Jilebian 雞肋編

Jilebian 雞肋編 "A compilation of chicken ribs" is a "brush-notes"-style book (biji 筆記) written during the Song period 宋 (960-1279) byscholar Zhuang Chuo 莊綽 biji 筆記, courtesy name Jiyu 季裕. He hailed from Qingyuan 清源 (modern Qingxu 清徐, Shanxi) or Taiyuan 太原 (Taiyuan, Shanxi) and was commandant (wei 尉) of Xiangyang 襄陽 and later in Shunchang 順昌 and Lizhou 澧州. During the decades of the Northern Song's decline (960-1126) and the foundation of the Southern Song (1127-1279), he travelled through many regions of China, experiencing numerous adventures and gathering a wealth of information that he decided to record on paper. Except the Jilebian he also wrote the books Duji yuanzheng 杜集援證, Jiugao huangfa 灸膏肓法 and Shifa xinyi 筮法新義, but these three are lost.

The title of the Jilebian is derived from a sentence in Cao Cao's 曹操 (155-220) biography in the history Sanguozhi 三國志, where it is said that chicken ribs "had no taste but it was a pity to throw them away".

The 3-juan-long book includes more than 300 short stories about ancient matters and his own times. They are so informative that the stories can be used as additional sources to the history of the Song dynasty. The themes of Zhang Chuo's story encompass a wide spectrum, ranging from popular narratives to economic and scientific topics. The Jilebian can be counted among the best biji-style booksm including historiographical material and it has been compared with Zhou Mi's 周密 (1232-1298) Qidong yeyu 齊東野語 and even with Shen Kuo's 沈括 (1032-1096) Mengxi bitan 夢溪筆談.

The Jilebian was first printed during the Qing period 清 (1644-1911), when it was published in Hu Ting's 胡珽 (1822-1861) series Linlangmishi congshu 琳瑯秘室叢書, and then again in 1919 by Sun Yuxiu 孫毓修. In 1983, the Zhonghua Shuju Press 中華書局 published a modern edition with annotations by Xiao Luyang 蕭魯陽.