Jul 3, 2010 © Ulrich Theobald
Fenjiaolu 焚椒錄 "Burning Peppers" is an account of the sad fate of an empress of the Liao court 遼 (907-1125) written by the scholar Wang Ding 王鼎 (jinshi degree 1059). The book, written during a travel into Mongolia, narrates how Minister Yelü Yixin 耶律乙辛 (d. 1083) cast an evil spell on Empress Xuanyi 宣懿后 (d. 1075) that involved her into an illicit affair and thus contributed to her downfall and suicide.
The Fenjiaolu is the only surviving privately written book from the Liao period. The narrative is different from the official report in the history Qidan guo zhi 契丹國志, for which reason some scholars doubted the authenticity of the the facts described in this book.
The Fenjiaolu is included in the series Baoyantang miji 寶顏堂秘笈 and Jindai mishu 津逮秘書.
Sources:
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Li Zhengming 李正民 (1998). "Xiao guanyin yu Wang Ding Fenjiaolu 蕭觀音與王鼎《焚椒錄》", Minzu wenxue yanjiu 民族文學研究, 1998 (8).
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Lü Fuhua 呂富華 (2010). "Fenjiaolu de shiliao jiazhi tanxi 《焚椒錄》的史料價值探析", Chifeng Xueyuan xuebao (Hanwen zhexue shehui kexue ban) 赤峰學院學報(漢文哲學社會科學版), 2010 (4).
Wu Feng 吳楓, ed. (1987). Jianming Zhongguo guji cidian 簡明中國古籍辭典 (Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe), 835.
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