Bowuzhi
Zhang Hua's (c. 290 CE) Bowuzhi 博物志 "Records of Diverse Matters" was a compendium of Chinese stories about natural wonders and marvelous phenomena. It quotes from many early Chinese classics, and diversely includes subject matter from Chinese mythology, history, geography, and folklore. 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. Scholars have described the Bowuzhi as "a miscellany of scientific interest" (Needham et al. 1980: 309) and "an important minor classic" (Greatrex 1987: 158).
The Bowuzhi author Zhang Hua 張華 (232-300) was a Western Jin dynasty (265-316) scholar, poet, and protoscientist. His biography in the (644) Book of Jin depicts Zhang Hua as a fangshi "master of esoterica" who was especially skilled at numerological arts, and a voracious collector of books, especially ones "strange, secret, and rarely seen" (Campany 1996: 51). Many anecdotes in Six Dynasties period books portray him as a "learned arbitrator of 'scientific' knowledge" (Greatrex 1987: 24). The (early 5th century) Yiyuan 異苑 "Garden of Marvels", by Liu Jingshu 劉敬叔, provides two examples. First, Zhang recognized dragon meat that was served by the author Lu Ji (261-303), who "once invited Zhang Hua to dinner and served minced fish. At the time the dining chamber was full of guests. When Hua lifted off the lid of the dish, he said, 'This is dragon's flesh!' None of the assembled guests believed him, so Hua said, 'Test it by steeping it in vinegar; something strange will happen.' When this was done a rainbow appeared above it." (tr. Greatrex 1987: 21). In a second anecdote, Zhang Hua demonstrated the cosmological principle of ganying "sympathetic resonance".
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