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Luoyang jinshen jiuwen ji 洛陽搢紳舊聞記

Oct 19, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Luoyang jinshen jiuwen ji 洛陽搢紳舊聞記 "Hearsay from the Gentry from Luoyang" is a biji 筆記 "brush notes" style book written by the Song period 宋 (960-1279) scholar Zhang Qixian 張齊賢, courtesy name Zhang Shiliang 張師亮. He came from Caozhou 曹州 (modern Caoxian 曹縣, Shandong) and was manager of affairs (pingzhangshi 平章事) of the Palace Secretariat (zhongshusheng 中書省) and the Chancellery (menxiasheng 門下省). In his young years he lived for several years in Luoyang 洛陽 (modern Luoyang, Henan), the ancient eastern capital, and was befriended with many persons from the local gentry (jinshen 搢紳) with which the talked about the history of the Five Dynasties period 五代 (907-960). In 1005 Zhang Qixian was made prefect of Yingqiu 營丘 and used his leisuretime to write down what he remembered from these stories. The 5 juan "scrolls" long book includes more than twenty stories. Zhang laid great importance on such stories that differed from the official biographies and events narrates in the official dynastic histories. The stories focus on the city of Luoyang, and are therefore very interesting for the history of this city, like the government of Zhang Quanyi 張全義. The history Jiu Wudaishi 五代史 served itself from Zhang Qixian's book, a fact that underlines the importance of his book as a historiographical source. Only the story of the death of the Prince of Dongdan 東丹 differs from the official version, and some stories belong to the realm of fiction and fantasy. The book is to be found in the reprint series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Zhibuzuzhai congshu 知不足齋叢書 and Shuofu 說郛.

Source:
Wu Feng 吳楓 (ed. 1994). Zhonghua gu wenxian da cidian 中華古文獻大辭典, Wenxue 文學卷, Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe, p. 510.