Qulu 曲錄

The Qulu 曲錄 is a book on Chinese theatre written during the late Qing period by 王國維 (1877-1927). Beginning in 1907, Wang devoted himself to the study of the history of Chinese theatre and ci-style 詞 poetry. He authored influential works such as Song-Yuan xiqu kao 宋元戲曲考 and Renjian cihua 人間詞話, thereby pioneering systematic research into the history of Chinese drama.

The Qulu, with a traditional length of 6 juan, is divided into five sections: "Scripts of Song- and Jin-period zaju theatre (Song, Jin zaju yuanben bu 宋、金雜劇院本部), “The zaju theatre (Zaju bu 雜劇部), "The chuanqi theatre" (Chuanqi bu 傳奇部), "Collected editions of [Yuan-period] zaju and [Ming-period] chuanqi plays" (Zaju, chuanqi zongji bu 雜劇、傳奇總集部), and "Xiaoling arias and taoshu suites" (Xiaoling, taoshu bu 小令、套數部).

The book is a comprehensive catalogue of Chinese zaju and chuanqi drama. Its materials are drawn primarily from such sources as Wulin jiushi 武林舊事, Chuogenglu 輟耕錄, Luguibu 錄鬼簿, Taihe zhengyin pu 太和正音譜, Qupin 曲品, Qukao 曲考, Chuanqi huikao 傳奇彙考, Yeshiyuan shumu 也是園書目, Xin chuanqi pin 新傳奇品, Quhaimu 曲海目, Yuanquxuan 元曲選 and Liushizhong qu 六十種曲. For each entry, the book provides a brief account of the author's life and career, while also incorporating critical remarks by earlier scholars. Nevertheless, the catalogue contains omissions and errors: some works are listed more than once, while others have not been carefully collated to distinguish textual variants.

The book was first published in 1909 in the series Chenfengge congshu 晨風閣叢書. It is also included in the collected writings Wang Zhongquegong yishu 王忠愨公遺書 (1927) and the collections Wang Zhongquegong yizhu shiwu zhong 王忠愨公遺著十五種 (1934) and Ninghai Wang Jing'an Xiansheng yishu 海寧王靜安先生遺書 (1936).