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The Yiyuan 異苑 "Garden of the extraordinary" is a collection of phantastic stories compiled by the Liu-Song period 劉宋 (420-479) writer Liu Jingshu 劉敬叔 (fl. 417-426). Only 10 juan "scrolls" of the original Yiyuan have survived, but is can be assumed that not much is lost.
The book includes stories of strange events and supernatural appearings from ancient times until the Jin period 晉 (265-420), the latter covering the largest part of the stories. Altough the language is quite simple and coarse, there were many later authors quoting from the Yiyuan because of the attractiveness of the stories, including such as like Niuchu ran xi 牛渚燃犀 "Burning the rhino horn of Mt. Niuchu", Tao Kan hu nu 陶侃胡奴 "Tao Kan as a slave of the Xiongnu", or the story of the parrots dousing the forest fire.
The Yiyuan is included in the collectanea Tang-Song congshu 唐宋叢書, Wuchao xiaoshuo 五朝小說, Mice huihan 秘冊彙函 (Bice huihan 袐册匯函), Jindai mishu 津逮秘書 (Jindai bishu 津逮袐書), Xuejin taoyuan 學津討原, and Siku quanshu 四庫全書.
Source: Bai Huawen 白化文 (1986). "Yiyuan 異苑", in: Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo wenxue 中國文學, vol. 2, pp. 1167-1168. Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe.
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