ChinaKnowledge.de -
An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History and Literature
Shuishi 水飾 "Adornments on the waters" is a collection of stories attributed to the Sui-period 隋 (581-618) scholar Du Bao 杜寶, , who also wrote the history book Daye zaji 大業雜記. The Shuishi is listed in the in the imperial bibliography Jingji zhi 經籍志 of the official dynastic history Suishu 隋書, but no author is indicated. A sentence quoted in the encyclopaedia Taiping guangji 太平廣記 says that Du Bao compiled a book called Shuishi tujing 水飾圖經, with a length of 15 juan. It seems that the book Daye shiyi ji 大業拾遺記 described the Shuishi as a collection of 72 stories that were illustrated. The term shuishi in the title refers to carved decorations on boats that were enriched with incrustations of gold or jade.
The content ranged from the creation of the hexagrams by Fu Xi 伏犧 and Qu Xuan's 屈原 (342-278) suicide in the River Miluo 汨羅 to the First Emperor's 秦始皇帝 (r. 246-210 BCE) search for the herb of immortality on an island in the Eastern Sea and the warlord Liu Bei's 劉備 (161-223) crossing a ford of the Tanxi Creek 檀溪.
Fragments of the Shuishi are included in Ma Guohan's 馬國翰 (1794-1857) series Yuhan shanfang jiyi shu 玉函山房輯佚書 from the Qing period 清 (1644-1911), and in Lu Xun's 魯迅 (1881-1936) collection Gu xiaoshuo gouchen 古小說鉤沉.