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Nanchu xinwen 南楚新聞

Oct 19, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Nanchu xinwen 南楚新聞 "News from Southern Chu" is a collection of stories compiled by the late Tang period 唐 (618-907) scholar Yuchi Shu 尉遲樞. The imperial bibliographies in the official dynastic histories Xintangshu 新唐書 and Songshi 宋史 and the bibliography Chongwen zongmu 崇文總目 say the original book was 3 juan "scrolls" long, but only 17 fragments of the text have survived that are quoted in the Song period encyclopedia Taiping yulan 太平廣記. Some stories belong to the genre of fiction and phantastic events (chuanqi 傳奇), but the seven stories of Li Mi 李泌 are also of a historiographical value as "unofficial history" (yeshi 野史) by displaying critique towards the powerful Counsellor Yang Guozhong 楊國忠.
These are to be found in the reprint series Shuofu 說郛, Tangren shuohui 唐人說薈, Wuchao xiaoshuo daguan 五朝小說大觀 and Tangdai congshu 唐代叢書.

Sources:
Wu Feng 吳楓 (ed. 1994). Zhonghua gu wenxian da cidian 中華古文獻大辭典, Wenxue 文學卷, Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe, p. 466.
Zheng Yunbo 鄭雲波 (ed. 1992). Zhongguo gudai xiaoshuo cidian, 中國古代小說辭典, Nanjing: Nanjing daxue chubanshe, p. 44.