Chongwen zongmu 崇文總目

Chongwen zongmu 崇文總目 "General catalogue of the Academy for the Veneration of Literature" is a bibliography compiled by the Northern Song-period 北宋 (960-1126) scholar Wang Yaochen 王堯臣 (1003-1058).

The Chongwenyuan 崇文院 was the imperial archive of the Northern Song dynasty. It consisted of the Historiography Institute (shiguan 史館), the Institute for the Glorification of Literature (zhaowenguan 昭文館), and the Academy of Scholarly Worthies (jixianyuan 集賢院) and served as the official institute for the preservation and revision of documents and books. A fourth library was that of the Imperial Archives (mige 秘閣) containing documents and books only accessible to those employed in the inner palace.

The earliest catalogue compiled by this institution was the Sanchao guoshi yiwen zhi 三朝國史藝文志 (lost). In 1037, Emperor Renzong 宋仁宗 (r. 1022-1063) ordered Zhang Guan 張觀, Li Shu 李淑 and Song Qiding 宋祁定 to check a further heap of documents and books, either for preservation or to eliminate those from the archive. Numerous scholars took part in the compilation of the revised catalogue, including Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 (1007-1072), Song Xiang 宋庠 (996-1066), Wang Zhu 王洙 (997-1057), Lü Gongchuo 呂公綽 (999-1055), Nie Guanqing 聶冠卿 (b. 988) and Guo Zhen 郭稹. In 1042, the Hanlin academician Wang Yaochen 王堯臣 (1003-1058) submitted the catalogue to the throne, and the emperor bestowed it the name Chongwen zongmu.

During the reign of Emperor Shenzong 宋神宗 (r. 1067-1085) it was updated, and again during the reign of Emperor Huizong 宋徽宗 (r. 1100-1125), with the title of Mishu zongmu 秘書總目 (Bishu zongmu 祕書總目). During the Shaoxing reign-period 紹興 (1131-1162) of the early Southern Song 南宋 (1127-1279), a further supplement was compiled, called Shaoxing xu shumu 紹興續書目 (full title Song Shaoxing bishusheng xubian dao siku shumu 宋紹興祕書省續編到四庫書目). A critical commentary on it written by the modern scholar Ye Dehui 葉德輝 (1864-1927) can be found in Ye's reprint series Guangutang shumu congke 觀古堂書目叢刻.

The Chongwen zongmu is 66-juan long, plus one juan of introduction and index (xulu 敘錄). The books are arranged in the four traditional categories of literature, with 45 sub-categories.

The whole bibliography lists 3,445 books, with a physical volume of 30,669 juan. The prefaces and the commentaries to each section, as well as the arrangement, were worked out by Ouyang Xiu (Jilu 集錄). For each book, a description is provided describing the author, the origin and the history of the book. The most important change in comparison to older bibliographies is the incorporation of religious Daoist and Buddhist texts into the masters category, a fact which shows the change of minds among the imperial librarians who were traditionally oriented towards Confucianism and whodispised the two religions as not equal to other writings.

The Chongwen zongmu was not very widespread during the Song period, and the statements about the size of the books differ from that in other sources. During the Ming 明 (1368-1644) and Qing 清 (1644-1911) periods the Chongwen zongmu was stored in the private Tianyige Library 天一閣. During the Kangxi reign-period 康熙 (1662-1722), the remains of it were rediscovered. Half a century later it served as the base for the categorization in the reprint series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, but it had to be reconstructed from quotations in the Ming-period encyclopedia Yongle dadian 永樂大典.

Only about a third of the original text could be reconstructed, with a length of 12 juan. The prefaces to the categories are more or less all preserved, as are the imperial judgments to the catalogue. During the Jiaqing reign-period 嘉慶 (1796-1820), Qian Dongyuan 錢東垣 (Qian Tong 錢侗, 1778-1815) and Qin Jian 秦鑑 added some fragments surviving in a manuscript copy of the Tianyige version (buyi 補遺). They compiled the commented Chongwen zongmu jishi 崇文宗目輯釋, in 5 juan, with a supplement (buyi 補遺) of 1 juan. This reconstruction was published in the series Yueyatang congshu 粵雅堂叢書, Hou zhibuzuzhai congshu 後知不足齋叢書 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.