Qinglouji 青樓集

Qinglouji 青樓集 "Collection about the Green Houses" is a collection of biographies of the singsong girls in the entertainment quarters (qinglou 青樓, "redlight district") of Dadu 大都 (today's Beijing), Jinling 金陵 (Nanjing 南京, Jiangsu), Weiyang 維揚 (Yangzhou 揚州, Jiangsu) and Wuchang 武昌 (Wuhan 武漢, Hubei).

The book was written during the Yuan period 元 (1279-1368) by Xia Tingzhi 夏庭芝 (died 1375), courtesy name Bohe 伯和, style Xuesuo Diaoyin 雪蓑釣隱 or Xuesuo Yuyin 雪蓑漁隱. He hailed from Huating 華亭 (modern Songjiang 松江, Shanghai) and lived in the last half of the 14th century. The short book describes the lives of northern opera (zaju 雜劇) singers like Zhulianxiu 珠簾秀 or Li Zhixiu 李芝秀, southern opera (nanxi 南戲) singers like Longloujing 龍樓景 or Danxixiu 丹墀秀, performers of arias (zhugongdiao 諸宮調) like Zhao Zhenzhen 趙真真 or Yang Yu'e 楊玉娥, or performers of "adagio songs" (manci 慢詞) like Wang Yumei 王玉梅. The author describes the individual strengths of each girl across various musical and colloquial forms of entertainment and provides some information about their lives and relationships with customers, particularly when officials dedicated a poem to their beloved singer. He also describes some of the performance houses, their history, and some of the customs there. Only about 30 male singers are mentioned. The Qinglouji is an essential source for the history of the early Chinese opera during the Yuan period and the social history of singsong girls and their customers.

The book was initially circulating in manuscripts, but was later also printed in many different editions, for instance, in the series Gujin shuohai 古今說海, Shuofu 說郛, Shuoji 說集 or Shuangmeijing'an congshu 雙楳景闇叢書. The most common edition is to be found in the collection Zhongguo gudian xiqu lunzhu jicheng 中國古典戲曲論著集成, published in 1959 by the Zhongguo Xiqu Yanjiu Yuan 中國戲曲研究院. In 1957, the Gudian Wenxue Press 古典文學出版社 published the Qinglouji in a joint edition with the books Jiaofangji 教坊記 and Beilizhi 北里志.