Annotations on All Han Fu (Volumes 1 and 2)

Author: Fei Zenggang, Qiu Zhongqian, Liu Nanping
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-09-01
Features: This book collects 91 Han Dynasty fu writers (including one anonymous author), with 319 fu pieces in total. Among them, approximately 100 are complete or nearly complete, 39 are listed in catalogs, and the rest are fragments. As a comprehensive collection of a specific literary genre in a chronological period, this book limits the included writers to those who were alive up to the 24th year of the Jian'an era (219 AD), excluding those who were still living afterward. The writers are arranged in chronological order. For those whose birth years are unknown, their death years are generally used as a reference. For those whose birth and death years are both unknown, family and official relationships are taken into account.
Regarding the definition of Han fu, scholars may have different interpretations. As a comprehensive collection of a specific literary genre in a chronological period, this book must impose certain limitations on the works included. The criteria for selecting and excluding works can be found in the preface of Complete Han Fu in Appendix Three.
Under each writer, the fu pieces titled with [Fu] are listed first, followed by others. Within the same category, complete works are listed first, followed by fragments and cataloged works. The source texts and collated versions are indicated in the [Note 1] for each piece, and abbreviations are generally used thereafter. When citing the original text, it is marked as [] or [] for direct references, while for secondary sources, it is marked as [] or [], etc. The Selection of Refined Literature and The Ancient Garden of Refined Literature are used as collated versions. When cited as [The Selection of Refined Literature as ] or [The Ancient Garden of Refined Literature as ], it indicates that the same version is used across different editions. Otherwise, the versions are listed separately. The five-follower edition of The Selection of Refined Literature currently available is not the same as the six-follower edition. When the five-follower edition in the six-follower edition differs from the known five-follower edition, it is distinguished as [Six-follower edition as ].
The structure of this book includes: author introduction, original text, annotations, and critiques of Han fu throughout history. Cataloged works still list the titles. The critiques of Han fu collected are ancient critiques. If there are no critiques or if they cannot be found at the moment, this section will not be included.
Explanations of linguistic terms are kept concise, while descriptions of allusions, historical changes in geography, institutions, and customs are accurate. Necessary references are provided, and place names and geographical locations are annotated with their current names for easy comparison. Difficult characters are annotated with Pinyin, followed by homophonic Chinese characters.