Abstract: The rare book Shuo Yuan, collected in the Oriental Literature Research Center of Russian National Library, was considered to be the Song Dynasty by edition scholars of Qing Dynasty and contemporary times, and it even could be Northern Song Dynasty’s edition. But after the visual inspection and comparison, we confirm the Yun Qian edition was printed in seven years of Dade of Yuan Dynasty. The first reason it is mistaken by these scholars is that Yun Qian’s postscript was cut off; the second is the only word “構” in the Southern Song Dynasty’s edition has not been found to avoid the taboo of Northern Song Dynasty; the third is that it is not personally witnessed and scholars repeated the baseless assertion. The three parts of Dade edition are not as good as the Russian version in printing and preservation. More attention should be paid by scholars to the version and academic value of Shuo Yuan, collected in the Russian National Library.

Key words: Shuo Yuan, Song edition, Edition of the Yuan Dade