Zihui 子彙

Zihui 子彙 (also written 子匯) "A collection of masters and philosophers" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) compiled by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Zhou Ziyi 周子義 (1529-1586). It includes 24 books and has a total length of 34 juan.

The Zihui focuses on books of the literary category of "masters and philosophers" and contains the most important writings of the Confucians, Daoists, dialectitians, legalists, coalition advisers, Mohists, and miscellaneous masters. Yet some few texts are rarely to be found in other collections of the "masters", like the book Lumenzi 鹿門子 or the Qiqiuzi 齊丘子.

Besides the proper texts, some commentaries are added to rare texts, like Feng Xinggui's 逢行珪 commentary on the book Yuzi 鬻子, or Lu Dian's 陸佃 (1042-1102) commentary on the Heguanzi 鹖冠子. It is important that the basic texts have been selected according to their textual quality, and the Zihui therefore is a very reliable source, except the books Mozi 墨子 and Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋.

The assignment of some texts to one of the philosophical schools is not always in accordance with the traditional view. The Huangshigong sushu 黃石公素書, for instance, is generally seen as a military treatise and not as a Daoist book, and the Yuzi is a book of a very obscure origin hardly to be called a Confucian text. Its positioning at the beginning of the series is therefore to be questioned.

The Zihui was printed during the Wanli reign-period 萬曆 (1573-1619) and is included in the facsimile edition of the Yuan-Ming shanben congshu 元明善本叢書 from 1937.