Jingyuan 經苑

Jingyuan 經苑 "The Garden of Classics" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) specialized on commentaries on the Confucian Classics. It was compiled by the Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Qian Yiji 錢儀吉 (1783-1850), original name Qian Kuiji 錢逵吉, courtesy name Airen 藹人 (also written 錢靄人), style Yanshi 衍石 (or Kanshi 衎石) or Xinhu 心壺 (or Xinwu 新梧).

Qian hailed from Jiaxing 嘉興, Zhejiang and obtained his jinshi degree in 1808. He was a Hanlin bachelor (shujishi 庶吉士), then secretary (zhushi 主事) and later supervising secretary (jishizhong 給事中) in the Ministry of Revenue (hubu 戶部), and was for long years chief lecturer (zhujiang 主講) in the Daliang Academy 大梁書院, Henan, and the Xuehai Hall 學海堂 in Guangdong. His brother Qian Taiji 錢泰吉 (1791-1863), courtesy name Qian Jingshi 錢警石, was also a researcher on the Confucian Classics, and both were known as the "Two Shi" (Er Shi 二石). Qian Yiji was also interested in historical geography and has compiled the books Jingdian zhengwen 經典征文, Kanshizhai jishi gao 衎石齋記事稿, Huangyu tushuo 皇輿圖說, Guochao xianzheng ji 國朝獻征集, Lüyi xiaogao 旅逸小稿, and the biographic collection Beizhuanji 碑傳集.

His series was planned to included 44 books with a total length of 218 juan. Its aim was to supplement Xu Qianxue's 徐乾學 (1631-1694) series Tongzhitang jingjie 通志堂, but with a focus on Song- 宋 (960-1279) and Yuan- 元 (1279-1368) period texts.

Although the texts included in the Jingyuan are not as rare as those in the Tongzhitang jingjie, the text-critical quality of the Jingyuan is higher than that of the latter. In the end, the published text only inluded 41 texts, but with a total length of 250 juan. 25 of these were critically revised by Qian Yiji, but he died before the other 16 texts were finished. His son Qian Zunhuang 錢尊煌 realized the publication of the series that includes the texts of 23 scholars from the Tang 唐 (618-907) to the Song period. The Jingyuan was printed during the Daoguang reign-period 道光 (1821-1850) by the Daliang Press 大梁書院.