“Tangwu” is an alternative name for the descendants of the Xixia dynasty. In 1227 AD, a number of these Xixia descendants moved inland after the destruction of the Xixia Dynasty by the Mongolians. One group of them migrated to the area near Puyang, Henan Province. Tangwu Chongxi ( Yang Chongxi ) of the Yuan Dynasty compiled the Shu San Ji, which is divided into three volumes: Shansu, Yucai and Xingshi, and appended with the biography of Boyan Zongdao. It reflects the historical origins, social class, living conditions and the relations with the Han people of the descendants of the Dangxiangqiang minority af-ter they moved to Puyang. This book attracted a lot of attention in academic circles, and it was there-fore reorganized and published in 1985 after being treasured by the people for more than 600 years. It has high academic value for its comprehensive his-torical records. We can not only acquaint ourselves with the history of the make-up of the Chinese na-tion, but also research this diversity from multiple perspectives, such as history, nationality and folk-lore . That is why it has drawn so much attention a-mong academic researchers. The book contains po-ems, prose and biographies, which belong to dif-ferent celebrated scholars from different ethnic mi-norities, all of whom had relationships with Tang-wu Chongxi. It is also a typical model of Qiang-Han literature, which is very rare. This paper gives a preliminary exploration on the book, and shows a small part of its comprehensive value. Shu San Ji is not a merely personal collec-tion, but is also different from general literature collections. The compilation of the book took a long time. Shu San Ji Xuxie ( Continuation of Shu San Ji) , written by Zhang Yining, was finished in the 18 th year of the Zhizheng Period in the Yuan Dynasty (1358), which indicates that the Shu San Ji had already been finished by that time . Zeng wuwei chushi yangxiangxian xu ( Presented to Chu Shi Yang Xingxian·Preface ) , written by Wei Su and finished in the 24 th year of Zhizheng ( 1364 ) , suggests that the Shu San Ji had been compiled in-to a book by that time, and that it was compiled with the compositions of social celebrities of the time. However, the Shu San Ji, as it has been handed down to us today, includes the Song Yang-gong Xiangxian gui Tanyuan xu ( Preface of Send-ing Yanggong Xiangxian Back to Tanyuan) by Tao Kai, written in March in the 5 th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty ( 1372 ) . It indicates that Yang Xiangxian kept on collecting articles even after the book was finished. The Xu yangshi yiji ( Preface of Yang’s Last Collection) by Wang Chongqing, writ-ten in the 6th year of Jiajing (1527), indicates that the Shu San Ji was still being written after Yang Chongxi’s death. At the end of the Shu San Ji , Boyang Zongdao zhuan ( Biography of Boyang Zongdao) and Weiti shi (Poems) were collected in the 16 th year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty (1529) and in the 16th year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1629), respectively. It suggests that the
Shu San Ji had been supplemented and continually recompiled since Yang Chongxi firstly finished his book in 1358. After 271 years, in 1629, the Shu San Ji, as we read it today, was finally comple-ted. Through the basic components of the Shu San Ji,readers can understand that the Tangwu family was a harmonious, multi-ethnic family. A number of multi-ethnic writers spent long periods compos-ing works collected in the Shu San Ji and Tangwu Chongxi was also influenced by China’s diverse culture and traditional Confucian culture. The work is strongly connected with his study in Guozixue. In the late Yuan Dynasty, the restora-tion of the imperial examinations promoted Confucianism’s influence further. Pan Di, as Tang-wu Chongxi’s teacher in Guozixue, wrote most arti-cles in the Shu San Ji, which shows their close re-lationship and his influences on Tangwu Chongxi’s literature and Confucian studies. Tangwu Chongxi and others’ works reflected their sense of admira-tion for and deep feelings for their Dangxiang an-cestors, but more so helped to propagate the con-cepts of Confucian edification, diligence, thrifti-ness and benevolence, and some of them did so in a very polemic way. For example, Boyan Zongdao wrote the Jiefu xu ( preface of “Jiefu”) and Tang-wu Chongxi wrote the Jiefu houxu ( epilogue of“Jiefu”) , which reflect the social reality and ide-ology of all scholars with different ethnic back-grounds at that time. His work, “Tangwu gong-bei” fushi ( Poem inscribed on Tangwu Tablet ) , was written in a plain and authentic way and showed that he always remembered his origins and his ethnic desire to inherit the family’s heritage. Meanwhile , it was also mixed with the popular ide-as of upholding the honor of their ancestors from the central plains and Han areas, which shows the
editorial purpose of the Shu San Ji and also dem-onstrates the value of Chinese multi-ethnic litera-ture and cultural integration.