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Fuxuan yelu 負暄野錄

Mar 14, 2024 © Ulrich Theobald

Fuxuan yelu 負暄野錄 "Unofficial records while enjoying the sun" is a "brush-notes"-style book (biji 筆記) written during the Southern Song period 南宋 (1127-1279) by Chen You 陳槱, who hailed from Changle 長樂 (today part of Fuzhou 福州, Fujian). He obtained his jinshi degree in 1190, but of the rest of his life, nothing is known.

The afterword (ba 跋) to the 2-juan-long book dates from 1347 and says that Chen You was very interested in ancient tomb inscriptions and calligraphy. This interest is reflected in some chapters of the book. While the first fascicle with 13 chapters is dedicated to stone inscriptions and calligraphy, the 16 chapters of the second juan deal with styles of writing and the composition of Chinese characters, as well with the objects of the study like brushes, ink-sticks, ink-stones and paper. Chen provides information on the material and origin of the best quality.

Quite interesting is Chen's quotation of the poem Shu xu bi shi 鼠須筆詩 which deviated from the version in the anthology Songwenjian 宋文鑒.

The Fuxuan yelu is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Zhibuzuzhai congshu 知不足齋叢書, Jishi'an congshu 吉石盦叢書, Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編 and Meishu congshu 美術叢書. In the series Yangxuxuan conglu 養素軒叢錄, the text is arranged in just one fascicle.

Sources:
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰, eds. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 2, 1997.
Zhao Jing 趙靜 (2018). "Fuxuan yelu de zuozhe, banben yu jiazhi kao《負暄野錄》的作者、版本與價值考", Baoding Xueyuan xuebao 保定學院學報, 31 (2): 69-73.