Gengzi xiaojia ji 庚子銷夏記

Gengzi xiaojia ji 庚子銷夏記 (also written 庚子消夏錄) "Notes made while passing the summer of 1660 in a leisurely way" is a descriptive catalogue on artworks written during the early Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Sun Chengze 孫承澤 (1592-1676), courtesy name Tuigu 退谷, style Tuigu Laoren 退谷老人, Erbo 耳伯, Beihai 北海, Siren 思仁, Erbei 耳北, Tuiweng 退翁, Tuidaoren 退道人 or Tuiguo Yisou 退谷逸叟, from Yifu 益都, Shandong. He served as supervising secretary (jishizhong 給事中) in the central government during the late Ming period 明 (1368-1644), was defence commissioner (fangyushi 防御使) in Sichuan when Li Zicheng 李自成 (1606-1645) conquered Beijing, and rose to the post of Left Vice Minister of Personnel (libu zuo shilang 吏部左侍郎) under the Qing dynasty. He left a rich work of writings, among others, the geographical study Jiuzhou shanshui kao 九州山水考, the book Xuedian 學典 and the art books Xianzhexuan tiekao 閑者軒帖考 and Ming-Qing huajia yinjian 明清畫家印鑒, as well as the "brush-notes"-style (biji 筆記) essay Chunmingmeng yulu 春明夢餘錄. His collected works are called Suhui ji 溯洄集 and Yanshanzhai ji 研山齋集.

The name of the book is derived from the cyclical characters of the year 1660, gengzi 庚子, and because Sun wrote it over the hot summer of that year (xiaoxia 銷夏 means "to escape the summer [heat]"). The book of 8 juan length discusses calligraphies and paintings of Sun's own collection and such he was able to personally admire and inspect. The first three fascicles describe originals of artworks from the Jin to the Ming period, while chapters 4 to 7 are dedicated to rubbings of stone inscriptions. The last part, called Yumuji 寓目記, includes artworks owned by other collectors.

Even if Sun's catalogue is not one of the great old book on Chinese art, its scholarly concise methodology for the description of artworks served as a model for later descriptive catalogues like Gao Shiqi's 高士奇 (1645-1703) Jiangcun xiaoxia lu 江村銷夏錄, Rongguang's 吳榮光 (1773-1843) Xinchou xiaoxia lu 辛丑銷夏錄 and Duan Fang's 端方 (1861-1911) Renyin xiaoxia lu 壬寅銷夏錄 - these four books are also known as Si xiaoxia 四銷夏 or Si da xiaoxia lu 四大銷夏錄.

The book is included in the series Zhibuzuzhai congshu 知不足齋叢書 (partially), Xueguzhai jinshi congshu 學古齋金石叢書, Fengyulou congshu 風雨樓叢書 and Siku quanshu 四庫全書.