Boyizhi 博異志

Boyizhi 博異志 "Vast records of strange matters" is an early collection of stories compiled by a Tang-period 唐 (618-907) scholar called Gushenzi 谷神子 "Master of the God in the Valley".

The descriptive bibliography Junzhai dushu zhi 郡齋讀書志 from the Song period 宋 (960-1279) says that he was called Huangu 還古, yet his family name was not known. The Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Hu Yinglin 胡應麟 (1551-1602) says that the author was called Zheng Huangu 鄭還古 and was a Tang-period poet. Zheng Huangu served as an erudite (boshi 博士) in the Directorate of Education (guozijian 國子監) under Emperor Xianzong 唐憲宗 (r. 805-820) and wrote a commentary on the Daodejing 道德經, the Laozi zhigui 老子指歸, which is lost.

Ancient bibliographies call the collection Boyizhi, while the series Gujin yishi 古今逸史 and Siku quanshu 四庫全書 call it Boyiji 博異記.

The original book seems to have had a size of 3 juan and was lost as early as the Song period. It included accounts of strange events and extraordinary individuals from the Tang period. It is written in a lively language and in a very descriptive style, which shows that during that time the genre of chuanqi 傳奇 had already reached a higher level than the stories of the Southern dynasties period 南朝 (420~589). Some of the stories were later expanded in the famous collection Liaozhai zhiyi 聊齋志異.

The surviving parts of the Boyizhi are included in the series Gushi wenfang xiaoshuo 顧氏文房小說, Xu baichuan xuehai 續百川學海, Siku quanshu, Gujin yishi, Tang-Song congshu 唐宋叢書, Wuchao xiaoshuo 五朝小說, Tangren shuohui 唐人說荟, Mishu ershiyi zhong 秘書二十一種, Zengding Han-Wei congshu 增訂漢魏叢書 and Longwei mishu 龍威秘書. A modern edition was published in 1980 by the Zhonghua Shuju Press 中華書局, in a joint edition with the collection Jiyiji 集異記.