Biji manzhi 碧雞漫志

Biji manzhi 碧雞漫志 "Boundless records of the Emerald Hen [Quarter]" is a "brush-notes"-style (biji 筆記) essay written during the Southern Song period 南宋 (1127-1279) by Wang Zhuo 王灼 (fl. 1162), courtesy name Hui 晦, style Yitang 頤堂 or Xiaoxi 小溪, from Suining 遂寧 (today in Sichuan province). The name of the book is derived from the name of an urban quarter in Chengdu 成都, the Bijifang 碧雞坊. The preface dates from 1209, which means that the book was perhaps published after Wang Zhuo's passing away.

The book of 1 juan length and 35 chapters is dedicated to thoughts on the history and development of musical keys (qudiao 曲調) and standard melodies. The first seven chapters are a kind of general overview of the development of music through the Tang 唐 (618-907) and Song periods. The rest of the book speaks about heterogenous issues concerning music. The chapters focus on individual melodies called like regions, e.g. Liangzhou 涼州, Ganzhou 甘州, Huweizhou 胡渭州 or Xihe 西河 (all located in western China), others on dances like Nichang yuyi qu 霓裳羽衣曲 or Liuyao 六幺, and yet others on standard melodies used for lyric-metre poetry (ci 詞), like Liuyang zhi 楊柳枝, Yu meiren 虞美人, Nian nujiao 念奴嬌 or Pusa man 菩薩蠻. For all these melodies, Wang explains origin and development.

Wang constates that during the Song period, the popularity of lyric-metre models led to the creation of more and more variant modes that altered former models, leading to complex designations and patterns. Wang also mentions aria-style poetry (zaqu 雜曲), a genre that began to emerge during his time, and he only occasionally refers to the standard musical keys (gongdiao 宮調). During the early Southern Song period, the poetic style of "songs" (ge 歌) that was flourishing during the Tang period, gradually vanished.

Wang Zhuo brought forward a kind of theory of poetry and songs (ge), stressing that there was no clear division between these two genres. The "songs" (shi 詩) of antiquity served to rectify right and wrong, to move Heaven and earth, and to feel souls and spirits. The rulers of old therefore used the "Songs" (i.e. the Shijing 詩經 "Book of Songs") to unify man and woman, to complete filialty and respect, to strengthen human relations, to beautify education, and to change customs and behaviour (to the better). Songs created among the common folks served as "the subtleties of nature" (ziran zhi miao 自然之妙). The author criticizes the poetic style of quite a few Song-period masters like Wang Anshi 王安石 (1021-1086), Yan Shu 晏殊 (991-1055), Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 (1007-1072) or Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037-1101).

The edition of the Biji manzhi in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 has only one fascicle, but there are also longer versions of 5 juan, for example, that in the series Zhibuzuzhai congshu 知不足齋叢書 that includes paragraphs not included in the 1-juan version. The Biji manzhi is also part of the series Tang-Song congshu 唐宋叢書, Shuofu 說郛, Xuehai leibian 學海類編 and Cihua congbian 詞話叢編. The edition with the most detailed annotations is found in the series Zhonguo gudian xiqu lunzhu jicheng 中國古典戲曲論著集成.