Mengzhai bitan 蒙齋筆談

Mengzhai bitan 蒙齋筆談 "Brush talks of Enlightened Studio" is a collection of stories in the series Baihai 稗海 initially attributed to a certain Zheng Jingwang 鄭景望.

Li E 厲鶚 (1692-1752), author of the literary critique Songshi jishi 宋詩紀事, suggests that Zheng Jingwang, from Xiangshan 湘山, lived during the Yuanfeng 元豐 (1078-1085) and Yuanyou 元祐 (1086-1094) reign-periods of the Song era 宋 (960-1279). However, sources from the Song period do not confirm the existence of a person named Zheng Jingwang. Instead, there was a Zheng Boxiong 鄭伯熊 (1124-1181) from Yongjia 永嘉, whose courtesy name was Jingwang. He is mentioned in Chen Fuliang's 陳傅良 (1137-1203) collection Zhizhai ji 止齋集. It is unlikely that Zheng Boxiong, a successful and renowned individual, copied another book to publish as his own.

The stories in the collection of two juan were finally compiled by Ye Mengde 葉夢得 (1077-1148). The text of the Mengzhai bitan is identical to stories in Ye's collection Yanxia fangyan 巖下放言. The editor of the Mengzhai bitan cut 25-30 per cent of Ye's original three-juan text and rearranged the order of the stories. Therefore, the transmitted Mengzhai bitan must be a product of a later time.

Although this book is a forgery, it extracts from the Yanxia fangyan, recording the sayings of the Classics and Histories as well as those of various schools of thought, along with anecdotes, unusual stories, and accounts of customs and practices. Interwoven are Daoist sayings and Buddhist teachings. Much of it still holds value and can serve as a useful reference.

The text is found in a 2-juan version in the series Baihai and Biji xiaoshuo daguan 筆記小說大觀, as one single fascicle in the Gujin shuohai 古今說海, Shuofu 說郛 (Wanwei Shantang 宛委山堂 edition) and Xuehai leibian 學海類編, and – in excerpts – the collection Jiu xiaoshuo 舊小說.