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Sushuo 俗說

Sep 12, 2012 © Ulrich Theobald

Sushuo 俗說 "Popular Stories" is an early collection of stories compiled during the Liang period 梁 (502-557) by the famous writer Shen Yue 沈約 (441-513).

The 3-juan-long book included stories similar to those found in the famous Shishuo xinyu 世說新語, where the meetings and discourses of contemporary scholars are narrated. The imperial bibliography Jingji zhi 經籍志 in the official dynastic history Suishu 隋書 includes two books of this title, one among the "miscellaneous writers" (zajia 雜家), and one among the novelists (xiaoshuojia 小說家), enclosed in a remark to the Shishuo xinyu saying that the Sushuo was already lost at that time, while the "miscellaneous" Sushi by Shen Yue was still existing.

The Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Ma Guohan 馬國翰 (1794-1875) supposed that the lost book was written by Liu Xiaobiao 劉孝標 (462-521). Today, only fragments survived of Shen's book that are included in Ma's series Yuhan shanfang jiyi shu 玉函山房輯佚書, as well as in Lu Xun's 魯迅 (1881-1936) collection Gu xiaoshuo gouchen 古小說鉤沉.

Sources:
Li Xueqin 李學勤, and Lü Wenyu 呂文郁, eds. 1996. Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典, vol. 2, 2171. Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe.
Ye Fengyu 葉楓宇. 1997. "Sushuo zuozhe kaobian ji yu Shishuo xinyu zhi bijiao 《俗說》作者考辨及與《世說新语》之比較." Fujian luntan (Wen-shi-zhe ban) 福建論壇(文史哲版) 1997 (1): 68-70.
Zhao Wei 趙偉. 2010. "Lu Xun bianyi Sushuo bianyi 魯迅編輯佚《俗說》辨疑." Lu Xun yanjiu yuekan 魯迅研究月刊 2010 (4): 77-79.