Tanzhai tongbian 坦齋通編

Tanzhai tongbian 坦齋通編 "Comprehensive book of Even Studio" is a "brush-notes"-style book (biji 筆記) written during the Southern Song period 南宋 (1127-1279) by Xing Kai 邢凱 (fl. 1171) from Wuning 武寧 (in today's Jiangsu province). Seen from information in the text, the book must have been compiled in the last decade of the 12th century.

The short book is a critical evaluation of statements in older texts. It imitates the structure of Cheng Dachang’s 程大昌 (1123-1195) Yanfanlu 演繁露 and Hong Mai's 洪邁 (1123-1202) Rongzhai suibi 容齋隨筆. The scholarly quality of the Tanzhai tongbian is thus quite high. Xing quotes, for example, a phrase from the Shuoyuan 說苑 to prove that people did shoot fishes (shi yu 矢魚) during the Spring-and-Autumn period 春秋 (770-5th cent. BCE); he refers to the Guoyu 國語 to show that the expression xifang shengren 西方聖人 in the Liezi 列子 did not refer to the Buddha; he pointed at a contradiction in the Hanshu 漢書 between the biography of Zhu Maichen 朱買臣 (d. 115 BCE) and that of Zhang Tang 張湯 (d. 115 BCE). Xing also discusses some statements on supernatural occurrences and rectifies errors in tradition, for instance, the arrangement of "seats" for Confucius (Kongzi 孔子) and his disciples in Confucius temples.

The early publication history of the Tanzhai tongbian is unkown, as it is not recorded in any book catalogue. The compilers of the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 copied the version in the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) encyclopaedia Yongle dadian 永樂大典, and thus created a book of 1 juan length, with several dozen chapters.

The text is also found in the series Wuchao xiaoshuo 五朝小說, Wuchao xiaoshuo daguan 五朝小說大觀, Shoushange congshu 守山閣叢書, Shuofu 說郛 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.