Tanji congshu 檀几叢書

Tanji congshu 檀几叢書 "The Magic Table" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) compiled during the early Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Wang Zhuo 王晫 (1636-1705) and Zhang Shuo 張潮 (1650-1707). The two also published the series Zhaodai congshu 昭代叢書. Wang wrote the book Jin shishuo 今世說. Zhang is furthermore the compiler of the series Yu Chu xinzhi 虞初新志 and author of the book Youmengying 幽夢影.

The title of the series is derived from an ancient belief that there was a small table made of sandalwood (tanji 檀几) with magical powers. Slips with inscribed characters could automatically form words out of the user's thoughts. This ancient story is a parable for the usefulness of the series as it included texts of every genre and on every topic from which the user could serve himself as he desired.

The book assembles 50 texts from the early Qing period with a total size of 157 juan. More than half of the books are extracts from high literature, while the rest mainly constitutes fiction or love stories like Zhang Fang's 張芳 Daishi 黛史, Ding Xiongfei's 丁雄飛 Xiaoxingpu 小星譜 or Cheng Yuwen's 程羽文 (1644–1722) Yuanyangdie 鴛鴦牒. Out of technical reasons, the compilers divided the series into three sub-collections (ji 集) with sections (zhi 帙), barring the third part (Yuji 餘集), which is divided into two parts (bu 部). The sections of the first two sub-collections, published in 1695, and 1697, respectively, bear titles consisting of a symbolic character from the world of science and literature.

The series was printed in 1695 by Zhang Chao in his Xiaju Studio 霞舉堂.

In 1878, He Sijun 何思鈞 published a brief extract called Tanji congshu luyao 檀几叢書錄要. It includes only seven texts mainly from the genre of primary education.