Chaoye qianzai 朝野僉載

Chaoye qianzai 朝野僉載 "Draft notes from the court and the country" is a "brush-notes"-style (biji 筆記) collection of stories written during the Tang period 唐 (618-907) by Zhang Zhuo 張鷟 (658?-730?), courtesy name Zhang Wencheng 張文成, style Fuxiuzi 浮休子. He came from Shenzhou 深州 (modern Shenxian 深縣, Hebei) and has also authored the encylcopaedia Longjin fengsui pan 龍筋鳳髓判.

The Chaoye qianzai includes stories about life at the court and in the capital during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian 武則天 (r. 690-704). It criticises the secrecy surrounding many decisions, which were often made not by court officials but by "cruel officials" (kuli 酷吏) in minor positions who enjoyed the Empress's favour. Among the historical accounts, many ghost stories and reports of supernatural events can be found, reflecting the popularity of such stories during the first millennium CE. The Song-period 宋 (960-1279) writer Hong Mai 洪邁 (1123-1202) therefore criticised the Chaoye qianzai as a concoction of trivial and profane romances. This criticism is unjustified, considering that Zhang Zhuo recorded a great deal of firsthand information, which was also used in the highly revered universal history Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑒. It also includes details about less well-known early Tang poets such as Lu Zhaolin 盧照鄰 (c. 634-689), Yang Jiong 楊炯 (650-693), Luo Binwang 駱賓王 (c. 640-c. 684), and Qiao Zhizhi 喬知之 (died 697), along with the reception of their writings. Furthermore, the Chaoye qianzai serves as an excellent source of popular rhymes and proverbs.

According to the bibliographical treatises in the Xintangshu 新唐書 and Songshi 宋史, the Chaoye qianzai had a length of 20 juan "scrolls" and a supplement of 3 juan. The original book is lost and could only be reconstructed from the 2-juan-long fragment included in the series Baoyantang miji 寶顏堂秘笈 and the encyclopaedia Taiping guangji 太平廣記. Fragments are also included in the collection Shuofu 說郛 and the series Gujin shuohai 古今說海, Lidai xiaoshi 歷代小史, Xu baichuan xuehai 續百川學海》本, Wuchao xiaoshuo 五朝小說, Tangren shuohui 唐人說薈, Tangdai congshu 唐代叢書 and Shuoku 說庫.

These remaining parts form a book of 6 juan, included in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 and the Congshu jicheng 叢書集成. Quotations from these sources sometimes differ in wording. An additional problem is that the surviving parts contain stories from a time when Zhang Zhuo was already deceased. These must have been added at a later date.

A modern edition of the Chaoye qianzai, commented by Zhao Shouyan 趙守儼, was published in 1979 by the Zhonghua Shuju Press 中華書局 in a joint volume together with the book Sui-Tang jiahua 隋唐嘉話 in the series Tang-Song shiliao biji congkan 唐宋史料筆記叢刊.