Fengsu Tongyi or "Penetrating Customs", is a book written in about 195AD, by author Ying Shao

Ying Shao

Ying Shao , also called Ling Shao in the Shi Yu, style name Zhongyuan , was a Chinese writer and historian of the late Eastern Han period , an author of the famous work Fengsu Tongyi, an encyclopedic work about the folk customs and legends that existed in the Eastern Han state...

, who lived during the later Eastern Han period. The manuscript is similar to an almanac

Almanac

An almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...

, which describes various strange and exotic matters of interest to the literati of the period, such as cultural practices, mystical beliefs, and musical instruments.

Chapters

There were originally a total of 30 chapters but only 10 remain. These chapters were recompiled by Su Song (蘇頌) from the works of Yu Zhongrong (庾仲容) and Ma Zong (馬總). The some of the lost chapters exists as small fragments and mentions in other Chinese texts.

1. 皇霸 Huangba
2. 正失 Zhengshi
3. 愆禮 Yanli
4. 過譽 Guoyu
5. 十反 Shifan
6. 聲音 Shengyin
7. 窮通 Qiongtong
8. 祀典 Sidian
9. 怪神 Guaishen
10. 山澤 Shanze

Among the twenty lost chapters are 心政, 古制, 陰教, 辨惑, 析當, 恕度, 嘉號, 徽稱, 情遇, 姓氏, 諱篇, 釋忌, 輯事, 服妖, 喪祭, 宮室, 市井, 數紀, 新秦, and 獄法.

External links

• http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Science/fengsutongyi.html