Xiuwendian yulan 修文殿御覽

Xiuwendian yulan 修文殿御覽, original title Xuanzhouyuan yulan 玄洲苑御覽 or Shengshoutang yulan 聖壽堂御覽, was an encyclopaedia compiled at the court of the Northern Qi dynasty 北齊 (550-577) under the supervision of Zu Ting 祖珽, courtesy name Xiaohui 孝徽, from Didao 狄道 in the commandery of Fanyang 范陽 (today's Sushui 涑水, Hebei). He was editorial director of the Palace Library (zhuzuolang 著作郎), then Vice Minister in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices (taichang shaoqing 太常少卿) and finally Left Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat (shangshu zuo puye 尚書左仆射). Zu was supervisor of the historiography institute (jianxiu guoshi 監修國史) and wrote the book Huangchu chuantian lu 黃初傳天錄. The encyclopaedia was finished in 572 and consisted of 55 chapters covering different fields of knowledge.

The book had originally a size of 360 juan, and was based on the Liang-period 梁 (502-557) encyclopaedia Hualin pianlüe 華林遍略, which is fully lost. The full text or fragments of the Xiuwenxian yulan were circulating until the Song period 宋 (960-1279), but it was lost around 1300. In 1908, the French sinologist Paul Pelliot, who took with him ancient manuscripts from Dunhuang 敦煌, found a fragment of 259 lines that he was unable to identify. Luo Zhenyu 羅振玉 (1866-1940) finally identified it as a part of the Xiuwendian yulan, and published it in the series Guoxue congkan 國學叢刊, Vol. 2, Yiji congcan 佚籍叢殘. A second publication is included in the collection Mingsha shishi yishu 鳴沙石室佚書 from 1913. Hong Ye 洪業 (1893-1980) was of the opinion that the fragment was a quotation from the Hualin pianlüe.