Natural History (English: Bo-wu-zhi)

Japanese: 博物志 - はくぶつし（英語表記）Bo-wu-zhi

A collection of Chinese myths and legends. Written by Zhang Hua of the Western Jin Dynasty. Ten volumes. Mainly records about gods, extraordinary people, plants and animals, interspersed with folk legends. Zhang Hua was so knowledgeable that he had several mysterious anecdotes, and this book is a record of unusual stories written by making full use of his knowledge. According to Wang Jia's "Shiyi-ji," the original was 400 volumes, but Emperor Wu ordered the deletion of some of the contents as suspicious, resulting in a total of 10 volumes. However, since there are many passages quoted in the "Hōbutsu" in books from the Six Dynasties to the Tang Dynasties that are not included in the current "Hōbutsu," and many of the stories are fragmentary, it is believed that the original was once lost, and the current book is a collection of quotations from other books by later generations.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

中国の奇聞，伝説集。西晋の張華の著。 10巻。神仙や異常な人間，動植物についての記録を主とし，民間伝説などが交る。張華は神秘的な逸話がいくつかあるほど博学で，本書はその知識を駆使して珍しい話を書き記したもの。王嘉の『拾遺記』によれば，もとは 400巻あったものを，武帝から内容が疑わしいとして削除を命じられて 10巻になったという。ただ，六朝から唐にかけての書に『博物志』として引用された文章で現行の『博物志』に記載されていないものがしばしばあり，また，話が断片的なものが多いところから，原本は一度失われ，現行本は後人が他書に引用されたものを集めたものと考えられる。

出典　ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目事典ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目事典について　情報

<<: Natural History - Historia naturalis

>>: Museum - Hakubutsukan (English spelling) museum