School compiled Complete Collection of Tang Poems

Author: Wang Qixing, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-01-01
Features: Qing Dynasty's compilation of Complete Collection of Tang Poems, including over 2,000 authors and nearly 50,000 poems, totaling 900 volumes. It is a massive and profoundly influential anthology of Tang poetry. Due to the haste in compilation, the work was not thoroughly reviewed, resulting in numerous errors and mistakes. Since the late Qing Dynasty, scholars have repeatedly corrected and proposed reorganizing the collection. However, due to its vast volume, the project remained unfinished. Only Zhonghua Book Company made minor revisions, such as punctuating and correcting some obvious errors, while the rest remained unchanged until now. At the invitation of Hubei People's Publishing House, this edition presents a preliminary (organization and revision) to contribute to promoting national culture and flourishing Chinese academia. The (organization and revision) of this book is based on the photocopied Kangxi Yangzhou Poetry Bureau edition of Complete Collection of Tang Poems published by Shanghai (Ancient Books) Publishing House. The book is largely reorganized by the chronological order of poets. Poets with verifiable birth and death dates are arranged by birth year, while those without are ordered based on their official career or major literary associations. For poets in the "Unverified" and "Supplementary" categories, efforts have been made to verify their chronological order and mark duplicates for reference, though their original order remains unchanged. Poems by emperors, empresses, concubines, monks, nuns, and female poets of the Tang and Five Dynasties periods are arranged chronologically according to their lifespans and included in the corresponding eras. The original book's categorized poems, such as Yuefu (Folk Songs), Xian Shi (Immortal Poems), Gui Shi (Ghost Poems), Meng Shi (Dream Poems), Jiu Ling (Wine Games), and Ci (Lyrics), are preserved in their original form and appended to the end. The appendix of the photocopied edition, which includes three volumes of Complete Collection of Tang Poems Escapes by Japanese scholar Shinko Hara from the Zhi Bu Zhi (Sufficient Knowledge Studio) edition, is retained at the end. The order of poems by each poet remains unchanged as in the original. Errors, omissions, inversions, and missing texts in the original are carefully corrected by selecting authoritative editions. Original omissions or additions are marked with footnote numbers rather than being directly edited in square or round brackets, with explanations provided in the annotations. Missing texts are indicated with ellipses, with the number of missing characters represented by the number of ellipses. Variant characters and colloquial forms are corrected directly without annotations. The reference books used for this edition, excluding collected works and local gazettes, are listed separately with their full titles, abbreviations, and versions. The original book contains many errors, such as poems by non-Tang authors, misattributed poems, or spurious works. These have not been removed but are annotated in the (corrections) with reliable sources and distinctions. The original book has a severe issue of duplicate poems, numbering over 6,000, involving more than 700 authors, including self-duplicates, mutual duplicates, poems appearing twice, thrice, or even four times, and partial duplicates. The poet biographies remain as in the original, with errors corrected in the (corrections). The number of poems is noted after each biography, with volume numbers removed. The original titles and annotations within the poems are retained. When converting to horizontal layout, adjustments were made based on the content and length of annotations to ensure readability and layout coherence. Issues with titles and annotations are also corrected in the (corrections). All (corrections) are clearly referenced. The (corrections) prioritize clarity and accuracy, avoiding detailed citations or scholarly debates. This edition uses simplified horizontal characters and modern punctuation marks. The book is divided into three volumes: Upper, Middle, and Lower. Each volume is organized by poet or thematic poem, without traditional volume divisions. Each volume includes a table of contents at the beginning, and the final volume provides an index of authors and titles for easy reference.
[Editor's Recommendation] Qing Dynasty's Complete Collection of Tang Poems includes over 2,000 authors and nearly 50,000 poems, totaling 900 volumes, making it a monumental and profoundly influential anthology of Tang poetry. Due to the haste in compilation, numerous errors and mistakes were introduced. This edition represents the collaborative efforts of many scholars to preliminarily (organize and revise) the work. The (organization and revision) is based on the photocopied Kangxi Yangzhou Poetry Bureau edition of Complete Collection of Tang Poems published by Shanghai (Ancient Books) Publishing House. The book is divided into three volumes: Upper, Middle, and Lower, organized by poet or thematic poem without traditional volume divisions. Each volume includes a table of contents at the beginning, and the final volume provides an index of authors and titles for easy reference.