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Yugong zhinan 禹貢指南 "Compass to the Tribute of Yu" is a commentary on the chapter Yugong 禹貢 of the Confucian Classic Shangshu 尚書 written by the Song-period 宋 (960-1279) scholar Mao Huang 毛晃 (jinshi degree 1151), courtesy name Mingquan 明權, who was a famous poet and lexicographer.
Except his Yugong commentary he wrote a revision of the dictionary Libu yunlüe 禮部韻略. The 4-juan long Yugong zhinan comments on a large amount of older texts, like the glossary Erya 爾雅, the Classic Zhouli 周禮, the geographic treatise (28 Dili zhi 地理志) in the official dynastic history Hanshu 漢書, the river geography Shuijingzhu 水經注 or the treatise Jiuyuzhi 九域志, and tries to reconstruct the geography of China during the late Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE), when the Yugong was written. Unfortunately Mao Huang lived in the Southern Song empire 南宋 (1127-1279) and was not able to personally inspect places in northern China because this was part of the Jin empire 金 (1115-1234). His book nevertheless inspired quite a number of later commentators on the Yugong chapter.
| 「海岱惟青州。」 | [Quotation from Yugong] "The sea and [Mt.] Dai [i.e. Mt. Taishan] were the boundaries of the province of Qingzhou." |
| 東北據海西南距岱。 | [This means that] in the east and north, [the province] inclines to the sea, and in the west and south, it is separated by the Taishan Range. |
| 青州，東北跨海及遼東。舜分青為營州即遼東也。漢末公孫度據遼東自號青州刺史。 | In the northeast, the province of Qingzhou is separated form Liaodong by the sea. Emperor Shun split off from this province that of Yingzhou, which is [today] Liaodong. At the end of the Han period, Gongsun Du controlled Liaodong and called himself regional inspector of Qingzhou. |
| 爾雅齊曰營州。郭注自岱東至海。此蓋商制無青州并青于徐。周制有青無徐并徐于青。 | The [glossary] Erya calls the region of Qi "Yingzhou", on which Guo Pu remarks that the region reached from Mt. Taishan eastwards to the sea. This means that according to the administration of the Shang dynasty, Qing was integrated into the province of Xu, and in the Zhou administration, the province of Xu was integrated into that of Qing. |
| 故職方氏正東曰青州。 | For that reason, the compilers of the books on administration use the expression "province of Qingzhou" to refer right to the eastern part [of the empire]. |
| 其山鎮曰沂山。其澤藪曰望諸。其川淮泗其浸沂沭。 | The protective mountain [of the province] is called Yishan, its main lake is called Wangzhu, its larger rivers Huai and Si, and its smaller ones Yi and Shu. |
| 晉地理志青州蓋取土居少陽其色為青故以名也。 | In the geographical treatise (ch. 15) of the [official dynastic history] Jinshu it is said that in the province of Qingzhou one commonly uses for dwellings shaoyang earth (?, or the buildings are directed towards the east), whose colour is grayish-green (qing 青), and that is the reason for the provinces's name. |
| 春秋元命苞云虚危流為青州 | The [apocryphal text] Chunqiu yuanming bao says, the constellations Xu and Wei move through the province of Qingzhou. |
The Yugong zhinan was lost for a long time, but could be reconstructed with the help of quotations in the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) encyclopaedia Yongle dadian 永樂大典. It can be found in the reprint series Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編, Lizhizhai congshu 勵志齋叢書, Qingfentang congshu 清芬堂叢書, Rongyuan congshu 榕園叢書, Siku quanshu 四庫全書 and Wuyingdian juzhenban shu 武英殿聚珍版書.