Weaving Beads

The earliest extant ancient book. Du Gongzhan of the Sui Dynasty cataloged it under the orders of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. This book originally had four volumes, of which one and two are now available. It was once lost. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, the historian Gao Shiqi accidentally discovered it in a waste paper pile, but only one or two volumes remained. Later, Gao Shiqi supplemented "Bian Zhu" into four volumes according to the original title, and added two more volumes, so it became "Bian Zhu" in four volumes and "Continuation of Bian Zhu" in two volumes. In the 32nd year of Kangxi (1693), Xu Qianxue wrote a preface. In the 37th year of Kangxi's reign, Gao Shiqi added, deleted, and wrote a preface and published it. This is the edition we see today. Among the six volumes, only the first two are Du's original works, and at the end of each category in the first two volumes, there are Gao's additions, with the words "to be added below". The original title of "Bianzhu" was divided into fourteen categories, and there are now five categories in one or two volumes. According to statistics, there are 194 kinds of cited books. Due to the late appearance of this book, the authenticity of the book has been controversial, and it has been repeatedly suspected that it is not a work of the pre-Tang Dynasty. The ancient books it cites have been almost never used by the compilers and collation scholars of the Qing Dynasty. However, after research by scholars and experts, the theory of forgery is wrong. The first two volumes of a fragmentary copy of this book do exist in Da Nei during the Qing Dynasty, and they are indeed the original works of Du Gongzhan. Although the volumes are small, most of the texts quoted from ancient books are not from the existing Sui, Tang, and Northern Song Dynasty books. Therefore, it is more valuable in collation and editing work.