Xuanguailu 玄怪錄

Xuanguailu 玄怪錄 "Mysteries and monsters" is an ancient collection of stories about supernatural events compiled during the Tang period 唐 (618-907) by the writer and politician Niu Sengru 牛僧孺 (780-848).

There is commonsense that the Xuanguailu must have been an early work by him, although some stories take place during the Dahe reign-period 大和 (827-835). The Xuanguailu is an early collection of the genre of chuanqi 傳奇 novellas that recount strange persons and extraordinary incidents. Compared with earlier stories about strange occurrences, the language of the Xuanguailu is elegant and refined, and the stories are written in a coherent style, so they might already be called novellas rather than tales. Personal characters, their dialogues and activities are vividly and explicitly described. Very outstanding is the banquet in the story Liu Feng 劉諷, in which women start quarrelling, or the story Yuan wu you 元無有, in which four monsters are performing a song, or the paradise described in the story Gu yuan zhi 古元之. Another often-quoted story is Guo Daigong 郭代公, in which the protagonist kills a pig ghost that harmed the population.

The 10-juan-long Xuanguailu is first mentioned in the imperial bibliography in the official dynastic history Xintangshu 新唐書. During the Song period 宋 (960-1279), the book was commonly called Youguailu 幽怪錄 to avoid the personal name of Emperor Taizu's 宋太祖 (r. 960-975) grandfather, Xuanlang 玄朗. It survives as a 4-juan-long print from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644), as well as in some fragments quoted in the encyclopaedia Taiping guangji 太平廣記. In some editions, stories of Li Fuyan's 李復言 (fl. 800) sequel Xu xuanguailu 續玄怪錄 are mixed with those of Niu Sengru's Xuanguailu, especially the stories Du Zichun 杜子春 and Zhang Lao 張老.

In the series Longwei mishu 龍威秘書 and Shuofu 說郛 (Wanwei biecang 宛委別藏 edition), Niu Sengru's book is called Yougualu, and the author is erroneously called Wang Hun 王惲. In contrast, Niu's name is mentioned correctly in the book's edition in the series Jin-Tang xiaoshuo changguan 晉唐小說暢觀, Wuchao xiaoshuo 五朝小說, Wuchao xiaoshuo daguan 五朝小說大觀, Tangren shuohui 唐人說薈, and Tangdai congshu 唐代叢書. No author is mentioned in the Shangwu Yinshuguan 商務印書館 edition of the Shuofu. 17 paragraphs of Niu's book are quoted in the series Jiu xiaoshuo 舊小説.

The collection Heke sanzhi 合刻三志 includes a text titled Xuanguailu that was compiled during the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by the collector and publisher Tao Zongyi 陶宗儀 (1322-1403), who was also the compiler of the Shuofu. The series Shuofu xu 說郛續 includes paragraphs from a Xuanguailu attributed to Tian Rucheng 田汝成 (1503-1557).