Gu xiaoshuo gouchen 古小說鉤沉

Gu xiaoshuo gouchen 古小說鉤沉 "Rediscovering lost ancient novellas" is a collection of ancient novellas compiled by the famous Republican writer and publisher Lu Xun 魯迅 (1881-1936). It includes 36 books written between the Warring States 戰國 (5th cent.-211 BCE) and the Sui period 隋 (581-618). The texts are arranged chronologically, beginning with the story Qingshizi 青史子 and ending with the collection Jingyiji 旌異記.

Lu Xun also indicated from which book he had excerpted the fragments, for instance, the encyclopaedias Beitang shuchao 北堂書鈔 or Taiping guangji 太平廣記. The collection is a very important source for the study of popular literature in ancient China, a genre that had been vastly neglected by traditional bibliographers and scholars on literature.

The series was only published after Lu Xun's death by the Commemoration Society of Master Lu Xun (Lu Xun xiansheng jinian weiyuanhui 魯迅先生紀念委員會) in 1939. In 1951 the Renmin Wenxue Press published the collected works of Lu Xun, Lu Xun quanji 魯迅全集, in which the Gu xiaoshuo gouchen is also included.