Mingxiangji 冥祥記

Mingxiangji 冥祥記 "Records of mysterious Mmanifestations" is an collection of stories compiled during the Southern Qi period 南齊 (479-502) by Wang Yan 王琰 (born c. 454), who hailed from Taiyuan 太原 (modern Taiyuan, Shanxi) and wandered around with Buddhist monks, in his early years in the far southern region of Jiaozhi 交趾 (north of modern Vietnam), and later along the Yangtze River. In the preface to his book, Wang Yan states that he once obtained a golden Buddha image that radiated a golden glow as an expression of merits accrued in an earlier life.

In accordance with Wang's personal beliefs, the book Mingxiangji includes stories that explore the relationship between good and evil behaviour and the retribution for such deeds in a later life. The Mingxiangji is thus not only a book entertaining a readership, but also serves as a tool for the propagation of Buddhist religion. Compared with other books that feature strange events or characters with supernatural powers, the chapters of the Mingxiangji are relatively long, and the stories largely refrain from depicting extraordinary effects. The language is nevertheless concise and easy to understand for a familiar audience, all the more so as the stories relate to everyday life. It is not certain whether some surviving fragments of the books were written during the Tang period 唐 (618-907) and do not belong to the original text.

The Mingxiangji is first mentioned in the imperial bibliography Jingji zhi in the official dynastic history Suishu 隋書 among the "miscellaneous biographies" (zazhuan 雜傳). The 10-juan-long book was already lost at the end of the Tang period, yet some paragraphs are quoted in the Song-period 宋 (960-1279) encyclopaedias Taiping guangji 太平廣記 and Taiping yulan 太平御覽 and in Su Yijian's 蘇易簡 (958-996) Wenfang sipu 文房四譜. Collections of fragments can be found in the reprint series Shuofu 說郛 and Gujin shuobu congshu 古今說部叢書, and in Lu Xun's 魯迅 (1881-1936) Gu xiaoshuo gouchen 古小說鉤沉 from the Republican period. The latter includes 131 fragments and is the most complete collection.

There was a continuation of the Mingxiangji compiled during the Liang period 梁 (502-557) by Wang Manying 王曼穎. The Xu mingxiangji 續冥祥記 was either 1 juan long, or 11 juan, as the bibliographical lists in the histories Jiutangshu 舊唐書 and Xintangshu 新唐書 state. It might be that the long version of the supplement included Wang Yan's original book. It is not clear whether fragments of the Xu mingxiangji have survived.