Yanjian 硯箋

The Yanjian 硯箋 "Notes on inkstones" were written during the Southern Song period 南宋 (1127-1279) by Gao Sisun 高似孫 (1158-1231), who is also known as the author of the bibliographical essays Zilüe 子略, Shilüe 史略, Weilüe 緯略, and Saolüe 騷略, a book on crabs, Xielüe 蟹略, the local gazetteer Shanlu 剡錄 and an encyclopaedical excerpt, Wenyuan yinghua chao 文苑英華鈔 (see Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華). The Yanjian of 4 juan length was finished in 1223.

Fascicle 2 lists twenty different types of She inkstones, for which the following chapter indicated more than sixty different places of origin, down to pits where the stones were cut. The last part of the book quotes from poetry and prose writings in which she stones are mentioned. Among these, many authors were famous writers like Fu Xuan 傅玄 (217-278), Li Bai 李白 (701-762), Wang Can 王粲 (177-217) or Han Yu 韓愈 (768-824). Part of these texts is already quoted in the first three parts of the book. Gao's book was published late in the period and can therefore be seen as a gist of Song-period knowledge on inkstones from Shezhou. It also adds some information not found in earlier texts, for instance, statements concerning inkstone material from the prefecture of Duanzhou 端州. Even though the text is very informative, it contains some errors.

It is found in the series Baichuan xuehai 百川學海, Lianting cangshu 楝亭藏書 and Siku quanshu 四庫全書.