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Duyang zabian 杜陽雜編

Sep 30, 2012 © Ulrich Theobald

Duyang zabian 杜陽雜編 "Miscellaneous compilation of Duyang" is an early collection of stories compiled by the Tang period 唐 (618-907) scholar Su E 蘇鄂, courtesy name Su Dexiang 蘇德祥. He has also written the collection Sushi yanyi 蘇氏演義. The title of the collection Duyang zabian derived from Su E's living place near the town of Wugong 武功 (modern Wugong, Shaanxi). It includes 51 stories about strange events and extraordinary persons from the Tang period. Each story has a title composed of three characters. A lot of stories are relatively long compared to earlier collections and are written in a language of quality and beauty. It can be called a further step of a literary development of novellas that had been begun in the collections Dongmingji 洞冥記 and Shiyiji 拾遺記. The 3 juan "scrolls" long book is an originary compilation based on stories that Su E learned from other persons.
The Duyang zabian can be found in the reprint series Baiahi 稗海, Shuofu 說郛, Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Wuchao xiaoshuo 五朝小說, Tangren shuohui 唐人說薈, Tang-Song congshu 唐宋叢書, Xuejin taoyuan 學津討源, Gujin shuobu congshu 古今說部叢書, Guang sishijia xiaoshuo 廣四十家小說, Biji xiaoshuo daguan 筆記小說大觀 and Congshu jicheng 叢書集成. In 1958 the Shanghai gudian wenxue press 上海古典文學出版社 published a modern version in joint publication with the books Songchuang zalu 松窗雜錄 and Guiyuan congtan 桂苑叢談.

Source:
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰 (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典, vol. 2, p. 2173. Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe.