Yueyatang congshu 粵雅堂叢書

Yueyatang congshu 粵雅堂叢書 "Collectanea of the Elegant Study of Canton" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) in three series (bian 編) and 30 collections (ji 集) that includes 208 books with a length of 1,289 juan. It was compiled by the late Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Wu Chongyao 伍崇曜 (1810-1863), actual name Wu Yuanwei 伍元薇, merchant name Wu Shaorong 伍紹榮, courtesy name Ziyuan 紫垣. Yueya is the name of Wu Chongyao's studio.

He hailed from Nanhai 南海, Guangdong, and came from a rich overseas merchant family. Wu Chongyao was also a member of the Yihe Guild 怡和行 and in 1854 supported the governor-general of Liang-Guang 兩廣, Yi Mingzhen 葉名琛 (1807-1859), for the recruitment of local militia against the armies of the rebels of the Heaven-and-Earth Society (tiandihui 天地會) that besieged Canton. He was therefore awarded the academic title of provincial graduate (juren 舉人) and the brevet titles (zhixian 職銜) of provincial administration commissioner (buzhengshi 布政使) and Grand Master of Glorious Happiness (ronglu dafu 榮祿大夫).

Wu Chongyao published three important series, namely Lingnan yishu 嶺南遺書, Yue shisanjia ji 粵十三家集, and Yueyatang congshu. The latter imitates the example of the Zhibuzuzhai congshu 知不足齋叢書 and assembles old and modern texts that are arranged according the four traditional types of literature, but only books that had not been printed yet. There is not an original coherent version of the Yueyatang congshu, but there are many different prints from the original available that differ in the arrangement of the collections and the books that are included. Tan Ying 譚瑩 (1800-1871), director of the Xuehai College 學海堂, and editor of the poetry collection Dongzhitang shiji 東志堂詩集, had taken over the text-critical work for the Yueyatang congshu. For each book, a short preface is given that was presumable written by Tan Ying.

The texts included reach from the Song period 宋 (960-1279) to the contemporary authors, some of which are of great interest, like the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Huang Shenghui's 黃省曾 (1496-1546) report on the Western countries, Xiyang chaogong lu 西洋朝貢錄, or a calendric study by the Qing period historian Qian Daxin 錢大昕 (1728-1804), Song-Liao-Jin-Yuan sishi shuorun kao 宋遼金元四史朔閏考. The importance of such texts for all kinds of scholars elevated the Yueyatang congshu to a high position in the history of congshu-type series.