Daoshan qinghua 道山清話

Daoshan qinghua 道山清話 "Pure talks from Mt. Daoshan"is a collection of stories believe to have been compiled during the Song period 宋 (960-1279) by Wang Wei 王暐, but actually, the name of the author is not known.

The book catalogue Zhizhai shulu jieti 直齋書錄解題 quotes from the book's afterword, which states that the author's grandfather served as a national historian and spent a long time in the archives and libraries, becoming acquainted with many senior figures. Apart from the Daoshan qinghua, the author wrote the books Guanmilu 館秘錄 "Records from the national archives" and Pushuji 曝書記 "Notes on drying calligraphies in the sun". The book catalogue says that while these books were lost, the Daoshan qinghua was obtained from the library of Zeng Zhongcun 曾仲存. At the end of this version was the signature of a Grand Master for Court Service (chaofeng dafu 朝奉大夫) named Wei 暐, but his family name was not recorded.

In the bibliographical treatise (Yiwen zhi 藝文志) of the official dynastic history Songshi 宋史, under the category of novellists (xiaoshuo lei 小說家類), there is a one-juan work titled Daoshan xinwen 道山新聞, likewise without an attributed author. Yu Jiaxi 余嘉錫 (1884-1955) assumed that this was in fact the same book as the Daoshan qinghua.

It contains 134 entries, all recording miscellaneous affairs of the Northern Song period 北宋 (960-1126), ending in 1106. The book was likely compiled around that time, in the very late Northern Song. Many of the people and events recorded do not align with established historical facts.

The text is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Baichuan xuehai 百川學海, Wuchao xiaoshuo daguan 五朝小說大觀, Xuejin taoyuan 學津討原, Gujin shuobu congshu 古今說部叢書, Shuoku 說庫 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.