(Yanyou) Siming zhi (延祐)四明志

(Yanyou) Siming zhi (延祐)四明志 is a local gazetteer on Ningbo 寧波, Zhejiang, written by Ma Ze 馬澤, courtesy name Runzhi 潤之, and Yuan Jue 袁桷, courtesy name Bozhang 伯長, style Qingrong Jushi 清容居士, during the Yanyou reign-period 延祐 (1314-1320) of the Yuan dynasty 元 (1279-1368). The book had originally a length of 20 juan, of which only 17 survive (fascicles 9-11 are missing). It was compiled parallel to the imperial geography Da-Yuan yitong zhi 大元一統志, and was finished in 1320.

The text presents the history, geography and administration of the region, as well as more than hundred eminent persons of Ningbo through history, canal projects, the situation of the tax system, schools, shrines, Buddhist and Daoist monasteries, and writings. Each chapter has a short preface explaining how critical the compilers used their sources.

Of great interest is the information on the office of the Maritime Trade Superintendency (shibosi 市舶司) which regulated naval trade, particularly that with foreign countries.

The book is included in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 and was reprinted in 1854 by Master Xu 徐氏 of the Yanyu Studio 煙嶼樓. The Beijing and Nanjing Libraries own manuscript versions of the text, as does the Seikadō Library 靜嘉堂 in Japan. The most important version available is in the collection Song-Yuan Siming liu zhi 宋元四明六志, together with (Qiandao) Siming tujing (乾道)四明圖經, (Baoqing) Siming zhi (寶慶)四明志, (Kaiqing) Siming xuzhi (開慶)四明續志, (Dade) Changguo zhou tuzhi (大德)昌國州圖志, and (Zhizheng) Siming xuzhi (至正)四明續志. It is also included in the series Zhongguo fangzhi congshu 中國方志叢書 (1966).

The mountain Siming is dealt with a separate gazetteer, namely Huang Zongxi's 黃宗羲 (1610—1695) (Kangxi) Simingshan zhi (康熙)四明山志.