Personal Library -- Three Hundred Poems of Tang Dynasty

Author: (Qing) Hengtang Tuishi (compiled by Sun Zhu)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: The Three Hundred Poems of Tang Poetry is an eight-volume collection, compiled by Sun Zhu, a little-known official during the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, who also used the pen name Hengtang Tuishi. Together with his wife, Xu Lanying, he discussed and refined the selection, compiling this poetry reader that later became widely popular and almost every household had a copy. Since the earliest poetry anthology in ancient China, the Book of Songs (Shijing), contains 305 poems known as "three hundred poems," Hengtang Tuishi also selected over 300 poems, symbolizing the inheritance and imitation of the Book of Songs. Additionally, there is a popular saying: "Read three hundred Tang poems thoroughly, and even if you cannot write poetry, you will be able to recite it." Therefore, the collection was named The Three Hundred Poems of Tang Poetry and was used as a household textbook and an introductory reader for children to learn Tang poetry. It has been estimated that there are at least 120 total and selected collections of Tang poetry, but as soon as Hengtang Tuishi's selection was published, it became the most popular and influential, with the title of the smallest-sized The Three Hundred Poems of Tang Poetry immediately attached to it, reaching the point of being recited in every household. To this day, The Three Hundred Poems of Tang Poetry remains one of the best and most widely collected and recited selections of Tang poetry.