Suishu jingji zhi 隋書經籍志

Suishu jingji zhi 隋書經籍志 is a bibliography included in the official dynastic history Suishu 隋書 as one of the treatises (zhi 志). It was compiled on imperial order between 641 and 656 by a team under the supervision of Wei Zheng 魏徵 (580-643). The compilers made use of older, now lost bibliographies, like Sui Daye zhengyu shumu lu 隋大業正御書目錄 from the Sui period 隋 (581-618), or Ruan Xiaoxu's 阮孝緒 (479-536) Qilu 七錄 from the Liang period 梁 (502-557).

The Jingji zhi lists 3,127 books available in the palace libraries, with a physical volume of 36,708 juan. Of the books listed, 1,064 are indicated as lost. Including the lost books, a total of 4,191 texts is listed. The books are arranged in 4 categories (sibu 四部), namely Confucian Classics (jing 經), histories (shi 史), "masters and philosophers" (zi 子), and belles-lettres (ji 集). They are divided into 40 sub-categories. Texts on Buddhism and some religious texts on Daoism are added in an appendix, but only with a statement about the number of writings and not a detailed listing of the books.

For each book, the author (including time and official position) and the size (in juan) is indicated, and for some books, remarks are provided, like the status of the preservation or the authenticity of the content. Each category and sub-category is accompanied by an introduction describing the particular school or type of text, and the bibliography itself is headed by a general introduction. The categorisation of literature in the Suishu jingji zhi was the basic model for virtually all later bibliographies.

The Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Zhang Zongyuan 章宗源 (1751-1800) compiled a critical edition of the Jingji zhi called Suishu jingji kaozheng 隋書經籍考證, published in 1877. The same did Yao Zhenzong 姚振宗 (1842-1906) in 1897 with his Suishu jingji zhi kaozheng 隋書經籍志考證). In 1955, the Shangwu yinshuguan press 商務印書館 published imperial bibliographies of ten official dynastic histories, Shishi yiwen jingji zhi 十史藝文經籍志 (including the bibliographic treatises of the Hanshu 漢書, Suishu, Jiutangshu 舊唐書, Xintangshu 新唐書, Songshi 宋史, Liaoshi 遼史, Jinshi 金史, Yuanshi 元史, Mingshi 明史 and Qingshigao 清史稿).

The Suishu bibliography included in this book has been revised on the base of the investigations of Zhang Zonguyan and Yao Zhenzong. Another study on the Suishu jingshi zhi was made by Zhang Pengyi 張鵬一 (1867-1943), published in 1904 (Suishu jingji zhi bu shumu 隋書經籍志補書目).