Zhōngmì yuánběn 中秘元本
The Original Copy from the Imperial Library
by 任德儉 (Rèn Déjiǎn, Míng, 輯); preface by 沈松 (Shěn Sōng, Míng); postface by 呂柟 (Lǚ Nán, 1479–1542, Míng)
About the work
A 20-juan Míng classified literary-phrase reference (lèishū 類書 / shì lèi 事類) designed as a rapid-access treasury of literary epithets and allusive appellations arranged by social category. The content runs from imperial ritual terminology (“天子命令”) through bureaucratic nomenclature, court ceremonies, palace architecture, and family relationships down to humble domestic subjects — each entry giving a conventional literary epithet followed by its verbatim source citation (in the format: epithet + 《source title》). The work belongs to the páizì biàn 排字辯 / shì lèi sub-genre, similar in function to the Hànyuàn xīnshū 翰苑新書 or Shìwén lèijù 事文類聚, serving examinees and belletristic writers who needed to locate elegant or archaic designations for common things.
Prefaces
The preface by 沈松 (字南厓, 吳興, 奉敕巡按山西監察御史) explains the provenance: the text was found in an incomplete state in the hands of gentry from Cíxī 慈谿; 沈松 was informed of it by a subordinate who had obtained a copy from the Shíchéng Collection of Li, Grand Minister 沁水李司徒石樓先生. Tracing its origins, the Li family had located it in the imperial library (中秘) during the 正德 reign (1505–21) and gave it the name Zhōngmì yuánběn 中秘元本 — “the original copy from the imperial library.” The preface by 沈松 expresses his intent to have it carved for wider circulation; he engaged 呂柟 of Gāolíng 高陵 (涇野先生) to review and postface the work.
The postface by 呂柟 (titled “事類中秘元本後序”) confirms that the 20-juan work was compiled by Rèn Déjiǎn 任德儉 of Jùnshuǐ 浚水, was passed to 沈松 (the Imperial Censor known as Nányá 南厓 gōng) from the 沁水 Li Grand Minister 石樓先生, and that the River East Transport Commissioner Huáng Déruì 黃德瑞 undertook the woodblock publication. Lǚ Nán’s postface praises the work’s comprehensiveness (“from noble lords to bondservants, from speech and appearance to palace storerooms, from heaven and earth to feather and insect — nothing is absent”) and likens it to a “compass for the way of being human” (rén dào zhǐnán 人道指南). Lǚ signs himself “高陵呂柟,” using his native-place name (Gāolíng, Shǎnxī).
Abstract
Zhōngmì yuánběn is an obscure Míng lèishū that survives in the Kanripo corpus but is unrecorded in the major bibliographic catalogs of the Míng and Qīng, including the Wényuān gé shūmù 文淵閣書目, the Sìkù quánshū (it is not listed in the Sìkù zǒngmù even among the Cúnmù 存目), or the Qīngshǐ gǎo·Yìwén zhì. The compiler Rèn Déjiǎn 任德儉 of Jùnshuǐ is otherwise unattested in standard biographical sources. The claim that the original was an imperial library (中秘) copy of uncertain provenance — circulated among Cíxī gentry before being retrieved — may reflect the fluid book-trade environment of the mid-Míng.
The work’s dating is constrained by the career of 呂柟 (1479–1542), who wrote the postface at some point after becoming Hànlín xiūzhuàn 翰林修撰 (1508) and before his death in 1542; 沈松 (CBDB id 201979, b. 1488) is likewise consistent with a 正德-era activity window, as the preface explicitly situates the text’s discovery in the 正德 period (1505–21). Publication is therefore best placed ca. 1510–1542.
The Kyoto Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào has no entry for this work; the text is not in WYG.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.