Mice congshuo 秘冊叢說

Mice congshuo 秘冊叢說 or Bice congshuo 祕册叢說 "Collectanea of secret volumes" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) compiled by an anonymous scholar from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644). It includes 135 books with a total length of 136 juan.

Seen from the composition, the series is not of a very high quality because some important texts have been extracted from older series. Such texts are Su Shi's 蘇軾 (1037-1101) Wulei xianggan zhi 物類相感志 from the Shuofu 說郛, Yan Yu's 嚴羽 (died c. 1245) Canglang shihua 滄浪詩話 from the Baichuan xuehai 百川學海, Ma Wensheng's 馬文升 (1426-1510) Xingfu Hami ji 興復哈密記 and Xizheng shicheng ji 西征石城記 from some other collections. Part of the text has also been abbreviated and condensed, like Wang Shizhen's 王世貞 (1526-1590) Wuzong xunxing ji 武宗巡幸記 or Gu Yingtai's 谷應泰 (1620-1690) Hulan yuji 胡藍獄記.

On the other hand, the Mice congshuo includes texts that are not to be found in other collectanea, for instance, Yue Yuansheng's 岳元聲 (1557-1628) Jisheng fuzhouxian gujin renwu kao 畿省府州縣古今人物考, the anonymous Jisheng fuxian tuchan 畿省府縣土產, or Feng Yingjing's 馮應京 (1555-1606) Da-Ming yudi kao 大明輿地考.

The genre of unofficial histories is covered widely in the Mice congshu. Ni Qian's 倪謙 (1415-1479) Chaoxian jishi 朝鮮記事 is a rare account of Korea; the book San Yang zhuanglüe 三楊狀略 by Master Xueyuan Yishi 雪園逸史, Gao Dai's 高岱 (1508-1567) Shihengzhuan 石亨傳 and Chouluanzhuan 仇鸞傳 are useful biographies of high Ming period ministers; and the anomyous books Chuangguan 闖冠 and Jin ri sheng zhu ni yuan shu 金日升誅逆爰書 are chronicles of the very late Ming period. All these titles are not easily to be found elsewhere and are therefore highly valuable sources for the study of the history of the Ming period.

There is a manuscript version from the Ming period surviving.