Description

Hong Mai (1123–1202) had always interested himself in popular stories, and he titled his story collection after the ancient writer Yijian, who, according to the Liezi, wrote down the stories he heard.

The stories are very heterogeneous: gods and ghosts, injustice and retribution, fantasy and uncanny have all been included in its storylines. There are 2692 stories in the 206 chapters that have survived. Chang Fu-jui classified them thus:

Reception

The stories have inspired numerous vernacular stories and Chinese operas. Zhou Mi of the late Song dynasty criticized the book as "greedy and acquisitive, full of eeriness."

The book is considered highly valuable by modern researchers, because it provides rare insight into the economic, social, technological, and cultural-religious conditions of the Song dynasty. Because some stories are also found in other books, how they altered during the course of oral transmissions is also of interest.

English translation

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Zhang's selection contains a hundred stories.

内容

《夷坚志》始刊于绍兴末年（1162年），停笔于嘉泰二年壬戊（1202年），书名取《列子·汤问》「夷坚闻而志之」之意，记述了宋代城市生活、人文掌故、奇闻趣事，内容涉及三教九流、宗教信仰、诸子百家，搜罗广泛，卷帙浩瀚，有不少话本和戏曲都取材于《夷坚志》故事，如〈冯玉梅团圆〉取材于〈徐信妻〉，仅凌蒙初即取材三十馀篇，占《二拍》篇幅一半。

《夷坚志》原书凡420卷，分初志、支志、三志、四志，每志又分十集，《乙志序》中说：「《夷坚初志》成，士大夫或传之，今镂板于闽、于蜀、于婺、于临安，盖家有其书。」但随编随印，加之卷帙浩繁，全帙的刻本极少。后世多以涵芬楼版二百零六卷为通行本，分初志、支志及三志，外加补遗。

评价

后人对《夷坚志》褒贬不一。沈屺瞻说：「第观其书，滉漾恣纵，瑰奇绝特，可喜可愕，可信可证，有足扩耳目闻见之所不及而供学士文人之搜寻摭拾者，又宁可与稗官野乘同日语哉。」陆心源说：「虽其所载颇予传记相似，饰说剽窃，借与谈助，『支甲序』已自言之。至于文思隽永，层出不穷，实非后人所及。自甲志至四甲，凡三十一序，各出新意，不相复重，赵与时《宾退录》节录其文，堆挹甚至，信乎文人之能事，小说之渊海也。」鲁迅说：「偏重事状，少所铺叙」，不脱六朝志怪「粗陈梗概」的传统。甚至是漫抄旧书，一昧贪多，有人取《太平广记》中之事「改鼠首尾，别以名字以投之，至有数卷者」，洪迈也都收入。陈栎勤《有堂随录》则谓洪氏"欲修国史,藉此练习其笔」。周密批评他「贪多务得，不免妄诞。」

流传

《夷坚志》于宋代已有散佚，元代亡佚近半。《宋史·艺文志》只录甲乙丙六十卷，丁戊己庚八十卷。元人沈天佑曾刻印《夷坚初志》甲乙丙丁四志共八十卷，仅占全书的五分之一，另外叶祖荣选编的《分类夷坚志》今存五十一卷。可见《夷坚志》散佚之严重。现存传本以上海涵芬楼编印张元济校勘的《新校辑补夷坚志》二百零六卷最全，但初志、支志、三志加补遗仅约为原书之半。后来《永乐大典》等书中又辑出佚文二十六则。《夷坚志》大量的记载中医药文化的内容，几乎包含了中医药文化的各个层面。元好问著有《续夷坚志》。元代有无名氏的《湖海新闻夷坚续志》。

注释