Thousand Poems

Author: Yu Yueheng
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-09-01
Features: Here is an introduction to A Thousand Poems. In the 45th year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1706), Cao Xueqin's grandfather, Cao Yin, published The Twelve Works of Linting, which included A Thousand Poems Selected and Classified by Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties. The book consists of 22 volumes, divided into 14 categories, and is attributed to "Master Houcun" for compilation. "Master Houcun" refers to Liu Kezhuang of the Southern Song Dynasty (1187-1269), styled Qianfu, who called himself Houcun Jushi. However, some argue that the collection was not compiled by Liu Kezhuang but rather by publishers who borrowed his reputation to gain favor. Later, two other versions of "A Thousand Poems" emerged: the seven-character Supplemented and Revised A Thousand Poems, selected by Xie Fangde and annotated by Wang Xiang, and the five-character Newly Engraved A Thousand Poems, selected and annotated by Wang Xiang. Both were used as teaching materials for children. Eventually, bookshops combined the five-character and seven-character poems into one volume, which came to be known as A Thousand Poems, the edition we are publishing now. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, A Thousand Poems has been widely popular across China, with lines like "The clouds are light and the wind is gentle near noon" spreading widely among the people. This is because the collection served as a teaching tool for children, reaching a vast readership. It truly has the convenience of being suitable for beginners. From the selected poems, the book contains 224 works, many of which are famous poems by renowned poets of the Tang and Song dynasties, beloved and passed down through the ages. With this collection in hand, children can begin to appreciate the richness and diversity of classical Chinese poetry and develop an interest in it. For poetry enthusiasts, it offers a delightful taste of the endless charm of poetry. Imagine The Complete Tang Poems, which records over 48,900 poems, or The Poetry of the Four Dynasties, which alone has 78 volumes for the Song Dynasty portion, and is a mix of fine and mediocre works. It is impossible for ordinary people to read through all of it. Having a well-screened and appropriately selected collection like this naturally makes it highly popular.
In terms of authors, the book features 124 writers, ranging from emperors, generals, and officials to monks, cowherds, and unknowns, regardless of their fame or social status, as long as their works met the criteria. This differs greatly from Wang Shizhen's Selected Ancient Poems and Yao Nai's Collected Modern Verse, which primarily focused on the fame of the authors, and good works by lesser-known poets were often excluded.
Many of these poems, even today, are still recited in folk language and on theater stages. The book contains numerous famous poems and lines that are similar to folk songs yet carry profound meanings and endless poetic charm. Some imperial poems were included, which was a product of the times and not surprising. Even in the Tang Dynasty, which used poetry for imperial examinations, and the Ming and Qing dynasties, which relied on the eight-legged essay, poetry was still part of the curriculum. The content of the poems may have been hollow and rigid, but the rules of poetry were strictly enforced. Since scholars had to pass imperial exams, these poems were naturally included in teaching materials. Some modern editions after 1949 have completely removed poems like The Shangyuan Imperial Ode, but we have retained all of them, leaving none out.
There are also poems that reflect the impermanence of life and express pessimistic or melancholic emotions, such as Zhao Ding's Cold Food Observance, Huang Tingjian's Tomb-Sweeping Day, and Gao Zhu's Tomb-Sweeping Day Drinking, which some modern editions have also removed. We have not followed suit. Because Zhao Ding's poem "The Han and Tang mausoleums lack offerings of wheat, but wild paths and streams are dotted with pear blossoms" reflects the author's disdain for fame and wealth after being dismissed from office, and it also mirrors the realities of feudal society. Even Tomb-Sweeping Day Drinking, though some lines express a view of life, also satirizes the superficiality of tomb-sweeping rituals. Lines like "As the sun sets, foxes sleep on graves" have been used to describe the decline of certain political powers, which is quite fitting, isn't it?
In summary, A Thousand Poems is a widely influential teaching tool for children and a classical poetry collection that has withstood the test of time. The era when schools recited the "Three Hundred, Three Thousand, and Three Thousand" is gone, but many of the poems selected in A Thousand Poems are still included in today's primary, secondary, and university textbooks. This fact also proves that truly culturally valuable books have a strong vitality.