Wenfang sipu 文房四譜

Wenfang sipu 文房四譜 "Notes on the four [tools] of the study" is a description of traditional Chinese utensils of the writing desk compiled during the Song period 宋 (960-1279) by Su Yijian 蘇易簡 (958-997), courtesy name Taijian 太簡, from Tongshan 銅山 in the prefecture of Zizhou 梓州 (today's Deyang 德陽, Sichuan). He was admired by Emperor Taizong 宋太宗 (r. 976-997) for his literary talent and was therefore appointed to several important posts in the central and local government. Apart from the 5-juan-long Wenfang sipu, he wrote the political encylcopaedia Xu Hanlinzhi 續翰林志 and some other books which can be found in his collected works.

The Wenfang sipu describes the four main utensils of a scholar's writing desk, namely brush (bi 筆), ink (mo 墨), paper (zhi 紙) and inkstone (yan 硯). For all these four items, Su Yijian assembled quotations from literary sources, mainly rhapsodies and poems as well as prose writings. The book has a preface written by Xu Xuan 徐鉉 (916-991) and a postface from 986 written by the author. The book has an appendix describing further important tools like a brush rack (bige 筆格 or bijia 筆架) or water pots for rubbing the inkstick on the inkstone (shuidi 水滴).

The chapter on the brush is two-juan-long. It begins with general statements about brushes and then goes on to production, use and miscellaneous information, and ends with literary allusions. The other three chapters are shorter. The quotations in the Wenfang sipu are very rich and contain numerous fragments of books that are long since lost, like the Zhongchenzhuan 忠臣傳 of Emperor Yuan 梁元帝 (r. 552-554) of the Liang dynasty 梁 (502-557) or Gu Yewang's 顧野王 (519-581) geographical book Yudizhi 輿地志. The concept of the Wenfang sipu is similar to Ouyang Xun's 歐陽詢 (557-641) encyclopaedia Yiwen leiju 藝文類聚, but the detailed description of each single tool has not been realised by earlier writers. Later writers of the Song period used the Wenfang sipu as a model, for example, the books Yanjian 硯箋 "Notes on inkstones" or Xielu 蟹錄 "About crabs".

The Wenfang sipu is included in all important contemporary bibliographies. In You Mao's 尤袤 (1127-1194) Suichutang shumu 遂初堂書目, the title is Wenfang sibao pu 文房四寶譜 "Notes on the four treasures of the study" (which seems to be more accurate). It also lists a supplement called Xu wenfang sibao pu 續文房四寶譜. The Wenfang sipu is included in the series Baichuan xuehai 百川學海, Xuehai leibian 學海類編, Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Shiwanjuanlou congshu 十萬卷樓叢書 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.