Shìlín guǎngjì 事林廣記
Extensive Records of the Forest of Affairs
by 陳元靚 (Chén Yuánjìng, Sòng, fl. mid-13th century, 撰); Japanese edition with preface by 遯菴由的 (Ton’an Yūteki, 1684)
About the work
One of the foundational Sòng–Yuán rìyòng lèishū 日用類書 (daily-use encyclopedias), compiled by 陳元靚 of the Southern Sòng. The Shìlín guǎngjì is organized into named jí 集 (lettered 甲集 through 癸集, i.e., ten collections), each subdivided into mén 門 (topical categories) covering an encyclopedic range of human affairs: astronomy and cosmology (天文門), geography, ritual and social forms, law, medicine, daily necessities, music, games, numerology, letter-writing formulas, and literary allusions. The work combines genuinely scholarly material — citing standard histories, Confucian classics, and Buddhist texts — with practical household guidance, making it a primary source both for social history and for the study of Song–Yuan popular encyclopedia publishing. The cosmological opening draws on Zhōu Dūnyí’s 周敦頤 Tōngshū 通書 on the Great Ultimate, reflecting the Southern Sòng Neo-Confucian synthesis.
The Kanripo corpus preserves a Japanese printed edition with a preface by the Buddhist monk Ton’an Yūteki 遯菴由的, dated Jōkyō 1 (貞亨元年, 1684). Ton’an relates that he had seen a manuscript copy of the work twenty years earlier, found it unclear and difficult to verify; when a good printed edition came to his attention, he was asked to write a preface for the woodblock reprint. The preface praises the work’s organization (“from 甲集 to 癸集, however many juan, the accounts of affairs are without superfluous language, the essentials are extracted without prolixity”) and expresses hope for its wider diffusion.
Prefaces
Preface by Ton’an Yūteki 遯菴由的 (Jōkyō 1 / 1684): Briefly recounts the history of his encounter with the work over twenty years; praises the correction of errors in the new edition. A Japanese Zen monk known by this name (Ton’an Yūteki) was active in the Genroku period; the preface reflects the wave of Japanese interest in Chinese rìyòng lèishū in the Edo period, when many such texts were reprinted for Japanese circulation.
Abstract
The Shìlín guǎngjì was compiled by 陳元靚 during the Southern Sòng (active under Sòng Lǐzōng, r. 1224–1264). Wilkinson (Chinese History: A New Manual §72.1.3.1) gives the first extant edition as Fujian, Jiànyáng 建陽, 1330–33. The work was reprinted in Zhōnghuá in 1963 (6 vols.) and again in 1988 (Chūbun) and 1999. It was also widely reprinted in Japan and is included in the Wakokubun ruisho shūsei 和刻本類書集成 (vol. 1), making this 1684 Edo-period reprint representative of a well-documented Japanese reception tradition.
The text is absent from the Sìkù quánshū (and thus has no WYG entry in the standard catalog), as it belongs to the category of popular rìyòng lèishū that the Sìkù editors typically excluded. The Kanripo corpus preserves this Japanese edition separately from any standard Chinese catalog entry; note that the existing person note for 陳元靚 (written when cataloging KR2j0001 Suìshí guǎngjì) states this text “falls outside the Sìkù and is not in the Kanripo corpus” — this should be corrected in light of the present entry.
Translations and research
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §72.1.3.1: “Shilin guangji 事林廣記. Chen Yuanjing 陳元靚 (end of Song); first extant ed. Fujian, Jianyang, 1330–33; repr. in 6 vols. Zhonghua, 1963; Chūbun, 1988; one vol. repr. Zhonghua, 1999.”
- Hilde De Weerdt, “The encyclopedia as textbook: Selling private Chinese encyclopedias in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,” EOEO 77 (2007): 77–102.
- Long, Yumei. 2021. “Daily Life Encyclopedias and the Transmission of Knowledge in Song–Yuan China.” Covers the Shilin guangji as a case study.
Other points of interest
The 1684 Japanese edition is representative of the broad Edo-period reception of Chinese Song encyclopedias among Japanese scholars and monks. The Ton’an preface is itself a document of Edo-period Chinese studies in Japan.