Qiyan lu / Record of Bright Smiles
About the work
Imported from the workbook's Full reassessment sheet, revised 7 October 2026 (record ID 75). The assessment below is the workbook's comparative judgment under its stated criteria; source links and limits are retained.
Workbook assessment: Spread only
Date or witness: Likely mid-to-late 7th century compilation; surviving Dunhuang manuscript dated 723 CE
Region: China
Workbook date-sort bounds: 650 CE to 723 CE; these bounds are not automatically invention or disappearance dates.
Description
An early Chinese joke collection containing verbal sparring, fools, ethnic caricature and comic social encounters. A securely dated Dunhuang manuscript preserves a premodern joke-book witness.
Evidence of adoption or transmission
Qiyan lu has a dated 723 Dunhuang manuscript, multiple probable contributors and later textual variants.
What remains uncertain
This supplies unusually good transmission evidence, but the manuscript owner's class, audience size and independent ordinary adoption are not established. Colloquial language is insufficient proof.
Workbook revision note: Reassessed using grassroots criteria