Tingshi 桯史

Tingshi 桯史 (also pronounced Yingshi) "A history of pillars" is a collection of stories written during the Song period 宋 (960-1279) by Yue Ke 岳珂, courtesy name Suzhi 肅之, style Yizhai 亦齋, Dongji 東几 or Juanweng 倦翁. He also wrote the biographical collection Jintuo zuibian 金陀粹編, a commentary on a divination book, Sanming zhimi fu buzhu 三命指迷賦補注 (see Luoluzi sanming xiaoxu fu 珞琭子三命消息賦), and the books Baozhenzhai fashu zan 寶真齋法書贊, Kuitanlu 媿郯錄, Yuchuji 玉楮集, Tangchu shigao 棠湖詩稿, Xu Dongji shiyu 續東几詩餘, Xiao Dai ji jijie 小戴記集解 and Kanzheng Jiujing sanzhuan yange li 刊正九經三傳沿革例.

The book is 15 juan long and includes 140 stories about the history of the Northern 北宋 (960-1126) and early Southern Song 南宋 (1127-1279) periods. It aims to clarify correct and faulty political decisions, and therefore adds comments to each paragraph. The book is essential because it includes information not found in other histories of the Song period and provides more detailed accounts of many facts than the official dynastic history Songshi 宋史. The text consists of some quotations from poems and prose writings. It is sometimes written in a quite vernacular language, especially in paragraphs describing daily urban life, which makes the book also very interesting for linguistic studies as well as social history.

The earliest surviving print dates from 1475, another one from the Jiajing reign-period 嘉靖 (1522-1566) of the Ming era 明 (1368-1644). The Tingshi is included in the series Baihai 稗海, Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Sibu congkan 四部叢刊, Biji xiaoshuo daguan 筆記小說大觀, Jindai mishu 津逮秘書, Shenbaoguan congshu xuji 申報館叢書續集, Xuejin taoyuan 學津討原 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編. A modern edition was published in 1981 by the Zhonghua Shuju Press 中華書局.