Diange cilin ji 殿閣詞林記

Diange cilin ji 殿閣詞林記 "Records from the Great Hall in the Forest of Poems" is a collection of biographies of members of the Hanlin Academy 翰林院 compiled by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Liao Daonan 廖道南 (1494-1548), courtesy name Mingwu 鳴吾. He hailed from Puqi 蒲圻 (modern Puqi, Hebei) and obtained his jinshi degree during the Zhengde reign-period 正德 (1506-1521), and rose to the office of academician expositor-in-waiting (shijiang xueshi 侍講學士) of the Hanlin Academy. He wrote a local history of his home province, the Chuji 楚紀. Cilin 詞林 "Forest of Poems" is another name for the Hanlin Academy.

The 20-juan long book discerns, according to the preface, eleven types of academicians, namely such of the Hall of Military Glory 武英殿 (dianxue 殿學), those working in the Eastern Hall of Literary Profundity 文淵東閣 (gexue 閣學), academicians working in the Six Ministries (liubu 六部; called guanxue 館學), in the household of the Heir Apparent (zhanshifu 詹事府; called gongxue 宮學,), in the secretariat and archive of the Heir Apparent (changchunfang 長春坊, or mengxiafang 門下坊 and dianshufang 典書坊; called fangxue 坊學), under the Institute for the Advancement of Literature (hongwenguan 弘文館; called guanxue 館學, too), academicians with the position of Director of Education (guozijian jijiu 國子監祭酒; called yongxue 廱學), with that of Chamberlain for Ceremonials (taichang qing 太常卿; called qingxue 卿學), such that were posthumously appointed academicians (zengxue 贈學), academicians heading the calligraphy school (yixue 藝學), and those directly assigned to the Hanlin Academy (yuanxue 院學).

These terms are not consistently used in the biographic and administrative chapters of the collection. Academicians in the Ministries are, for instance, also called buxue 部學, and those with the position of Chamberlain are also called sixue 寺學.

The first six juan of the book include biographies of Grand Academicians (daxueshi 大學士), juan 7 to 9 such of persons in minor positions like xiuzhuan or bianxiu, and particularly working in the Historiography Institute. The last half of the book describes the concrete work of the academicians, like proofreading, copying, drafting, checking, teaching, and the system of their appointment.

This part of the book is largely a copy of Huang Zuo's 黃佐 (1490-1566) book Hanlinji 翰林記. The text of the book is very reliable because Liao Daonan served for a very long time in the Hanlin Academy and knew the peculiarities of this institution. The Diange cilin ji is included in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書.