Shaoshi Shanfang bicong 少室山房筆叢

Shaoshi Shanfang bicong 少室山房筆叢 "Notes from the Mountain Studio of Few Rooms" is a collection of essays on history books and historiography written during the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Hu Yinglin 胡應麟 (1551-1602), courtesy name Yuanrui 元端, later Mingrui 明瑞, style Shiyangsheng 石羊生 or Shaoshi Shanren 少室山人. He hailed from Lanxi 蘭溪, Zhejiang, and obtained his juren degree in 1576. Because all attempts at higher qualification failed, he decided to dedicate his life to literary and historical studies, and became famous as a colleague of the writer Wang Shizhen 王世貞 (1526-1590). Hu's collected writings are called Shaoshi shanfang leigao 少室山房類稿. He also wrote a poetry critique, Shisou 詩藪.

His collection Bicong consists of a main part (Zhengji 正集) of 32 juan and a supplementary part (Xuji 續集) of 16 juan. The first part is divided into twelve chapters in which he discusses selected issues of ancient literature in general as well as problems in collecting books, historical criticism, origins and significance of the "Masters and philosophers", forged books, selected chronicles (Zhushu jinian 竹書紀年, Yizhoushu 逸周書, Mu Tianzi zhuan 穆天子傳, and Sanfen 三墳), novellas with history background (xiaoshuo 小說, like Sanguozhi yanyi 三國志演義 and Shuihuzhuan 水滸傳), authors and actors in history, miscellaneous matters in historiography, Daoist writings (daojing 道經), magicians (fangshi 方士), and Buddhist writings and writers.

The supplementary part focuses on individual writings and evaluates them, mainly Yang Shen's 楊慎 (1488-1559) Danqian yulu 丹鉛餘錄 and Yilin fashan 藝林伐山.

Each chapter is headed by an introduction in which Hu Yingling explained his aims. He quotes from a wide range of different sources and discusses them on a very sophisticated level. Of great interest is his chapter on forgeries of all genres (Sibu zhengwei 四部正偽), but also his many remarks on literature of the mixed genre between fiction and history. He provides many quotations of rare texts and approaches them also in a theoretical way by dividing them into the six types zhiguai 志怪, chuanqi 傳奇, zalu 雜錄, congtan 叢談, bianding 辨訂 and zhengui 箴規. This classification is also helpful for so-called "brush-notes"-texts (biji 筆記). Zhiguai were, according to his definition, texts in which popular stories (chuanwen 傳聞 "hearsay") were recorded, and chuanqi such written with literary intentions.

The chapter Zhuang Yue weitan 莊岳委談, in which he quotes extensively from theatre plays, is essential for the history of literature. It also includes explanations of literary expressions not found elsewhere, like the term xisun 細酸 that was used during the Yuan period 元 (1279-1368) for the common word xiucai 秀才 (provincial graduate).

The book was first printed in 1606. The most popular edition is that of the Guangya Printing House 廣雅書局 from the Guangxu reign-period 光緒 (1875-1908). In 1958, the Zhonghua Book Company 中華書局 published a modern edition in the series Ming-Qing biji congkan 明清筆記叢刊. It is also included in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書.