Wenjian qianlu 聞見前錄

Wenjianlu 聞見前錄 "Records of hearsay", also called Wenjian qianlu 聞見前錄 or Shaoshi wenjian lu 邵氏聞見錄 (in order to distinguish the book from the Wenjianlu of Luo Dian 羅點, the Sichao wenjian lu 四朝聞見錄 of Ye Shaoweng 葉紹翁, the Fengshi wenjian ji 封氏聞見記, and the Wenjian jinlu 聞見近錄 by Wang Gong 王鞏), is a "brush-notes"-style book (biji 筆記) written during the Northern Song period 北宋 (960-1126) by Shao Bowen 邵伯溫 (1057-1134), courtesy name Ziwen 子文. He hailed from Luoyang 洛陽 (modern Luoyang, Henan) and was a son of the mathematician and early Neo-Confucian philosopher Shao Yong 邵雍 (1012-1077).

The 20-juan-long book was completed in 1132 and published by Shao Bowen's son, Shao Bo 邵博, who also wrote a supplement called Wenjian houlu 聞見後錄. The book includes stories about the history of the Song dynasty, focusing on the period of reform politics under Wang Anshi 王安石 (1021-1086) and the political and intellectual actors of that time, their ideas, discussions, and writings. The stories are written in a very objective way without taking sides with one of the opponents. Chapter 17 includes miscellaneous paragraphs, and the last part of the book is dedicated to the life of the author's father, Shao Yong, but in a way that widely passes the border to fiction.

The Wenjianlu is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Jindai mishu 津逮秘書 and Xuejin taoyuan 學津討原. In 1983, the Zhonghua Shuju Üress 中華書局 published a modern edition with annotations by Li Jianxiong 李劍雄 and Liu Dequan 劉德權.