Gujin yishi 古今逸史

Gujin yishi 古今逸史 "Remnant histories of past and present" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) compiled by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) collector Wu Wan 吳琯 (jinshi degree 1571), courtesy name Bangxie 邦爕, from Zhangpu 漳浦, Fujian. It includes 55 books and has a total length of 233 juan.

Wu is famous for his critical editions of old poetry, the Gushiji 古詩紀 and the Tangshiji 唐詩紀.

The Gujin yishi includes mainly historiographical and geographical writings. It is arranged into three collections, namely rare treatises (yizhi 逸志), rare reports (yiji 逸記), and biographies (liezhuan 列傳). The section on rare treatises is again divided into compound treatises (hezhi 合志) and separated treatises (fenzhi 分志). The rare reports are divided into the categories imperial biographies (ji 紀) and biographies of hereditary houses or regional rulers (shijia 世家). The biographies include many collective biographical works like Gaoshizhuan 高士傳 or Liexianzhuan 列仙傳.

The Gujin yishi assembles rare books that were hard to find in the times of Wu Wan. For this series, Wu Wan made great efforts to collect rare writings from among the libraries of his friends and colleagues. It is a very valuable contribution to the study of ancient history. There are, nevertheless, many textual errors in the various writings because Wu Wan copied the texts as they were and did not undergo a textual critique.

The best prints are that from the Wanli reign-period 萬曆 (1573-1619) with a length of 223 juan and the title Zengding Gujin yishi 增定古今逸史, and another short Ming-period print with a length of 145 juan. There is also a third Ming-period edition that only includes 26 books. A younger edition is the facsimile series Yuan-Ming shenben congshu shi ben 元明善本叢書十種 from 1937.