Yuhang zalu 雨航雜錄

Yuhang zalu 雨航雜錄 "Miscellaneous records of travelling in the rain" is a "brush-notes"-style book (biji 筆記) written during the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Feng Shike 馮時可(1546-1619), courtesy name Minqing 敏卿, style Yuancheng華亭, from Huating 華亭 (today part of Shanghai). He was a provincial surveillance commissioner (anchashi 按察使) and also wrote the books Zhongmiao xianfang 眾妙仙方 and Shangchi zashuo 上池雜說.

The Yuhang zalu is divided into two juan. The first fascicle primarily discusses learning and literature, while the second one mainly records local products, with occasional mention of miscellaneous topics. The author's arguments are sincere and well-grounded, often hitting the mark with sound reasoning. His tone stands in contrast to the prevailing habits among scholar-officials during the Longqing 隆慶 (1567-1572) and Wanli 萬曆 (1573-1619) reign-periods of the Ming era, who favored lofty and pretentious discourse. In critiquing Wang Shizhen's 王世貞 (1526-1590) poetic line, "The rainbow arcs high and low over Jieshi in sorrowful song; the music of the zhu (a stringed instrument) shakes the sun at Xianyang" (bei ge Jieshi hong gao xia, ji zhu Xianyang ri dongyao 悲歌碣石虹高下，擊筑咸陽日動搖), Feng Shike astutely observes that such language leans toward artificiality and lacks naturalness. He also cites Xu Shuming 徐叔明 (Xu Xuemo 徐學謨, 1522-1594), who criticized Wang Shizhen's habit of excessively praising people in their biographies, including trivial matters such as performance in school exams. Xu remarked that this kind of overstatement was not only unknown before the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) but also uncharacteristic of Tang- 唐 (618-907) and Song-period 宋 (960-1279) scholars. This view is insightful and directly addresses the faults of the time. However, Feng's critique of the commentaries on the Thirteen Classics and his listing of seven exegetical errors by Former-Han-period 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE) scholars may be somewhat overdone.

The second juan contains many entries on local products — an area seldom covered in other works — providing useful reference material for understanding regional resources and characteristics.

The text is included in the series Baoyantang miji 寶顏堂秘笈, Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編, Shuofu xu 說郛續, Wuchao xiaoshuo 五朝小說 and Wuchao xiaoshuo daguan 五朝小說大觀.