Bowuzhi () by Zhang Hua (c. 290 CE) was a compendium of Chinese stories about natural wonders and marvelous phenomena. It quotes from many early Chinese classics, and diversely includes subject matter from Chinese mythology, history, geography, and folklore. The Bowuzhi, which is one of the first works in the literary genre of zhiguai "tales of anomalies; supernatural stories", records the earliest versions of several myths, such as the white yenü "wild women" living south of China in a society without men. Scholars have described the Bowuzhi as "a miscellany of scientific interest" and "an important minor classic".
Author The Bowuzhi author Zhang Hua (232-300) was a Western Jin dynasty (266-316) scholar, poet, and protoscientist. His biography in the (644) Book of Jin depicts Zhang Hua as a fangshi "master of esoterica" who was especially skilled at numerological arts, and a voracious collector of books, especially ones "strange, secret, and rarely seen". Many anecdotes in Six Dynasties period books portray him as a "learned arbitrator of 'scientific' knowledge". The (early 5th century) Yiyuan "Garden of Marvels", by Liu Jingshu , provides two examples. First, Zhang recognized dragon meat that was served by the author Lu Ji (261-303), who "once invited Zhang Hua to dinner and served minced fish. At the time the dining chamber was full of guests. When Hua lifted off the lid of the dish, he said, 'This is dragon's flesh!' None of the assembled guests believed him, so Hua said, 'Test it by steeping it in vinegar; something strange will happen.' When this was done a rainbow appeared above it."Tr. .. In a second anecdote, Zhang Hua demonstrated the cosmological principle of ganying "sympathetic resonance". During the Jin, there was a man who owned a large copper basin. Every morning and evening it would ring out just as if someone was striking it. When Zhang Hua was asked about this, he replied "This basin has a sympathetic affinity with the bell in the Luoyang bell-tower. The bell is struck every dawn and every dusk, and thus this basin resounds in sympathy. You could file away [a part of the basin] and thus make it lighter; the sound would reverberate inaccurately and the basin would cease ringing out of its own accord." The man did as Hua had advised, and the basin never rang out again.Tr. .. The Ganying leicongzhi "Record of the Mutual Resonances of Things According to Their Categories" is attributed to Zhang Hua.
Title The Bowuzhi title combines bó or "broad; abundant; plentiful; learned", wù "thing; matter", and zhì or "(historical) records; annals; mark; sign; record; register". This title follows Yang Fu's (early 3rd century) Yiwuzhi "Records of Foreign Matters". The word bowu originally meant "broadly knowledgeable; erudite" in the (c. 4th century BCE) Zuozhuan and later came to mean "studies of plants and animals; natural science" in the (80 CE) Lunheng. In general, bowu "refers to realms transgressing the boundaries of the defined canon of knowledge, covering a variety of matters from the strange and supernatural to quaint things of interest". Books on Chinese folk customs and their geographical distribution were termed Fengtu ji (beginning with Zhou Chu's 3rd-century Fengtuji "Records of Local Customs"), and descriptions of unfamiliar regions Yiwu zhi. In Modern Standard Chinese usage, bówùxué "natural history" and bówùguǎn "museum" are common terms.
There is no regular English translation of Bówùzhì, and examples include: Record of the Investigation of Things A Treatise on Manifold Topics Treatise on Curiosities Vast Records about Different Topics Natural Science Miscellaneous Records Record of Things at Large Records of Myriad [Notable] Things The Record of the Investigation of Things translation from Joseph Needham's influential Science and Civilisation in China series has been copied by many authors, despite confusion with the famous Neo-Confucian concept of géwù "the Investigation of Things".
Zhang Hua has been accused of plagiarizing the Bowuzhi from the similarly-titled (c. 190) Bowuji "Notes on Diverse Matters" with jì "remember; write down; records; notes" (instead of zhi 志 "records"), attributed to Tang Meng . Tang Meng was a general and explorer who Emperor Wu of Han sent to Nanyue in 135 BCE. However, neither the Book of Han nor later histories record any works written by Tang Meng, and one Bowuji citation mentions the Cao Wei dynasty (220-265) by name. Based upon analysis of the 50 Bowuji quotes in the (5th century) Book of the Later Han commentary, Greatrex concludes it was a different text with a parallel name.
Editions There are two different editions of the Bowuzhi, respectively dating from Song dynasty (960-1279) and Ming dynasty (1368-1644) copies. Both divide the text into 10 chapters () and comprise nearly the same material, but they differ in organizing the sequence of the 329 items and the presence of 38 topic headings in the Ming copy. Both editions include the two early Bowuzhi commentaries; 20 comments by Zhou Riyong (fl. 12th century) and 7 by an unknown author surnamed Lu, Lushi .
The "Song edition" was compiled and published in 1804 by Huang Pilie (1763-1825), a renowned Qing dynasty (1644-1912) book collector and editor. Huang said the edition was based on a copy owned in his family, and considered it to date from the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127). The Song edition was included in collections such as the (1936) Sibu beiyao . The "Ming edition" was published in 1503 by He Zhitong , and is presently housed in the National Library of China in Beijing. Wang Shihan published a reprint in 1668. The Ming edition, which is the earliest extant, was included in the (1782) Siku Quanshu and various other book collections.
The total content matter of these two versions is almost identical; the Song edition repeats three items in chapter 10 which have appeared earlier in the text, while the Ming edition has omitted them. Both editions are divided into 10 chapters, while the Ming edition is further sub-divided under 38 or 39 (dividing the final Zashuo "Miscellaneous sayings" into two) headings that designate the content in each respective subsection. Campany says the absence of topic headings and non-rational sequencing of items have led some to speculate that the "Ming edition" represents a tidying-up of an earlier "Song edition" descended from Zhang Hua's original, but Huang Pilie's text was neither necessarily of Song date nor any closer to Zhang's text. It is well established that some Ming scholars responded to a misguided scholastic urge to rearrange old texts that they considered disorganized, and the "stylistic device" of adding sub-headings to works of random jottings first became widespread during the Ming.
Three authors wrote supplements to the Bowuzhi. During the Southern Song dynasty, Li Shi compiled the (mid-12th century) Xu bowuzhi "Continuation to the Bowuzhi" in 10 chapters, which quotes early sources without any textual criticism. During the Ming dynasty, Dong Sizhang compiled the extensive (1607) Guang Bowuzhi "Enlargement of the Bowuzhi" in 50 chapters. And during the Qing dynasty, You Qian compiled the Bowuzhi bu "Supplement to the Bowuzhi" in 2 chapters, which added miscellaneous information.
Several modern annotated editions of the Bowuzhi have been published in recent years. Fan Ning wrote an acclaimed text-critical edition of the Bowuzhi, which discusses textual history and includes 212 additional passages quoted in later texts.
Roger Greatrex, professor of Chinese studies at Lund University, wrote the first English translation of the Bowuzhi.
History Scholars have debated over the history of the Bowuzhi for centuries. Although Zhang Hua's authorship has never been questioned, some doubt the authenticity of the text, based upon the numerous quotations from the Bowuzhi that are not found in received editions. In the traditional assessment, Zhang's original Bowuzhi had been lost, and the current text is a rewriting or restoration based on extracts of the original and is of unknown date. Modern research, both Chinese and Western, has found that copies of the original Bowuzhi existed until around the 12th century, and was the basis for both the "Song" and "Ming editions." Greatrex says that both imperial and private libraries from the Six Dynasties to the present recorded copies of the Bowuzhi, and at no point in time does the text totally disappear from view.
The first historically reliable mention of the Bowuzhi occurs in the (554) Book of Wei biographyTr. . of the classical scholar Chang Jing (c. 478-550), "Jing composed several hundred chapters which are currently available. He revised and edited the Bowu zhi by Zhang Hua and also composed the Biographies of Confucian Scholars (Rulin zhuan) and the Biographies of Various Ladies (Lienu zhuan), each of which was in several dozen chapters." In the opinion of Greatrex, while later interpolations into the present Bowuzhi text are rare, a number of short passages, muddled into the main text, stem from Chang Jing's (mid-6th century) commentary.
A possibly earlier reference, Wang Jia's Shiyiji — which was written in the 4th century, lost, and recompiled by Xiao Qi in the 6th century — says Emperor Wu of Jin (r. 266-290) ordered Zhang Hua to condense the Bowuzhi from 400 to 10 chapters. Zhang Hua liked to peruse mysterious and strange charts and Apocryphal works, and from them he selected odd long-lost tales from the four corners of the world, from the very beginning of the written character. When he had examined these mysterious and strange (works) and added to them the hearsay rumoured abroad and snatches of conversation overheard in the palace ante-rooms, he composed the Bowu zhi in four hundred chapters, and presented to emperor Wu. The emperor summoned him and said: "Your talent embraces the ten thousand generations and the width of your knowledge is without equal. In the past you surpass the Emperor Fuxi and more recently, you are second only to Confucius. However, in your recording of affairs and in your selection of words, there is much that is superficial and exaggerated which should be deleted from this work. One should not rely upon verbosity when composing a work! When in the past, Confucius edited the Shijing and the Shujing, he never came to the affairs of the spirits and the unknown and thus never spoke of 'extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder and spiritual beings'. Your Bowu zhi will startle people with that which they have never heard of previously, and will make them wonder over that which they have never previously seen. This book will frighten and confuse later generations, it will bewilder the eye and disturb the ear. You should delete and alter that which is superficial and doubtful and divide the text into 10 chapters."Tr. . The context continues with Emperor Wu presenting Zhang Hua with three rare tribute gifts, an iron inkstone from Khotan, a qilin-handle ink brush from Liaoxi, and a 1000 sheets of seaweed-filament paper from Nanyue; and "The emperor always kept the ten-chapter version of the Bowu zhi in his book-box and looked in it on his days of leisure." Cèlǐzhǐ 側理紙 "intricate filament paper" had complex and crooked lines.
The editors of the (1782) Siku Quanshu listed examples of passages attributed to the Bowuzhi found in other works, but not contained in the current edition, and believed that the current textual edition did not date from the Tang or Song, but was most likely a Ming recension. They conclude,Tr. . "It is a scissors-and-paste scrap-book of a work, and is not Hua's original work", and suggest "Probably the original work is lost, and meddlers having scoured all the works that quote the Bowu zhi, have compiled the present text, supplementing it with passages drawn from other Xiaoshuo [fiction]."
The missionary sinologist Alexander Wylie summarized the standard Qing dynasty scholarly opinion of the Bowuzhi.