王仁裕

Wang Renyu was a literatus of the Five Dynasties period. Publicly available information about his life is limited, and neither his dates nor his native place is known. Four works are extant under his name, the best known being Kaiyuan Tianbao Yishi (Remnants of the Kaiyuan and Tianbao Eras); also attributed to him are a collection titled Kaiyuan Tianbao Yishi (with Seven Other Works) and Yutang Xianhua (Idle Talk from the Jade Hall). Kaiyuan Tianbao Yishi records anecdotes, both official and unofficial, from the Kaiyuan and Tianbao reigns of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang; its concise style gives it value both as historical material and as notebook fiction. Yutang Xianhua likewise consists of miscellaneous anecdotes and notes, reflecting a broad range of subjects and a plain narrative manner. Because the original texts were scattered and later reconstructed, his works survive in various editions, including the combined volume of several texts included here. Modern readers of Wang Renyu chiefly value these Five Dynasties notebooks for preserving memories of the High Tang and for the scholarly perspective and period atmosphere they convey.