內容

《夷堅志》始刊於紹興末年（1162年），停筆於嘉泰二年壬戊（1202年），書名取《列子·湯問》「夷堅聞而志之」之意，記述了宋代城市生活、人文掌故、奇聞趣事，內容涉及三教九流、宗教信仰、諸子百家，搜羅廣泛，卷帙浩瀚，有不少話本和戲曲都取材於《夷堅志》故事，如〈馮玉梅團圓〉取材於〈徐信妻〉，僅凌濛初即取材三十餘篇，佔《二拍》篇幅一半。

《夷堅志》原書凡420卷，分初志、支志、三志、四志，每志又分十集，《乙志序》中說：「《夷堅初志》成，士大夫或傳之，今鏤板于閩、于蜀、于婺、于臨安，蓋家有其書。」但隨編隨印，加之卷帙浩繁，全帙的刻本極少。後世多以涵芬樓版二百零六卷為通行本，分初志、支志及三志，外加補遺。

評價

後人對《夷堅志》褒貶不一。沈屺瞻說：「第觀其書，滉漾恣縱，瑰奇絕特，可喜可愕，可信可證，有足擴耳目聞見之所不及而供學士文人之搜尋摭拾者，又寧可與稗官野乘同日語哉。」陸心源說：「雖其所載頗予傳記相似，飾說剽竊，借與談助，『支甲序』已自言之。至于文思雋永，層出不窮，實非後人所及。自甲志至四甲，凡三十一序，各出新意，不相複重，趙與時《賓退錄》節錄其文，堆挹甚至，信乎文人之能事，小說之淵海也。」魯迅說：「偏重事狀，少所鋪敘」，不脫六朝志怪「粗陳梗概」的傳統。甚至是漫抄舊書，一昧貪多，有人取《太平廣記》中之事「改鼠首尾，別以名字以投之，至有數卷者」，洪邁也都收入。陳櫟勤《有堂隨錄》則謂洪氏"欲修國史,藉此練習其筆」。周密批評他「貪多務得，不免妄誕。」

流傳

《夷堅志》於宋代已有散佚，元代亡佚近半。《宋史·藝文志》只錄甲乙丙六十卷，丁戊己庚八十卷。元人沈天佑曾刻印《夷堅初志》甲乙丙丁四志共八十卷，僅占全書的五分之一，另外葉祖榮選編的《分類夷堅志》今存五十一卷。可見《夷堅志》散佚之嚴重。現存傳本以上海涵芬樓編印張元濟校勘的《新校輯補夷堅志》二百零六卷最全，但初志、支志、三志加補遺僅約為原書之半。後來《永樂大典》等書中又輯出佚文二十六則。《夷堅志》大量的記載中醫藥文化的內容，幾乎包含了中醫藥文化的各個層面。元好問著有《續夷堅志》。元代有無名氏的《湖海新聞夷堅續志》。

注釋

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.