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The Minghuang zalu 明皇雜錄 "Miscellaneous records of Emperor Ming" is a collection of stories around Emperor Tang Xuanzong 唐玄宗 (r. 712-755) compiled by the late Tang period 唐 (618-907) scholar Zheng Chuhui 鄭處誨. The book is 2 juan "scrolls" long, in some editions plus a supplementery chapter, and was originally classified as "miscellaneous history" (zashi 雜史) before bring "downgraded" to a novella (xiaoshuo 小説). The book was finished in 855. It includes 37 stories of the youth of Emperor Xuanzong, his reign, and the time of old age, when he had to flee the capital and escaped to Shu 蜀 (Sichuan). In some stories worthy ministers and evil favourites are mentioned and vividly described. The stories can not be used as historiographical sources, but they show how the glorious age of the Tang, which was concurrently the apex and the turning point, was seen by contemporarians and later persons: The golden age was also an age of decay. The stories have a strong character of tales and can be compared with contemporary collections, like the Ci Liushi jiuwen 次柳氏舊聞, Kaitian chuanxin ji 開天傳信記, or Minghuang shiqi shi 明皇十七事. The Qing period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Qian Xizuo 錢熙祚 has added fragments of the Minghuang zalu quoted in other books. In 1985 the Shanghai guji press 上海古籍出版社 published a modern edition.
Source: Liu Zhaoyun 劉兆雲 (1991). "Minghuang zalu 明皇雜錄", in: Zhongguo wenxue da cidian 中國文學大辭典, vol. 5, pp. 3707-3708. Ed. Ma Liangchun 馬良春, Li Futian 李福田. Tianjin: Tianjin renmin chubanshe.
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