Feixuelu 霏雪錄

Feixuelu 霏雪錄 "Records of snow flurries" is a "brush-notes"-style book (biji 筆記) written during the early Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Liu Ji 鎦績 (c. 1400), courtesy name Mengxi 孟熙. His ancestors hailed from Luoyang 洛陽, but moved to Shanyin 山陰 (in today's Shandong province). Ji's father Liu Huan 鎦渙 was an expert of the Shijing 詩經 "Book of Songs" and once headed the Sanmao Academy 三茅書院. Liu Ji wrote the books Chongyang gao 嵩陽稿 and Shilü 詩律.

The Feixuelu of 2 juan length contains miscellaneous accounts of old stories, examines and clarifies doubtful points in poetry and prose, and occasionally records dreams and humorous anecdotes, including elements of fictional storytelling. The section that scrutinises and resolves literary ambiguities is relatively well-supported. Liu Ji often traveled with former officials of the Yuan dynasty 元 (1279-1368), so many of the author's tales have credible origins.

In addition, the book includes accounts of historical figures from both ancient times and the current dynasty, offering a certain degree of reference value. However, the parts concerning dreams and humorous content are sometimes lacking in literary elegance, and there are also some factual errors. For example, Liu mistakenly attributes a poem by Du Chang 杜常 (jinshi degree 1065) to Du Mu 杜牧 (803-852) — an error corrected by Wang Shizhen 王士禎 (1634-1711) in his Xiangzu biji 香祖筆記.

Another example is Liu's claim that one of his distant ancestors, "Lord Pasturer" (Mamu Jun 馬牧君), served the founding emperor of the Jin dynasty 金 (1115-1234), Emperor Taizu 金太祖 (r. 1115-1122), with a spirit akin to Ji Xin 紀信 (d. 204 BCE). According to Liu, when the official histories of the Song 宋 (960-1279), Liao 遼 (907-1125), and Jin dynasties were being compiled during the Yuan period, the historians demanded bribes from his family, and when they refused, the event was left unrecorded. However, this story has not been mentioned by any other historian. Though the Yuan dynasty's government was in decline at the time, respected historians such as Jie Xisi 揭傒斯 (1274-1344) and Ouyang Yuan 歐陽元 (Ouyang Xuan 歐陽玄; 1283-1357) were of the highest caliber, making such bribery unlikely. Thus, this account seems to be a private and unverified claim and should not be readily believed.

The book was published during the Chenghua reign-period 成化 (1465–1487) with a preface by Hu Mi 胡謐 (fl. 1450). There also exists a handwritten copy with postscripts by Hu Mi and Zhang Wenzhao 張文昭 (b. 1438), currently held in the National Library of China in Beijing. The text is found in the series Xuehai leibian 學海類編, Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Tanshengtang yuyuan 談生堂餘苑, Shuohai 說海 and Yipu souqi 藝圃搜奇.