Longchenglu 龍城錄

Longchenglu 龍城錄 "Tales from Dragon City" is a collection of stories traditionally attributed to the Tang-period writer Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元 (773-819).

The book is not listed in book catalogues of the early Song period, but appears only in the Zhizhai shulu jieti 書錄解題 and the bibliographical chapters of the Wenxian tongkao and the official dynastic history Songshi. Some scholars, therefore, doubted that Liu Zongyuan was the author. He Yuan 何薳 (1077-1145), in his Chunzhu jiwen 春渚紀聞, assumed that the collection was a forgery of Wang Zhi 王銍 (died 1144). Also, seen from the writing style, it is rather improbable that a Tang-period master like Liu could have written the tales.

The transmitted version of the Longchenglu records 43 tales of supernatural or strange events, trivial and miscellaneous anecdotes about eminent Tang-period personalities. Many of the stories were used by later generations as source material for lyric prose, rhapsodies, and fictional narratives.

The text is included in the series Baichuan xuehai 百川學海, Baihai 稗海, Lidai xiaoshi 歷代小史, Shuofu 說郛, Wuchao xiaoshuo 五朝小說 and Shuoku 說庫. A discussion of the text can be found in Zhou Zhongfu's 周中孚 (1768-1821) descriptive book catalogue Zhengtang dushu ji 鄭堂讀書記.