Yaoya 要雅

Yaoya 要雅 "The elegance of important matters" was a book written during the Southern Dynasties period 南朝 (420-589) by Liu Yao 劉杳 (487-536), courtesy name Shishen 士深, from Pingyuan 平原 (in today's Shandong province). He served the Liang dynasty 梁 (502-557) as commandant of infantry (bubing xiaowei 步兵校尉), editorial director of the Palace Library (zhuzuolang 著作郎), and finally as left assistant director in the Imperial Secretariat (shangshu zuocheng 尚書左丞). He wrote the botanical commentary Chuci caomu shu 楚辭草木疏, the biographical collection Gaoshizhuan 高士傳, the semi-history book Donggong xinjiu ji 東宮新舊記 and compiled the book catalogue Gujin sibu shumu 古今四部書目.

The original size of the Yaoya was 5 juan. It discussed statements in the Confucian Classics and in history books, presented scholarly questions and answers, and recorded interesting facts not found in scholarly texts. The book is lost, but fragments of it were collected by Ma Guohan 馬國翰 (1794-1857) and published in his series Yuhan shanfang jiyi shu 玉函山房輯佚書, together with quotations on Liu Yao found in several texts, for instance, the Suoyin 索隱 commentary on the history book Shiji 史記 which mentions Liu Yao's discussions with Wang Sengru 王僧孺 (465-522) and Shen Yue 沈約 (441-513).