Yiwenji 異聞記

Yiwenji 異聞記 "Records of extraordinary tales" was a collection of fantastic stories compiled during the Later Han period 後漢 (25-220 CE) by Chen Shi 陳寔 (104-186).

It is listed in Hou Kang's 侯康 (1798-1837) supplementary bibliography to the official dynastic history Houhanshu 後漢書, the Bu Houhanshu yiwen zhi 補後漢書藝文志. Hou says that no fragments were to be found in the rich sources of the encyclopaedias Taiping guangji 太平廣記 and Taiping yulan 太平御覽.

The only surviving fragments are quoted in the Daoist book Baopuzi 抱樸子 and the geographical book Beihulu 北戶錄. These two stories are called Zhang Guangding nü 張廣定女 and Wang Yu chi yu 王余池魚. They are assembled in Lu Xun's 魯迅 (1881-1936) Gu xiaoshuo gouchen 古小說鉤沉 from the Republican period.

It appears that the literary style of the Jiwenji was higher than ordinary stories of immortals and miracles, and the book, therefore, represented an essential step towards the creation of the literary genre of novellas.