Guǎng bówù zhì 廣博物志
Expanded Treatise on Wide-Ranging Matters
by 董斯張 (Dǒng Sīzhāng, Míng, 撰).
About the work
A late-Míng lèishū in 50 juǎn nominally expanding Zhāng Huá’s third-century Bówù zhì 博物志, compiled by Dǒng Sīzhāng 董斯張 (1586–1628), zì Xiázhōu 遐周, of Wūchéng 烏程 (Zhèjiāng), a Guózǐ jiàn graduate noted for his erudition. The work covers materials from the Sān fén down through the Suí, arranged under 22 main mù and 167 zǐmù. Every citation is keyed at the end of its entry to its original source — a presentation feature the Sìkù editors single out for praise, since most Míng lèishū are notorious for omitting attributions. In substance the work is, despite the title, a typical Míng-genre lèishū rather than an extension of the bówù (curiosity-of-nature) genre of Zhāng Huá.
Tiyao
We submit the following: the Guǎng bówù zhì in fifty juǎn is by Dǒng Sīzhāng of the Míng. Sīzhāng’s zì was Xiázhōu, a man of Wūchéng, Guózǐ jiàn graduate. Of pervasive learning and broad outlook, he had a reputation in his day; his writings are numerous. This work is named as expanding Zhāng Huá’s Bówù zhì but in fact it is a category-arranged lèijiā compilation with finely-subdivided ménmù, more in the manner of later lèishū than in the spirit of the Bówù zhì original. The work is divided into 22 main mù and 167 zǐmù. Coverage begins with the Sān fén (the legendary high-antiquity texts) and ends with the Suí dynasty; treatment is uneven — sometimes detailed, sometimes cursory — and does not run consistently from head to tail.
The work’s citations all list the source name appended to each entry, a relatively good tǐlì (rule of practice). Yet there are inconsistencies: works such as the Tàipíng yùlǎn and the Tàipíng guǎngjì themselves preserve cited material with the original source-names intact, but here Dǒng’s citations drawn through those two works often record only “Yùlǎn” or “Guǎngjì”, obscuring the actual origin. Tújīng references give no prefecture; dìzhì references give no dynasty — suíyì piāoduō (random plucking) approaching the manner of bàifàn (second-hand pamphlet trade). The Hàn záshì mìxīn — known by all to be a forgery by Yáng Shèn 楊慎 — is yet incorporated alongside genuine material out of a love of the novel, betraying shū yú chízé (looseness in selection). When Kǒngshū commentary and Zhèngjiān glosses are dragged in for whole pages, and dàojīng shìdiǎn (Daoist scriptures and Buddhist canon) extracts spread across the page, the work’s àibó tānduō (love of the broad, greed for much) tips into the zhīmàn (rambling overgrowth) fault.
Nevertheless, its sōuluó (gathering) is rich; for pre-Táng yíwén zhuìjiǎn (vestiges of lost texts and scattered fragments) it preserves a great deal — among Míng lèishū, it remains useful for the cultivated reader.
Respectfully revised and submitted, twelfth month of the forty-fifth year of Qiánlóng [1780].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The Guǎng bówù zhì takes Zhāng Huá’s Bówù zhì 博物志 (3rd cent.) as its nominal model but in fact belongs to the standard late-Míng lèishū form — finely subdivided topical headings, second-hand excerpting — rather than to the bówù (curiosity-recording) prose tradition that Bówù zhì itself initiated. The compiler, Dǒng Sīzhāng 董斯張 (1586–1628), was a Guózǐ jiàn graduate of the prominent Wūchéng Dǒng family who never held office; he is best known for the historical-geographical Wú xìng bèi zhì 吳興備志 (also in the Sìkù, in the Shǐbù dìlǐ lèi) and as one of the principal late-Míng Wūchéng literati. His circle included Mào Yuányí 茅元儀 and Cháo Yuánjīng 晁元錆. The date bracket follows the author’s lifespan as the conservative limit for composition; the work was completed before his death in 1628.
The work’s principal modern interest lies in two areas. First, the Sìkù editors single out for praise its citation discipline: every entry is keyed to a named source — a feature so rare in Míng lèishū that the editors specifically commend it. The drawback they note is that Dǒng frequently records only “Yùlǎn” or “Guǎngjì” rather than the underlying ancient source quoted through those Sòng lèishū. Second, the work is one of the densest single-volume Míng-period anthologies of pre-Táng yìwén (lost-text vestiges), drawing heavily on the same Tàipíng compendia. The inclusion of the Hàn záshì mìxīn 漢雜事秘辛 — a known Yáng Shèn 楊慎 forgery — alongside genuine fragments is a methodological lapse that betrays the late-Míng taste for the curious.
Modern scholars have used the Guǎng bówù zhì particularly for the recovery of fragments of pre-Táng anomaly-account (zhìguài) literature; it is one of the standard secondary witnesses cited in Lǔ Xùn’s 魯迅 Gǔ xiǎoshuō gōu chén 古小説鈎沉.
Translations and research
- Hú Dào-jìng 胡道靜, Zhōngguó gǔdài de lèishū (Zhōng-huá, 1982), §Míng.
- Lǔ Xùn 魯迅, Gǔ xiǎo-shuō gōu chén 古小説鈎沉 (preface 1911; first complete pub. Lǔ Xùn quán-jí vol. 8) — uses the Guǎng bó-wù zhì as a recovery witness for pre-Táng xiǎo-shuō fragments.
- Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (Harvard, 2018), ch. 72 (on Míng lèishū).
No European-language complete translation.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Guǎng bówù zhì entry.
- Wikidata: Q11148093.