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博物志

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Text ID
KR3l0123
Date
270–300
Dynasty
晉

Bówù zhì 博物志

Treatise on Universal Things by 張華 (撰)

About the work

A ten-juàn miscellany of cosmography, natural history, ethnography, exotica, and zhìguài anecdote, the foundational and name-giving work of the WèiJìn bówù 博物 (“universal-knowledge”) genre. Traditionally attributed to 張華 Zhāng Huá 張華 (232–300), the Jìn polymath and Sīkōng whose own reputation as the encyclopaedic mind of his age made him the natural namesake for the genre. The work originally circulated, according to legend, in 400 piān; the received recension in ten juàn is the post-Wèi reduction (purportedly imposed by Jìn Wǔdì himself) of that mass. Juàn 1 surveys geography (the Dìlǐ lüè 地理略); subsequent juàn cover mountains and waters, foreign peoples and exotica, anomalies (異人, 異俗, 異獸, 異鳥, 異蟲, 異魚, 異草、異木), human nature, mineralogy and pharmacology, the fāngshì arts, and a long miscellany of historical anecdote drawn from earlier texts.

Tiyao

Your servants report: Bówù zhì in 10 juàn. The old text-line attributes it to the Jìn Zhāng Huá, zhuàn. According to Wáng Jiā’s Shíyí jì 拾遺記, “[Zhāng] Huá was fond of consulting the obscure-anomaly chapters of the apocryphal Túwěi; he gathered the world’s strays from the beginning of written records, examined the supernatural and the marvellous and what was told in the village-lanes of the empire, and composed a Bówù zhì in 400 juàn, which he submitted to [Jìn] Wǔdì. The emperor by edict put a question to him: ‘Your talent assembles ten thousand generations, your erudition is without peer; yet the matters recorded and the words gathered are also much that is floating and improbable — you should cut it down further, weed out the doubtful, and divide it into 10 juàn’” — and so on. This being so, the book was composed in Wǔdì’s reign. Yet the fourth juàn, in the Wùxìng category, says “in the Tàishǐ era of Wǔdì the armoury caught fire” — which is post-Wǔ-dì phrasing.

Zhōu Liànggōng’s Shūyǐng says that the Yìwén lèijù cites from the Bówù zhì an entry on “Zǐgòng on the shèshù (altar tree),” not preserved in the present text; we note that this entry is in fact preserved in juàn 8 — Liànggōng presumably had not checked. But considering Péi Sōngzhī’s commentary on the Sānguó zhì — its Wèi shū annals of Tàizǔ and Wéndì, the Huì biography, and the Wú shū biography of Sūn Bēn — which cites four entries from the Bówù zhì, the present text preserves only the one cited at the Tàizǔ annals, and even that one preserves only its first half; the remaining three are absent. Further, Jiāng Yān’s Gǔ tóngjiàn zàn cites Zhāng Huá’s Bówù zhì as saying “the craft of casting bronze can no longer be obtained; only in Shǔ-land among the Qiāng there are sometimes those who understand it” — words absent from the present text, sufficient proof that this is not the recension Qí–Liáng scholars saw. Further, the Táng huìyào records Lǚ Cái’s Xiǎnqìng 3 (658) memorial citing the Bówù zhì as saying “White Snow — Tàidì had Sùnǚ play the five-stringed qín, the qū was named for its highness, with which men therefore harmonised but few” — and Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s Lìdài mínghuà jì cites the Bówù zhì as saying “Liú Bāo of Hàn Huándì’s time once painted the Yúnhàn tú (Milky-Way picture), and those who saw it felt hot; he also painted the Běifēng tú (North-Wind picture), and those who saw it felt cool” — phrasing nowhere in the present text. Lǐ Shàn’s Wénxuǎn notes cite the Bówù zhì in twelve places, of which nine match the present text; but the Xījīng fù note’s citation “wángsūn and gōngzǐ are both ancient words of mutual respect,” the Xiánjū fù note’s citation “Zhāng Qiān on mission to Dàxià obtained the pomegranate; Lǐ Guǎnglì as Èrshī jiàngjūn attacking Dàwǎn obtained the grape,” and the Qīmìng note’s citation “the orange-pomelo resembles the jú yet is not, and resembles the yòu yet has a sweet scent” — none of these is in the present text.

Duàn Gōnglù’s Běihù lù cites the Bówù zhì in five places, of which three match the present text; but “Xiūliú is also called jīxiū” and “the jīnyú has bran-gold in its brain, comes from the Gōngpósāi” — neither is preserved here, sufficient proof too that this is not the recension Táng scholars saw. The Tàipíng guǎngjì cites a Bówù zhì entry on Zhèng Hóng of Shěnniàng chuān, the Yúnlù mànchāo of Zhào Yànwèi cites a Bówù zhì entry on huánglán (safflower) brought back by Zhāng Qiān from the western regions — both absent here. Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì states that the head of the juàn has a Lǐlüè 理略 and the end has zàn 讚 (eulogies); the present text’s head, the first item, is the Dìlǐ lüè 地理略 (“from the time of the Wèishì onwards”) — there is no Lǐlüè or zàn discussed; only the geography has zàn, and they are not at the end of the juàn. Further, Zhào Yǔshí’s Bīntuì lù states that the Bówù zhì’s last juàn records the Xiāngfūrén matter, also mistakenly identifying her with one of Yáo’s daughters; the present text has this entry at the head of juàn 8, not at the end of any juàn — mutually contradictory. Therefore the present text is also not the recension Sòng scholars saw.

Most likely the original work was scattered and lost, and a busybody gathered citations of the Bówù zhì from various books and patched them out from other xiǎoshuō until the volumes were full — hence its frequent agreement with the citations of the Yìwén lèijù and the Tàipíng yùlǎn; the remainder, what is not cited elsewhere, has mostly been pilfered from the Dà Dài lǐ, the Chūnqiū fánlù, the Kǒngzǐ jiāyǔ, the Běncǎo jīng, the Shānhǎi jīng, the Shíyí jì, the Sōushén jì, the Yì yuàn, the Xījīng zájì, the Hàn Wǔ nèizhuàn, and the Lièzǐ, scrappily collated into a volume; it is not the entirety of Huá’s original text.

Further, Liú Zhāo’s commentary on the Xù Hàn zhì — Lǜlì zhì, Yúfú zhì, Wǔxíng zhì, Jùnguó zhì — cites a Bówù jì 博物記 in one, one, two, and twenty-nine places; the Qídōng yěyǔ cites from it the Rìnán yěnǚ (wild women of Rìnán) entry and says the Bówù jì must be a Qín–Hàn period old text, and Zhāng Huá took its name to compose his zhì. Yáng Shèn’s Dānqiān lù also says, on the authority of the Hòu Hàn shū commentary, that the Bówù jì is the work of Táng Méng. Now observing Péi Sōngzhī’s Sānguó zhì commentary, which cites the Bówù zhì in four places and at the Liáng Mào biography in the Wèi shū additionally cites a Bówù jì — it is plain beyond doubt that the two are distinct books. The present text has only the entry “the Jiāng and the Hé waters turn red,” the entry “at the end of Hàn a Guānzhōng woman, and Fàn Míngyǒu’s slave digging open a tomb, came back to life” (split here into two entries), and the Rìnán yěnǚ entry (with the line “they go in groups, never seeing men” miscopied as “they go in groups seeing men,” and the line “their appearance is fine and white” miscopied as “zhuàngjīng mù”), while the remaining thirty-one Bówù jì entries are all missing. Is it not that someone, finding these three entries in other books and noting that “bówù” appears in both titles, failed to distinguish the two works and inadvertently absorbed three into this? As for the entry in Zájì xià on “men of Yùzhāng yīguān (gentry) having several wives” — this is in fact the wording of the Suí shū dìlǐ zhì, a Táng-period composition, which Huá could never have seen; further proof that the present text is patched together. The book occasionally has remarks ascribed to “Lúshì” or “Zhōu Rìyòng”; on consulting the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo there is a Zhōu–Lú zhù Bówù zhì in 6 juàn — the present text preserves only a few such notes, so it is not the complete commentary, perhaps merely an incidental selection by a later hand.

Respectfully checked, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 6th month. Chief Compilers: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The historical Bówù zhì attributed to 張華 Zhāng Huá (232–300) is a genuine WèiJìn composition; it is securely datable to the late Tàishǐ–Tàikāng era (c. 270–290), with a terminus ante quem of Zhāng Huá’s death in 300 (the Tàishǐ armoury-fire reference in the present juàn 4 places it after 274 at the earliest, and the catalog narrative attaching it to Wǔdì’s edict implies pre-290). The work is the foundational text of the bówù “universal-knowledge” genre — a category that the Sìkù compilers placed under Xiǎoshuō jiā lèisān (suǒjì zhī shǔ) but which modern genre criticism (Campany, Strange Writing) recognises as a hybrid bridging cosmography (Shānhǎi jīng), fāngshì lore, and the early zhìguài tradition. Wilkinson §56.8.1 confirms the work’s centrality and notes that “Bowu zhi 博物志 (A treatise on curiosities) has been fully translated and annotated in Greatrex (1987).”

The transmission is, however, deeply troubled. As the Sìkù tíyào establishes through extensive parallels with Tang and pre-Tang quotations, the received 10-juàn text is largely a Song-period or earlier reconstruction: very many entries cited in Péi Sōngzhī’s Sānguó zhì commentary, Lǐ Shàn’s Wénxuǎn notes, Duàn Gōnglù’s Běihù lù, Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì, and the Yìwén lèijù are missing or misplaced, while material from Suí shū dìlǐ zhì (Táng) and other later works has migrated in. Roger Greatrex’s 1987 Stockholm dissertation, The Bowu zhi: An annotated translation, is the standard modern philological treatment and offers the only complete European-language rendering; it argues that perhaps half the received text descends from a genuine Zhāng Huá nucleus while the rest is medieval and later accretion, with the canonical 10-juàn shape stabilised by Sòng léishū citation practice. The bracket adopted here (270–300) reflects the original composition window of the Zhāng Huá core; readers should bear in mind that the received text is a layered, partly Sòng-recompiled witness to that core.

The Sìkù tíyào is also keen to distinguish the Bówù zhì from an unrelated Bówù jì 博物記 cited in Liú Zhāo’s commentary to the Hòu Hàn shū lost zhì — a Qín–Hàn-period work attributed in Hòu Hàn shū notes to Táng Méng 唐蒙. Three of the Bówù jì’s thirty-four entries had been pulled into the received Bówù zhì, leading to confusion that the Sìkù compilers resolved philologically.

The work was already well known in the Six Dynasties (cited in Péi Sōngzhī’s commentary, late 5th c.), the early Táng (Lǐ Shàn’s Wénxuǎn commentary, c. 660; Lǚ Cái’s 658 memorial; Zhāng Yànyuǎn’s Lìdài mínghuà jì, mid-9th c.), the late Táng (Duàn Gōnglù’s Běihù lù), and Sòng (Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì, Zhào Yǔshí’s Bīntuì lù). A Sòng-era commentary by Zhōu Rìyòng 周日用 and a “Lúshì” survives only in fragments embedded in the received text. The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and Tàipíng yùlǎn preserve significant quotations supporting reconstruction work.

Translations and research

  • Greatrex, Roger. The Bowu zhi: An annotated translation. Stockholm: Orientaliska Studier 20, 1987 (PhD diss., revised). The standard English-language critical translation, with full philological apparatus and source identification for each entry; also the principal English-language study of the work’s transmission and Sòng reconstruction.
  • Greatrex, Roger. “Bowu zhi 博物志.” In Cynthia Chennault et al., eds., Early Medieval Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide (Berkeley: IEAS, 2015), the standard reference entry.
  • Campany, Robert Ford. Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in Early Medieval China (SUNY 1996). Foundational treatment of the bówù / zhì-guài generic complex; the Bówù zhì is one of its principal exhibits, with detailed source analysis and a translation of selected entries.
  • Fàn Níng 范寧, ed. Bówù zhì jiào-zhèng 博物志校證 (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1980). The standard Chinese critical edition; serves as Greatrex’s base text and provides full collations against Sòng léi-shū.
  • Lǐ Jiànguó 李劍國. Táng-qián zhì-guài xiǎo-shuō shǐ 唐前志怪小說史 (Nán-kāi, 1984; rev. Tiānjīn jiàoyù 2005), chapter on the Bówù zhì — the standard Chinese source-critical chapter on the work’s pre-Táng transmission.
  • Han-Wei liuchao biji xiaoshuo daguan 汉魏六朝笔记小说大观 (Shanghai guji, 1999) includes a punctuated text of the Bówù zhì.

Other points of interest

The Bówù zhì preserves several famous anomaly-narratives that became part of the high literary repertoire, including the Bādōng yúfù gē 巴東漁父歌 (“if the river is blocked the yúfù sings”), the Lóngyú (dragon-fish) and Wànsuì (ten-thousand-year) shrubs, the Báiyún tàizǐ matter, the Niúláng Zhīnǚ (“Cowherd and Weaving Maid”) cosmological exposition that anchors the festival story for later poets, and the Sānyuán Hétú cosmographic frame quoted into the Sòng Hánmò quánshū. The Niúláng Zhīnǚ exposition, in particular, is the locus classicus from which the Táng Qīxī poetry tradition derives its astronomical detail.

Note also the well-known Bówù zhì fragment, preserved in Sòng léishū but absent from the received text, recounting Zhāng Qiān’s mission to Dàxià and the introduction of pomegranates and grapes; this passage migrated into the Qímín yàoshù of Jiǎ Sīxié and from there into early-modern agricultural compendia.

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