段成式 / Duan Chengshi

段成式 / Duan Chengshi is the author of 《酉阳杂俎》 as presented in 90.酉阳杂俎：血滴子和武则天手指上的黑毛. The episode describes him as high-born, with powerful family background and friendships among late-Tang literary-political figures, but more interested in collecting strange knowledge than in building a major power career.

The source uses him as a different kind of Tang literary figure from 牛僧儒 in the 《玄怪录》 branch. He is not mainly read through factional authorship or repayment ethics; he becomes the collector whose curiosity preserves bits of religion, rumor, natural observation, story motifs, and casual violence that later readers can test, compare, and reinterpret.

Connections

• 《酉阳杂俎》 - main work.
• 90.酉阳杂俎：血滴子和武则天手指上的黑毛 - source episode.
• 李德裕 and 李商隐 - late-Tang figures mentioned in the source as part of his circle or the book’s material field.
• Tang Miscellany Archive Value - concept for the collecting practice the episode attributes to the work.
• 唐传奇 / Tang Chuanqi and Classic Reading Complexity - adjacent literary frames.