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The Beimeng suoyan 北夢瑣言 "Trivial tales from north of Meng" is a collection of short stories from the Tang 唐 (618-907) and Five Dynasties 五代 (907-960) periods written by Sun Guangxian 孫光憲 (900-968). Meng 夢 is an old name of the city of Jiangling 江陵 in the modern province of Hubei, where the author wrote his book.
The source material Sun used for the compilation of his book was carefully collected after he had checked the historical accuracy. The stories include reports about the court activities as well as the private life of officials and that of commoners. An important part of the private life of scholar-officials were their literary writings, especially poems, of which a great part is at least partially quoted in the Beimeng suoyan. A part of the stories also include supernatural phenomena, as neitherwordly punishments for evil deeds in life.
The original book had a length of 30 juan "scrolls" of which only 20 are preserved. The Beimeng suoyan is included in the collectanea Baihai 稗海, Yayutang congshu 雅雨堂叢書, Yunzizaikan congshu 雲自在龕叢書 and Siku quanshu 四庫全書. The last version includes 4 more juan of supernatural histories extracted from the Song period 宋 (960-1279) encyclopedia Taiping guangji 太平廣記. In 1960 the Zhonghua shuju press 中華書局 published a modern edition.
Source: Fu Shousun 富壽蓀 (1986). "Beimeng suoyan 北夢瑣言", in: Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo wenxue 中國文學, vol. 1, p. 40. Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe.
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Chinese literature according to the four-category system
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