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The Yanshantang bieji 弇山堂別錄 "Alternative records from the Yanshan Studio" is a collection of notes on the administrative history of the Ming dynasty 明 (1368-1644). It was written by Wang Shizhen 王世貞 and finished in 1590. Although the name of bieji suggests it to be a collection of belletristic character it is in fact a historiographic work. It has a length of 100 juan "scrolls" and consists of four parts. In the first part Wang Shizhen gives an account the the dynasty's history down to his time (5 juan) and its political and administrative system (10 juan). He investigates various sources to the period and critically points out differences (4 juan), and he displays a critical stance to offenses in administration (11 juan). In the second part Wang inserts 31 juan of tables not only of hereditary positions of enfeoffed nobility but also the occupants of the most important state offices. In further 36 juan he presents a lot of treatises on government institutions, like enfeoffments, imperial inspection tours, the examination system, edicts, the military system, and so on. In the last 4 juan Wang Shizhen gives an overview of the imperial family and the families of the imperial princes.
Wang's book is a valuable source for the history of the Ming dynasty and has to be used as a complement to the official veritable records and the statutes of the Ming. In his methods he is a precursor of the text-critical school which fully developed during the Qing period 清 (1644-1911).
The Yanshantang bielu was printed immediately after the completion and again in the 19th century by the Guangya shuju press 廣雅書局. The Zhonghua shuju press 中華書局 published a modern edition in 1985.
Source: Mao Peiqi 毛佩琦 (1992). "Yanshantang bieji 弇山堂別集", in: Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo lishi 中國歷史, vol. 3, p. 1368. Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe.
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Chinese literature according to the four-category system
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