Qídì jì 齊地記
Records of the Qi Region
Anonymous
About the work
An extremely short fragmentary geographic text covering the Shandong region. Only a single passage survives in the Kanripo text: the explanation of the name Bùyè Chéng 不夜城 (“Sleepless City” or “Nightless City”) in the eastern Shandong peninsula. Author and date unknown. The work is distinct from the Sān Qí lüèjì (KR2k0162) by Fú Chén, though overlapping in geographic coverage.
Abstract
The sole surviving passage explains the name of Bùyè Chéng 不夜城, located southeast of Yángjué 陽建 county in eastern Shandong: “In antiquity the sun appeared at night in this city; it was named ‘Sleepless City’ to mark its strangeness.” The legend, also preserved in the Hànshū 漢書 geographical commentary and in Shènjì 神記-type texts, associates the anomaly with the Lái 萊 people of the eastern Shandong peninsula; the Hànshū commentary specifies that after witnessing the nighttime solar apparition, the Lái lord established a city at that spot and named it “Bùyè.” The fragment’s brevity makes author attribution and dating impossible; the text is consistent with a Wei-Jin or Southern Dynasties compilation of regional legendary geography.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- ctext.org search: https://ctext.org/search.pl?if=en&search=齊地記