Yimen guangdu 夷門廣牘

Yimen guangdu 夷門廣牘 "Extensive texts from the peaceful gate" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) compiled by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Zhou Lüjing 周履靖 (1549-1640), courtesy name Zhou Yizhi 周逸之, style Meidian Daoren 梅顛道人.

Zhou hailed from Jiaxing 嘉興, Zhejiang, and was an ardent collector of ancient stone and bronze inscriptions, and a well-read person. In his private estate he once built up a fence, diverted a river into its lands, and planted many plum trees and bamboo, in order to create an ideal atmosphere for his studies. Zhou Lüjing exchanged thoughts with many other scholars and traveled widely, wrote songs and rhapsodies, and discussed all matters of past and present. He wrote the books Jupu 菊譜 "On chrysanthemums", Rucaobian 茹草編, Tang-Song weisheng ge 唐宋衛生歌, Yiling dan 益齡單, Zhiguilun 質龜論, Tianwen zhanyan 天文占驗, Tuniujing 土牛經, Huaping huihai 畫評會海, Maogong tanchang heshi 毛公壇倡和詩 and Tang-Song-Yuan-Ming jiuci 唐宋元明酒詞.

His series Yimen guangdu assembles unofficial histories and various texts, partially compiled by Zhou himself. It was finished in 1597 and includes 107 texts with a total length of 126 juan. The texts are arranged in 13 fields. Yet the descriptive catalogue of the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 says that it was 126-juan long and included 86 texts, arranged in 10 fields. It can thus be seen that apart from the original, there was also widespread abridged version of the Yimen guangdu available. This is true for the chapters Zunsheng du 尊生牘, Shufa du 書法牘 and Shusou du 畫藪牘 which are not included in common versions, but are included in younger editions, often as coloured prints. The Yimen guangdu is particularly valuable because it assembles a wide range of scholarly or scientific texts that are otherwise not easy to obtain.

The earliest print of the Yimen guangdu dates from the Wanli reign-period 萬曆 (1573-1619). The four prefaces date from 1598 and were written by Liu Feng 劉鳳 (jinshi degree 1544), Huang Hongxian 黃洪憲 (1541-1600), Zhang Xianji 張獻翼 (1534-1604) and He Sanwei 何三畏 (juren degree 1582). A copy of this edition is owned by the Library of Congress. The Yimen guangdu was reprinted in the series Yuan-Ming shanben congshu shi zhong 元明善本叢書十種 from 1937.