Tang-Song congshu 唐宋叢書

Tang-Song congshu 唐宋叢書 "Collectanea of Tang and Song period writings" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) compiled during the very late Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Zhong Renjie 鍾人傑 (fl. 1634), courtesy name Ruixian 瑞先, from Qiantang 錢塘, Zhejiang. Zhong also wrote a Neo-Confucian treatise called Xingli huitong 性理會通.

The series includes 103 writings from the Tang 唐 (618-907) and Song 宋 (960-1279) periods with a total length of 168 (149?) juan. It is divided into the four traditional literary categories, but with somewhat different names, namely "Wings to the Classics" (Jingyi 經翼), "Alternative histories" (Bieshi 別史), "Remnants of the masters" (Ziyu 子餘), and "Assembled writings" (Zaiji 載籍).

The collection is a kind of continuation to Cheng Rong's 程榮 (late 16th cent.) original Han-Wei congshu 漢魏叢書. Yet the Tang-Song congshu also includes 20 writings of earlier times, like Shen Pei's 申培 (c. 219-c. 135 BCE) Shishuo 詩說 from the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE), or Ge Hong's 葛洪 (283-343 or 363) Zhenzhongshu 枕中書 from the Jin period 晉 (265-420). These are not included in the Han-Wei congshu.

The texts in the Tang-Song congshu are mostly extracted from the series Shuofu 說郛, in which only selected paragraphs are recorded. The Tang-Song congshu does therefore not rank among the collectanea series of a higher quality. It was printed during the Ming and again during the early Qing period 清 (1644-1911). Wang Wengao 王文誥 (b. 1764) has produced a downscaled version of it.