Guang bowuzhi 廣博物志

Guang bowuzhi 廣博物志 "Enlarged records about different topics" is an encyclopaedic collection of miscellaneous information compiled during the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Dong Sizhang 董斯張 (1586-1628), original name Sizhang 嗣章, courtesy name Ranming 然明, style Xiazhou 遐週, Shou Jushi 瘦居士 or Jie'an 借庵, from Wucheng 烏程 (today's Huzhou 湖州, Zhejiang). Dong wrote several books on local history and literature, like Wuxing beizhi 吳興備志, Bianshan zhi ji 弁山志輯, Wuxing yiwen bu 吳興藝文補 or Chuijing ji 吹景集. Some of his collected writings are found in Jingxiaozhai cuncao 靜歗齋存草 and Jingxiaozhai yiwen 靜歗齋遺文.

The book of 50 juan length is a kind of supplement to the Bowuzhi 博物志 of the Jin period 晉 (265-420) written by Zhang Hua 張華 (232-300). Zhang's book is a very short and unsystematic collection of various interesting descriptions. It does not discern between facts and fantasy and is very brief in the information it presents. Therefore, the Song-period 宋 (960-1279) scholar Li Shi 李石 (1108-1181) had already written a supplement, the Xu bowuzhi 續博物志. Li copied the structure of the Bowuzhi and thus contributed new information, but did not raise the quality of the book.

Dong Sizhang did both. He assembled data from pre-Tang period 唐 (618-907) sources and arranged them in 22 chapters, talking about 167 different themes. For all the sources, he indicates the origin and quotes the texts in verbatim form, without altering it. Because Dong did not have originals at hand, he made use of vast collections like the encyclopaedias Taiping yulan 太平御覽 and Taiping guangji 太平廣記. Unfortunately, he quotes these two books as sources without indicating the original sources from the Southern and Northern Dynasties period 南北朝 (300~600). This makes it necessary to check the two encyclopaedias to known the original source of a quotation. The Guang bowuzhi has later been criticized for its low scholarly level.

The first print was published in 1607. Another print of Master Jiang's 蔣氏 Gaohui Studio 高暉堂 dates from 1761. The Xuehai Studio 學海堂 published a print in 1879. In 1991, the Yuelu Press 岳麓書社 published a modern edition. The Guang bowuzhi is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書.