Tangzhiyan 唐摭言

Tangzhiyan 唐摭言 "Collected stories from the Tang" is a collection of short stories from the Tang period 唐 (618-907) written by Wang Dingbao 王定保 (870-940), courtesy name Yisheng 翊聖. He hailed from Nanchang 南昌 (modern Nanchang, Jiangxi) and was inspector (xunguan 巡官) of Rongguan 容管. When the Tang empire disintegrated, he served the Southern Han dynasty 南漢 (917-971) as military commissioner (jiedushi 節度使) of Ningyuan 甯遠 and then as Vice Director in the Palace Secretariat (zhongshu shilang 中書侍郎).

The Tangzhiyan is 15 juan long and reports mainly stories about the state examination system. Due to its detailed nature in this matter, the Tangzhiyan can serve as a valuable historiographical source. It also includes numerous quotations from the writings of more than one hundred poets and scholars, which cannot be found in other sources. The Song-period 宋 (960-1279) scholar Ji Yougong 計有功 (jinshi degree 1121), therefore, used the Tangzhiyan extensively for his poetry critique Tangshi jishi 唐詩紀事.

The Tangzhiyan was circulated for a long time only in manuscript form. The oldest preserved copy is owned by the Beijing Library (Beijing Tushuguan 北京圖書館). The Tangzhiyan is to the found in the series Baihai 稗海, Yayutang congshu 雅雨堂藏書, Xuejin taoyuan 學津討原 and Siku quanshu 四庫全書. In 1978, the Shanghai Guji Press 上海古籍出版社 published a modern version which includes Jiang Guangxu's 蔣光煦 critical annotations Tangzhiyan jiaokanji 唐摭言校勘記.