Zhanyuan zhaji 湛園札記

Zhanyuan zhaji 湛園札記 "Notes from Profound Garden" is a "brush-notes"-style book (biji 筆記) of 4 juan length written during the early Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Jiang Chenying 姜宸英 (1628-1699), courtesy name Ximing 西溟, style Zhanyuan 湛園 or Weijian 葦間, from Cixi 慈谿, Zhejiang, which is now part of Ningbo 寧波. He is also the author of a book on riverine warfare, Jiangfang zonglun 江防總論, as well as the notes Ximing wenchao 西溟文鈔, notes on calligraphy, Zhanyuan tiba 湛園提跋, and a poetry collection titled Weijian shiji 葦間詩集. His collected works are titled Zhanyuan weiding gao 湛園未定稿 and Jiang Xiansheng quanji 姜先生全集.

The Zhanyuan zhaji revises and corrects the three ritual classics, Yili 儀禮, Zhouli 周禮, and Liji 禮記, and examines and verifies passages from other Classics and historical texts. It contains many detailed and comprehensive discussions on ritual systems. However, the book's stance on the theory of joint worship of Heaven and Earth is somewhat unscholarly.

In its preface, the author discusses Yan Ruoqu's 閻若璩 (1636-1704) argument on changing the term zhaji 札記 to 劄記. Jiang cites passages that use the phrase jianzha 簡札 and argues that zha 札 was a term used by the ancients for presenting memorials (see zha 劄) and thus should not be changed to 劄. He used this point to give his book its name.

According to Zheng Yukui's 鄭羽逵 biography of Jiang Chengying, Chengying xiaozhuan 宸英小傳, the book comprises three juan. This assertion is based on the fact that the second fascicle includes a supplement by Huang Shulin 黃叔琳 (1672-1756).

The book is part of the Jiang Xiansheng quanji from 1990 and was reprinted in 1983 by the Jiangsu Guangling Guji Keyin She 江蘇廣陵古籍刻印社. The text is also part of the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 and Huang-Qing jingjie 皇清經解.