Gezhi congshu 格致叢書

Gezhi congshu 格致叢書 "Series of thorough investigation" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) compiled by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Hu Wenhuan 胡文煥.

Hu Wenhuan, courtesy name Defu 德甫, style Quan'an 全庵, hailed from Qiantang 錢塘 (modern Hangzhou 杭州, Zhejiang), and compiled the books Huiwentang qinpu 會文堂琴譜 and Guqi ju ming 古器具名. The circumstances of his life are quite unknown. The title of the series is derived from a sentence in the Confucian Classic Daxue 大學, where it is said that one has "to extend to the utmost knowledge" (ge wu zhi zhi 格物致知).

The Gewu congshu therefore includes a lot of books investigating all different matters and objects, but also scholarly treatises and investigations in literature. Most books have been compiled during the Ming period and are rarely to be found in other collections. These are, for instance, Ning Yuan's 寧原 (mid-16th cent.) medical book Shijian bencao 食鑒本草, Li Hongxuan's 李洪宣 Yuanqing shoujian shige 緣情手鑒詩格, or Weng Ang's 翁昂 Chuanzhen miyao 傳真秘要.

The Gezhi congshu was printed a lot of times in varying versions. Shao Yichen 邵懿辰 (1810-1861) says that the first series (chubian 初編) included 46 books and the second series (erbian 二編) 340 books. Some sources speak of 346 books in 37 categories (lei 類), some of 46 books or 156 books, others even of 206 books. According the descriptive catalogue Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 四庫全書總目提要, a version from Jiangsu included 181 books that were divided into the categories Jingyi 經翼, Shiwai 史外, Juguan 居官, Fajia 法家, Xunjie 訓誡, Ziyu 子餘, Zunsheng 尊生, Shiling 時令, Nongshi 農事, Yishu 藝術, Qingshang 清賞, Shuolei 說類 and Yiyuan 藝苑.

Today, only 168 books of this version are surviving. It is introduced by a preface written by Zhu Zhifan 朱之蕃 (1558-1626), in which it is said that the present collection was originally called Baijia mingshu 百家名書 "Famous books of a hundred masters", and not Gezhi congshu. The earliest surviving print dates from 1603 and is 162-fascicles-long. There is also a fragmentary version of the Gezhi congshu with no more than 6 books. Both are owned by the Library of Congress (Chinese name Guohui tushuguan 國會圖書館) in Washington.