Yongzhuang xiaopin 涌幢小品

Yongzhuang xiaopin 涌幢小品 "Minuscule (or: unworthy) book from the Yongzhuang Studio" is a "brush notes" essay-style (biji 筆記) book from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644), with a length of 33 juan. The author is Zhu Guozhen 朱國禎 (d. 1632), courtesy name Wenning 文寧, style Pinghan 平涵, Qiu'an Jushi 虬庵居士, a high official of the Ming central government.

The book was finished in 1621 and had originally the title Xi Hong xiaopin 希洪小品, in remembrance of Hong Mai's 洪邁 (1123－1202) book Rongzhai suibi 容齋隨筆, but the text was renamed after Zhu had built his new Yongzhuang Studio.

The content of the Yongzhuan xiaopin is mainly political and deals with a lot of issues of contemporary politics. Zhu Guozhen reports a lot of affairs of the central government, not only concrete cases and how they were dealt with, but also going into the general structure of the administration, as well as stories of personalities and general customs in the Ming capital of Beijing. He talks also of matters beyond the capital, like the problem of piracy at China's coast and peasant uprisings. As part of a private history written by an insider the stories in the Yongzhuang xiaopin are quite reliable.

The first print was produced during the Tianqi reign-period 天啟 (1621-1627). It was republished in 1959 by the Zhonghua Shuju Press 中華書局.