Qianqin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties Poetry - (Upper, Middle, Lower)

Author: None
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1983-09-01
Features: This book consists of 135 volumes. Except for the Book of Songs and Songs of Chu, it collects all poems, ballads, and proverbs from the pre-Qin, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties periods. It provides detailed annotations on sources and variant versions of texts, and includes brief biographies of each poet before their works. It is an important reference book for the study of the history of Chinese poetry. It is a comprehensive collection of pre-Qin, Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties poetry. In the Ming Dynasty, there was Feng Weine's Poetry Records, and in the modern era, there was Ding Fubao's Complete Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties Poetry. The former is overly chaotic and lacks discernment between authentic and spurious works; the latter, while correcting the former's shortcomings, still falls short of fully rectifying errors and fails to include pre-Qin ballads and lost poems. Both books do not annotate the sources of their citations. The strengths of Lü Qinli's book are: ① Extensive sources. Works before the Sui Dynasty, except for the Book of Songs and Songs of Chu, are all included as songs, ballads, and proverbs. It cites references from over 300 works in the Four Treasuries. ② Detailed sources. Every poem is clearly annotated with the book and volume in which it appears, without exception, even for a single word or phrase. ③ Accurate variant texts. It records variant texts from different books, variant texts from different versions of the same book, and even the collation results of predecessors, as long as they are useful for reference. ④ Rigorous research. The book offers many unique insights in its annotations. ⑤ Well-organized arrangement. It is arranged by volume based on the birth and death dates of the authors, showing the connections and influences between contemporaneous writers and making it easier to compare different poetic styles and schools. However, since the final draft was not completed before the compiler passed away, there are inevitably some omissions and errors. Overall, the book remains one of the most complete and user-friendly in its category.