Fanshu ouji 販書偶記

Fanshu ouji 販書偶記 "Casual notes of a book monger" is a bibliographical catalogue compiled by Sun Dianqi 孫殿起 (1894-1958), courtesy name Yaoqing 耀卿, style Maoweng 貿翁, first published in 1936, and as modern editions in 1959 (Zhonghua shuju 華書局出) and 1982.

The catalogue records books mainly written in the last century of the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) and the Second Sino-Japanese war, but the greatest part of the books listed date from the late Qing, and among these, most were had been sold in Sun's own publishing house, the Tongxuezhai Shudian 通學齋書店. A few texts date from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644), and the last title from 1935.

The catalogue lists about 10,000 titles, and can be seen as a supplement of the 18th-century catalogue Siku quanshu zongmu 四庫全書總目, for which reason the 1967 edition of the Shijie Shuju Press 世界書局 changed the title to Siku quanshu xubian 四庫全書續編. It therefore does not include any book already described in this catalogue, except some, whose edition differed from that in the Siku catalogue.

Another condition for recording was that each book existed in an individual edition (danyinben 單印本). Sun extended this principle also for books later included in series or coherent collections. His bibliography can therefore serve as a supplement to the series index Congshu zimu suoyin 叢書子目索引 (comp. by Jin Buying 金步瀛, 1931).

The catalogue of 20 juan length is divided into the traditional four categories of Confucian Classics (jing 經), historiography (shi 史), "Masters and philosophers" (zi 子), and belles-lettres (ji 集). Each book is described in detail concerning title, size, author, and editions, as well as content. It includes not only printed books, but also drafts (gaoben 稿本), manuscripts (chaoben 抄本) and critically collated editions (jiaoben 校本), and lists books that had been officially banned (jinhuishu 禁毀書), novellas and romances, as well as theatre plays.

A supplement to Sun's catalogue was compiled by Lei Mengsui 雷夢水 (1921-1994), with the title Fanshu ouji xubian 販書偶記續編, and published in 1980 by the Shanghai Guji Press 上海古籍出版社. It lists more than 6,000 books.

Sun Dianqi also published a supplement to the an index of series, Congshu mulu shiyi 叢書目錄拾遺, with a length of 12 juan and on sale in 1936. Another book by him is a description of the famous antiques lane Liulichang 琉璃廠, where he owned his publishing house and bookstores, the Liulichang xiaozhi 琉璃廠小志.