Baoyantang miji 寶顏堂秘笈

Baoyantang miji 寶顏堂秘笈, also called Baoyantang biji 寶顏堂祕笈, "Secret satchel of the Hall of Precious Colours", also called Baoyantang biji 寶顏堂祕笈, is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) compiled by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Chen Jiru 陳繼儒 (1558-1639). It includes 226 books with a total length of 457 juan. "Hall of Precious Colours" was the name of the study of Chen Jiru.

His series is divided in to six collections, the "Main collection" (zhengji 正集), the "Supplementary collection" (xuji 續集), the "Enlarged collection" (guangji 廣集), the "Ordinary collection" (puji 普集), the "Assembled collection" (huiji 匯), and the "Secret collection (miji 秘集). These parts include mostly books of Ming-period authors, but also some books of older date.

The series covers all different genres and categories of Chinese literature, from studies of the Confucian Classics to historiographic works, "brush-records" style (biji 筆記) essays, novels and Daoist treatises. Among these writings, were common books are to be found as well as rare books. Unfortunately Chen Jiru had these texts copied by himself, so that some errors crept in the texts, and he also abbreviated the original wording.

During the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) the series was prohibited from circulation because it includes some books on the Jurchens and Manchus, like Jiaonu yicuo 剿奴議撮, Nüzhi kao 女直考 or Yanshi zashi 燕市雜詩, which contain a derogatory view towards the ancestors of the Qing dynasty.

There is a print available from the Wanli reign-period 萬曆 (1573-1619) produced by Master Shen 沈氏 from Xiushui 繡水 as well as a version owned by the Library of Congress that includes only 180 books. In 1992 the Wenming Publishing House 文明書局 in Shanghai published a modern print.