Pinyi Sheng jianji 蠙衣生劍記

Pinyi Sheng jianji 蠙衣生劍記 is a book on historical swords compiled during the Ming period by Guo Zizhang 郭子章 (1543-1618), courtesy name Xiangkui 相奎, style Qingluo 青螺 or Pinyi Sheng 蠙衣生 “Master of the Precious (or Nacre) Robes”. He hailed from Taihe 泰和 close to Ji’an 吉安, Jiangxi, and was goverrnor (xunfu 巡撫) of Guizhou 貴州. During that time, he put down a native rebellion about which he speaks in his Pingbo shimo 平播始末. Guo also wrote a book on horses, Maji 馬記, a commentary on the Book of Changes, Jijie 易解, and the poetry critique Yuzhang shihua 豫章詩話. He continued his career as Minister of War (bingbu shangshu 兵部尚書) and received the honorific title of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent (taizi shaobao 太子少保). The Jianji records stories of swords and their owners through history, with a total amount of 155 entries. It is based on a much older book called Gu daolian lu (attributed to Tao Hongjing 陶宏景), which is characterizes as too selective. The author arranged information on swords into two chapters, namely historical facts, and stories around legendary swords. Guo tried to be comprehensive, and therefore also includes statements from the Gu daojian lu. The author concludes through the analysis of historical records, that failure – as seen, for instance, in Jing Ke’s 荊柯 attempt to kill the King of Qin – was due to personal mistakes, and not because sword were bad. Gao also includes fictitious stories like Liu Bang’s killing of a giant snake with the help of a magic sword from the Shang period and debates the name of this particular sword. While Tao Hongjing held that it was chixiao 赤霄, Guo proves that chixiao was the name of a seven-feet-long sword that Liu Bang acquired after his proclamation as emperor of the Han. The text is included in the series Baoyantang miji 寶顏堂秘笈.