The
Taiping Guangji (太平广记), sometimes translated as the
Extensive Records of the Taiping Era, or
Extensive Records of the Taiping Xinguo Period, is a collection of stories compiled in the early
Song dynasty under imperial direction by
Li Fang. The work was completed in 978 and printing blocks were cut but it was prevented from publication on the grounds that it contained only
xiaoshuo (fiction or "insignificant tellings") and thus "was of no use to young students." It survived in manuscript until it was published in the
Ming dynasty. It is considered one of the
Four Great Books of Song. The title refers to the Taiping Xinguo era (太平兴国, "great-peace rejuvenate-nation", AD 976–984), the first years of the reign of
Emperor Taizong of Song.
The collection is divided into 500 volumes (卷) and consists of about 3 million Chinese characters. It includes about seven thousand stories selected from over three hundred books and novels from the Han dynasty to the early Song dynasty, many of which have been lost. Some stories are historical or naturalistic anecdotes, each is replete with historical elements, and were not regarded by their authors as fiction, but the topics are mostly supernatural, about Buddhist and Taoist priests, immortals, ghosts, and various deities. They include a number of Tang dynasty stories, especially chuanqi (tales of wonder), that are famous works of literature in their own right, and also inspired later works.
Pu Songling was said to have been inspired by Taiping Guangji; the short story "A Sequel to the Yellow Millet Dream" parallels one of Taiping stories.
Read more...: Famous stories Translations
Famous stories
• The Tale of Li Wa by Bai Xingjian
• Huo Xiaoyu's Story by Jiang Fang — this story has been translated by Stephen Owen to English in Anthology of Chinese Literature, Beginnings to 1911 (1996)
• The Tale of Liu Yi translated as The Dragon King's Daughter by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang.
Translations
Several collections of translated Taiping Guangji stories were published in English and other western languages, but the text was never fully translated into those languages. The Taiping Guangji translations tracking page in Wikipedia shows that about 125 English translations were made for Taiping Guangji stories so far, making less than 2% of the total number of Taiping Guangji stories.
Three full translations into modern Chinese were published so far:
• By Zhou Zhenfu (Editor, 周振甫) in 1993.
• By Ding Yucheng, Wang Shi and Yu Qinghua (丁玉琤，王石，于清华) in 1995.
• By Shi Ming (石鸣) in 2007.
What seems to be a Google Translate machine translation into English of the Shi Ming Chinese translation was published as a soft-copy in 2019.
Stories out of Taiping Guangji are still being actively translated into English, Hebrew and modern Chinese, and are published in several blogs on a regular basis. There is also a Taiping Guangji Translations tracking page in the Hebrew Wikipedia, linking to all English and Hebrew story translations available on the web.
The text above has been excerpted automatically from Wikipedia - please correct any errors in the
original article.
《
太平广记》，是宋代
李昉等人编著的大型类书，基本上是一部按类编纂的小说总集，凡五百卷。
Read more...: 成书过程 流传 评价 相关考证 逸事 注释 参考书目
成书过程
太平兴国二年（977年）三月，李昉、扈蒙、李穆、徐铉、赵邻几、王克贞、宋白、吕文仲等12人等人奉宋太宗的命令集体编纂，到隔年八月结束，因编成于太平兴国年间，所以定名为《太平广记》，和《太平御览》同时编纂。全书五百卷，目录十卷，共分九十二大类，下面又分一百五十多小类，例如畜兽部下又分牛、马、骆驼、驴、犬、羊、豕等细目，专收野史以及小说杂著，其中以神仙、鬼、报应、神、女仙、定数、畜兽、草木、再生、异僧、徵应等十一类约占全书之半。
《太平广记》引书大约四百多种，大致篇末都注明了来源，但偶有错误。例如《太平广记》卷一九四题作《僧侠》，云出自《唐语林》，但据汪绍楹考证：「明钞本作出《酉阳杂俎》」。李昉等在奉诏编撰《太平广记》后，曾向皇帝上过一表，提到此书宗旨「博宗群言，不遗众善」，「编秩既广，观览难周，故使采摭菁英，裁成类例」。
《太平广记》对于后世文学的影响很大，浦江清曾说「《太平广记》的结集，可以作为小说史上的分水岭」。宋人蔡蕃曾编《鹿革事类》、《鹿革文类》各三十卷，皆节录《广记》资料。《古今说海》、《五朝小说》、《说郛》等书多取材《广记》。
《广记》书中绝大部分小说都是唐代的作品，如六朝志怪、唐人传奇等。《太平广记》还选编晚唐范摅《云溪友议》共四十七条。有些篇幅较小的书几乎全部收录，其中许多原书如《旌异记》、《启颜录》等已失传，靠本书而得以流传。书里最值得重视的是第484至492卷，九卷杂传记里所收的《霍小玉传》、《崔莺莺传》、《李娃传》、《东城老父传》、《柳氏传》、《长恨传》、《无双传》等，都是唐人传奇的名篇，最早见于本书。
流传
《太平广记》明代以前很少刻本流传。太平兴国三年（978）八月十三日，李昉上表向宋太宗进《太平广记》。太平兴国六年（981）正月，《太平广记》奉旨雕印版，旋即停止雕印。中止印行的原因按《宋会要》所言是「言者以为非学者所急，收墨版藏太清楼」。然而《广记》的流传并未中止，闵宽东认为它最晚于高丽文宗三十四年（1080年）就传入了朝鲜半岛。到了宋神宗熙宁年间，高丽使臣朴寅亮已经在诗作中引用《太平广记》的典故。今韩国仍有较早的《太平广记详节》，以宋本为底本。此外还有孙潜校宋本、沈与文野竹斋抄本和陈鳝校宋本三种具有宋本《广记》背景。南宋尤袤《遂初堂书目》记录了当时有《京本太平广记》，可能是福建建阳刻本，即建本。根据晁公武《郡斋读书志》，当时的《广记》不仅有全本，也有节本，如《鹿革事类》《鹿革文类》等书，都是《广记》的节本。本书在北宋中期以后逐渐有了更多的读者。
明代，刻书家重新开始著手刊刻《广记》。沈与文野竹斋抄本为目前最古的《太平广记》抄本。沈氏为嘉靖朝苏州的一位藏书家，其抄本今收藏于中国国家图书馆。嘉靖四十五年（1566年），谈恺据传钞本加以校补重印，称《谈刻本》。今日宋朝刻本已佚，目前所存最古的刻本即是谈恺刻本。从谈刻本又衍生出明活字本，王重民先生以为应是隆庆、万历年间排印的。傅增湘指出，其源出于谈刻本，仍列谈恺跋与衔名于卷首。万历年间苏州藏书家许自昌以谈刻本为底本，加以校对，成为了许自昌刻本。
清初四库全书馆馆臣收入《四库全书》，一般认为缮录底本是《谈刻本》。但张国风指出，四库本的缮录底本是黄晟刻于乾隆二十年（1755年）的槐荫草堂本。
评价
• 胡应麟曾言：「《文苑》之芜冗，《广记》之怪诞，皆艺林所厌薄，而不知其有助于载籍者不鲜也。非《御览》西京以迄六代诸史乘煨烬矣。非《英华》，典午以迄三唐诸文赋烟埃矣。非《广记》汲冢以迄，五朝诸小说乌有矣。所录本书，今十九不存，间存者往往赖此而完帙仅半，余恍忽睹其名耳。宋人杂说单行，本朝垂百数种，舍此遂无可别稽。故是编虽芜冗，世莫得而废也。……《广记》之胪列详明，纪例精密，灼然必传，又当议于二典之外者也。」
• 鲁迅所辑《古小说钩沉》和《唐宋传奇集》，多取材于此书。他在《破〈唐人说荟〉》一文中指出：「我以为《太平广记》的好处有二，一是从六朝到宋初的小说几乎全收在内，倘若大略的研究，即可以不必别买许多书。二是精怪，鬼神，和尚，道士，一类一类的分得很清楚，聚得很多，可以使我们看到厌而又厌，对于现在谈狐鬼的《太平广记》的子孙，再没有拜读的勇气。」
相关考证
• 叶庆炳认为《太平广记》引用他书文字，每任意删节修正，而有三条则和《新唐书》一字不差，其非属广记原有，「周迪妻」、「封景文」、「高彦昭女」均在「十一人」之中。此三条盖谈恺据新唐书妄补，并非广曰。
逸事
• 据说徐铉想把自己的作品《稽神录》收进去，不敢自主，托人徵求李昉同意。倒是李昉很大方地说：「讵有徐率更言无稽者？中采无疑也。」，于是「此录遂得见收」。
• 元好问〈刘景玄墓铭〉文中曾提到，刘景玄半个月就把整套《太平广记》背诵无误：「泰和中，予初识景玄于太原，人有为予言是家读《广记》半月而初无所遗忘者，予未之许也。」
注释
参考书目
• 严一萍：《太平广记校勘记》
• 卢锦堂：《太平广记引书考》
• 邓嗣禹：《太平广记引得序》
• 张国风：《太平广记版本考述》
The text above has been excerpted automatically from Wikipedia - please correct any errors in the
original article.
