《文獻通考》自元代刊行以來，歷代多次刊刻及傳抄，各本均有其優點與缺失。惟迄今尚無討論《文獻通考》各版本之優劣及流傳情形之專文。本篇之作，一方面討論歷代版本之優劣及流傳，一方面建議以元泰定元年（1324）西湖書院刊本為底本，以他本為輔本，從事校淤，期能得一善本。

With its rich information on Chinese imperial institutions through the ages, the Wen-hsien T'ung-k'ao 文獻通考（o r, General History of Institutions and Critical Examination of Documents and Studies）by Ma Tuan-lin 馬端臨（1254-1323）is gen-erally regarded as an important resource for the study of the political system of historical China. It first appeared during Y_an 元Dynasty, and since then there had been many different imprints with more or less textual variations. To date, the most popular version is that including in the Shih-t'ung 十通（or, The date, Ten Encyclopedic Histories of Institutions）, a collective title that was published in 1936 by the Commercial Press of Shanghai as part of its Wan-you We n - k ' u 萬有文庫（o r, The Complete Library）monographic series. It is, however, replete with typographical errors, and cannot be con-sidered a fine edition by any standard. While the number of scholars studying the Wen-hsien T'ung-k'ao has been a lot, no one has come up with a bibliographical treatise sur-veying its various versions. In this research, various imprints of the Wen-hsien T'ung-k'ao from Yan Dynasty to Ch'ing 清Dynasty will be traced and analyzed, and their pros and cons will be reviewed. It is expected that the results will be of value to those who using the Wen-hsien T'ung-k'ao and studying the work.