Bowuzhi
Bowuzhi (博物志; "Records of Diverse Matters") by Zhang Hua (c. 290 CE) was a compendium of Chinese stories about natural wonders and marvelous phenomena.
The Bowuzhi, which is one of the first works in the literary genre of zhiguai "tales of anomalies; supernatural stories", records the earliest versions of several myths, such as the white yenü 野女 "wild women" living south of China in a society without men.
[6] The Ganying leicongzhi 感應類從志 "Record of the Mutual Resonances of Things According to Their Categories" is attributed to Zhang Hua.
The word bowu 博物 originally meant "broadly knowledgeable; erudite" in the (c. 4th century BCE) Zuozhuan and later came to mean "studies of plants and animals; natural science" in the (80 CE) Lunheng.
In general, bowu "refers to realms transgressing the boundaries of the defined canon of knowledge, covering a variety of matters from the strange and supernatural to quaint things of interest".
[9] In Modern Standard Chinese usage, bówùxué 博物學 "natural history" and bówùguǎn 博物館 "museum" are common terms.
There is no regular English translation of Bówùzhì, and examples include: The Record of the Investigation of Things translation from Joseph Needham's influential Science and Civilisation in China series has been copied by many authors,[17] despite confusion with the famous Neo-Confucian concept of géwù 格物 "the Investigation of Things".
However, neither the Book of Han nor later histories record any works written by Tang Meng, and one Bowuji citation mentions the Cao Wei dynasty (220-265) by name.
Based upon analysis of the 50 Bowuji quotes in the (5th century) Book of the Later Han commentary, Greatrex concludes it was a different text with a parallel name.
Both divide the text into 10 chapters (卷) and comprise nearly the same material, but they differ in organizing the sequence of the 329 items and the presence of 38 topic headings in the Ming copy.
[21] The "Song edition" was compiled and published in 1804 by Huang Pilie 黃丕烈 (1763-1825), a renowned Qing dynasty (1644-1912) book collector and editor.
Campany[23] says the absence of topic headings and non-rational sequencing of items have led some to speculate that the "Ming edition" represents a tidying-up of an earlier "Song edition" descended from Zhang Hua's original, but Huang Pilie's text was neither necessarily of Song date nor any closer to Zhang's text.
Fan Ning 范寧[25] wrote an acclaimed text-critical edition of the Bowuzhi, which discusses textual history and includes 212 additional passages quoted in later texts.
Although Zhang Hua's authorship has never been questioned, some doubt the authenticity of the text, based upon the numerous quotations from the Bowuzhi that are not found in received editions.
Modern research, both Chinese and Western, has found that copies of the original Bowuzhi existed until around the 12th century, and was the basis for both the "Song" and "Ming editions."
Greatrex says that both imperial and private libraries from the Six Dynasties to the present recorded copies of the Bowuzhi, and at no point in time does the text totally disappear from view.
Zhang Hua liked to peruse mysterious and strange charts and Apocryphal works, and from them he selected odd long-lost tales from the four corners of the world, from the very beginning of the written character.
When he had examined these mysterious and strange (works) and added to them the hearsay rumoured abroad and snatches of conversation overheard in the palace ante-rooms, he composed the Bowu zhi in four hundred chapters, and presented to emperor Wu.
When in the past, Confucius edited the Shijing and the Shujing, he never came to the affairs of the spirits and the unknown and thus never spoke of 'extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder and spiritual beings'.
"[30] The context continues with Emperor Wu presenting Zhang Hua with three rare tribute gifts, an iron inkstone from Khotan, a qilin-handle ink brush from Liaoxi, and a 1000 sheets of seaweed-filament paper from Nanyue; and "The emperor always kept the ten-chapter version of the Bowu zhi in his book-box and looked in it on his days of leisure."
For instance, the legend about "Wild Women" in Vietnam has been interpreted as an early observation of orangutans that was exaggerated into a tall tale.
It also quotes Zhou Mi's Qidong yeyu (above), and Li comments: "According to what Ruan Qian and Luo Yuan said above, it seems that this Yenü is actually an orangutan.
The (978) Taiping Guangji collection misquotes the Bowuzhi for the above Shanhaijing myth,[39] "In that place there are the ride-yellow creatures which look like a fox and have horns on their backs.
[41] Cooper and Sivin quote this Bowuzhi item and note that "excremental fluid" is the liquid that gradually forms in an open privy.
Ten years later there came an easterly wind [of sufficient strength], and then the carriage was reassembled and the visitors were sent back to their own country.
The Shanhaijing [44] also mentions the Jigong "Country of Singlearm", whose people "have one arm and three eyes" and "ride on piebald horses", without any reference to flying vehicles.
When the wine-shop owner had calculated that the thousand days were up, he recalled that Xuanshi had previously bought some of his wine, and that his stupour should have worn off by now.
(6)[46]The second refers to a non-Chinese pútáojiǔ 葡萄酒 (6),[47] "In the western regions there is a grape wine which can be stored for many years without going bad.
[52] Needham doubts the Bowuzhi account, citing a legal case in the (13th century) Tangyin bishi 堂陰比事 about responsibility for a (c. 1015) fire that started from a pile of oiled curtains in the imperial palace of Emperor Renzong of Song.
Needham and Wang note that although ice can be used in this way (as demonstrated by Robert Hooke), it seems more likely that Zhang Hua was describing a lens of rock-crystal or glass.
