Shuyuan zaji 菽園雜記

Shuyuan zaji 菽園雜記 "Miscellaneous notes from Pulse Garden" is a "brush-notes"-style book (biji 筆記) written during the mid-Ming period by Lu Rong 陸容 (1436-1494), courtesy name Wenliang 文量, style Shizhai 式齋, from Taicang 太倉, Jiangsu. He is one of the "Three Phoenixes from Loudong" (Loudong san feng 婁東三鳳), the others being Lu Tai 張泰 (1436-1480), and Lu Yi 陸釴 (1495-1534). His highest office was Right Administration Vice Commissioner (you canzheng 右參政) of Zhejiang province. Lu's collected writings are called Shizhai ji 式齋集.

His book of 15 juan length is written in the form of brief notes (zhaji 札記), which present many details of court life and daily life. Because of many flaws and errors, the text is not very reliable as a historiographical source, even if the one or another section adds to our knowledge.

The book is of particular interest because of its description of the porcelain kilns of Longquan 龍泉 and the production of glaze made of the ashes of certain leaves and a mixture of fine white stone powder (xi baishi mo 細白石末). This mixture created a lush, green glaze that was highly appreciated. Other chapters of interest is the paper production of Quzhou 衢州, surveys of metal-ore prospects (wujin kuangmiao chakan 五金礦苗查勘) or methods for refining pure copper (jingtong tilian fangfa 凈銅提煉方法). The book is also helpful to understand some aspects of the system of state offices of the Ming dynasty.

The text is found in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Mohai jinhu 墨海金壺, Shoushange congshu 守山閣叢書 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編. An abbreviated version of 7 fascicles with the title Shuyuan zaji zhaichao 菽園雜記摘抄 is found in the Jilu huibian 紀錄匯編. Very brief extracts are included in the Jinxian huiyan 今獻彙言, Xu shuofu 續說郛, and Wuchao xiaoshuo 五朝小說.