Langji congtan 浪跡叢談

Langji congtan 浪跡叢談 "Miscellaneous talks from a wanderer's traces" is a "brush-notes"-style book (biji 筆記) including fictional stories (xiaoshuo 小說) compiled during the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Liang Zhangju 梁章鉅 (1775–1849), who was also the author of the Guitian suoji 歸田瑣記.

The bibliographical chapters in the Qingshigao 清史稿 and Qingchao xu wenxian tongkao 清朝續文獻通考 catalogue it under the category of fiction writers (xiaoshuojia 小說家).

The author's own preface of the work of 11 juan explains that he decided to include some of the stories he collected in a different book, giving it more the character of a collection of hearsay he became acquainted with "during my wandering life". In 1846, he led his family over the mountain passes from Bocheng 薄城, intending to travel leisurely through the Suzhou 蘇州 and Hangzhou 杭州 region. Feeling keenly that he had a home to which he could not return, and that his life was much like that of a wanderer (langji 浪跡), he took this as the title of the work.

The book comprises 224 entries. It records famous scenic spots and landscapes of the southeast and presents historical anecdotes and forgotten events and also touches on matters of national livelihood, economy and the people's welfare. Fascicles one and two record the gardens, scenic spots, and urban historical sites visited in the course of Liang's travels. The entries are vivid in their depictions and elegant in their prose, and may be counted among the finest examples of travel writing. Fascicles three and four recount personal associations with notable figures of the time, and record the history and institutions of Qing opera (qingqu 清曲). Entries such as Hanlinyuan yuanqi 翰林院緣起 "The origins of the Hanlin Academy" and Shi 謚 "The system of posthumous titles" are relatively substantive and of some reference value. Parts five and six, which record current affairs and recount events of the past, are the sections of greatest historical value. Entries such as "The English barbarians" (Yingyi 英夷), "Opium" (Yapian 鴉片), "A study of cannons" (Paokao 炮考) and "Catholicism" (Tianzhujiao 天主教) are particularly striking passages. The remaining parts are also of considerable value: volume seven contains riddles (Zami 雜謎) and ingenious couplets (Qiaodui 巧對); volume eight covers medicine; volume nine deals with bronze and stone inscriptions, stele rubbings, calligraphy, and painting; and volumes ten and eleven contain information on poetry and shihua 詩話 (poetry criticism). The appendix includes a poems with multiple rhymes on the Human Day (i.e., the 7th day of the 1st lunar month, Renri dieyun shi 人日疊韻詩).

The continuation of the Langji congtan, called Xutan 續談, comprises 8 fascicles, and the third batch of notes, Santan 三談, 6 juan. They were completed in successive years: 1847, 1848, and 1849 respectively. Together they comprise 507 entries. The Santan is generally considered inferior in content to the two preceding compilations.

The three compilations were initially printed separately in 1847, 1848, and 1857, respectively. In 1981, the Zhonghua Shuju 中華書局 combined all three compilations in a single punctuated and collated volume, edited by Chen Tiemin 陳鐵民. In 1983, the Fujian Renmin Chubanshe 福建人民出版社 published annotated and collated editions of the Congtan and the Xutan, prepared by Liu Yeqiu 劉葉秋 and Yuan Yuxin 苑育新. Other editions include the series Biji xiaoshuo daguan 筆記小說大觀, the Biji huike 筆記彙刻 edition, and a typeset edition published by the Shanghai Dada Tushu Gongying She 大達圖書供應社 during the Republican period.