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Wuzhong renwu zhi 吳中人物志

Aug 6, 2019 © Ulrich Theobald

Wuzhong renwu zhi 吳中人物志 is a biographical collection written by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) master Zhang Chang 張昶, also written 張㫤, courtesy name Jingchun 景春, from Changzhou 長洲 near Suzhou 蘇州, Jiangsu. Wuzhong is an old name for Suzhou. The 12-juan long book was completed in 1570.

The book presents the biographies of persons from Suzhou through history, divided into twelve categories, namely persons of filial conduct, persons of loyal conduct, state officials, persons recommended for office, eunuchs, Confucian scholars, writers, outstanding females, hidden scholars, persons living abroad, Daoists, and persons from outside. Each biography is terminated by a short assessment. For this consistent arrangement, Zhang's book was outstanding among many similar works on people from Suzhou, for instance, Qian Gu's 錢谷 book of the same title. Unfortunately, Zhang does not indicate his sources which diminishes the scholarly value of his book.

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. 1, 996.
Wu Feng 吳楓, ed. (1987). Jianming Zhongguo guji cidian 簡明中國古籍辭典 (Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe), 415.