Stone Forest Nightingale's Song - Tang and Song Historical Records

Author: (Song) Ye Mengde compiled, Yu Wenshao annotated variations, Hou Zhongyi edited and collated
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1984-05-01
Features: Stone Forest Spring Songs in Ten Volumes, compiled by Ye Mengde of the Song Dynasty. Ye Mengde (AD 1077–1148), styled Shaoyun, styled Stone Forest, originally from Wuxian, later moved to Wucheng. In the fourth year of Emperor Zhezong's Shaosheng reign of the Northern Song Dynasty, he passed the imperial examination and was appointed as a minister in the Worship Department. In the early years of Emperor Huizong's Daguan reign, he served as the Director of the Secretariat and the Academician of the Hanlin Academy, and later became the Vice Director of the Dragon Diagram Pavilion. He was appointed as the Governor of Ruzhou as a Direct Scholar of the Dragon Diagram Pavilion, actively participating in court affairs. In the early years of Emperor Gaozong, he served as the Minister of Revenue and was promoted to the position of Vice Director of the Ministry of Revenue. During the Shaoxing period, he served as the Pacification Commissioner of Jiangdong. He retired as the Military Commissioner of Chongxin and passed away as the Inspectoral Commissioner of the Junior Protector of the Palace. The Song History has a biography of him. Throughout his life, Ye Mengde experienced frequent official positions, possessed extensive knowledge, and was well-versed in historical customs, resulting in a wealth of writings. According to Chen Zhensun's "Annotations to the Records of the Song Dynasty," the surviving works include the "Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals" in twenty volumes, the "Examination of the Spring and Autumn Annals" in sixteen volumes, the "Judgments of the Spring and Autumn Annals" in twenty-three volumes, the "Collected Speeches of Stone Forest" in fifteen volumes, the "Spring Songs of Stone Forest" in ten volumes, the "Record of Avoiding the Heat" in two volumes, the "Words from Under the Rock" in three volumes, the "Household Precepts of Stone Forest" in one volume, the "Collective Works of Jiankang" in eight volumes, and the "Discussions on Poetry and Lyrics of Stone Forest" in two volumes, totaling eleven works. The lost works include nearly ten such as the "Miscellaneous Notes of Jade Creek," which include poems, lyrics, speeches, Buddhist texts, and notes. Among the note-based works, "Spring Songs of Stone Forest" is one of the most representative and important. This edition of "Spring Songs of Stone Forest" and its annotations is based on the collated edition of Ye Daosheng and Hu Xinyun, with references to the "" (Academic Edition), the "Shuofo Edition," the "Biehai Edition," and the collated Ming Zhengde edition of 1516 from the Peking University Library. Corrections have been made to the original collated edition. At the same time, the new collated edition basically retains the annotations from the Guo Edition, and all annotations by others are included with their names to distinguish them.