Shugutang shumu 述古堂書目

Shugutang shumu 述古堂書目, full title Qian Zunwang Shugutang cangshu mu 錢遵王述古堂藏書目 "Catalogue of the Hall of Recounting the Past" is a bibliography compiled by the book collector Qian Zeng 錢曾 (1629-1701), courtesy name Zunwang 遵王, style Yeshiweng 也是翁.

It is 4-juan long and lists 2,089 books, arranged according to the traditional four categories of Confucian Classics, history books, "Masters and philosophers", and belles-lettres. For each text, the type of edition is also noted down, so that it can be known that the library included 114 rare prints from the Song period 宋 (960-1279).

The catalogue suffers unfortunately from a quite heterogeneous categorization. The third category ("Masters"), for instance, is interrupted by the belles-lettres category and with what would be the second half of the category of historiography (texts on state ceremonies, Yizhu 儀注, on the officialdom, Zhiguan 職官, the examination system, Kedi 科第, and military matters, Bingjia 兵家), before it goes on with sub-categories on various divination methods.

The merit of such a structure might be that the four-category system was basically given up, but the numerous subcategories are not structured into larger units, and so the whole system is not easy to comprehend.

The Shugutang shumu is found in the series Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編 and Yueyatang congshu 粵雅堂叢書.

Qian Zeng also compiled a catalogue of his second library, Yeshiyuan cangshu mu 也是園藏書目, and an excerpt describing valuable Song-period prints, Dushu minqiu ji 讀書敏求記. All three catalogues were jointly published in the collection Yushan Qian Zunwang cangshu mu huibian 虞山錢遵王藏書目彙編, published in 1958 by the Gudian Wenxue Press 古典文學出版社.