's 馬總 Yilin 意林, both from the Tang period 唐 (618-907).
In 1955 the Wenxue guji press 文學古籍出版社 published a modern edition.
Zeng Zao has also compiled a Daoist encyclopedia called Daoshu 道樞.
Source: Zhao Hankun 趙含坤 (2005). Zhongguo leishu 中國類書, pp. 99-100. Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin chubanshe. |
