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Tongxingming lu 同姓名錄

Feb 15, 2011 © Ulrich Theobald

Tongxingming lu 同姓名錄 "Persons with identical names" is an encyclopedia written by the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Yu Yin 余寅 (1519-1595). The book imitates the Liang period 梁 (502-557) book Gujin tongxingming lu 古今同姓名錄 and serves as a kind of supplement including identical personal names from ancient times to the Yuan period 元 (1279-1368). The 12 juan "scrolls" long book is only preserved in fragments quoted in the encyclopedia Yongle dadian 永樂大典. The original size was 4 juan, but Yu Yin later added 8 further juan. Zhou Yingbin 周應賓 also added a supplement (Lubu 錄補) of 1 juan length. Yu Yin's supplements also include a lot of identical geographical names and designations for animals. The whole book lists more than 1,600 identical names of 2,700 persons.
There is a print from 1617. The Tongxingming lu is included in the reprint series Siku quanshu 四庫全書.

There is another, 8 juan long book of the same title written by the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Wang Tingcan 王廷燦. It served as an addendum to Yu Yin's book and continues the list of names until the end of the Ming period. Wang Tingcan's book also quotes from the two precursor books: juan 3 and 5 are in total quotations from the Gujin tongxingming lu and the Tongxingming lu.

Sources:
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰, eds. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 2, 2048.
Pan Yinsheng 潘寅生, Guo Jiankui 郭建魁, eds. (1993). Zhonghua shehui kexue gongjushu cidian 中華社會科學工具書辭典 (Lanzhou: Gansu renmin chubanshe), 579.
Zhao Hankun 趙含坤, ed. (2005). Zhongguo leishu 中國類書 (Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin chubanshe), 323, 359.