Complete Works of the Song Dynasty - (Complete 360 volumes)

Author: Zeng Zao
Publisher:
Publishing Time: 2006-08-01
Features: After 20 years of meticulous selection, compilation, and annotation, and overcoming numerous challenges in the process of organization and publication, the magnificent and widely acclaimed Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty is about to be officially published. This is a great achievement for China's academic community and a fruitful outcome of the ancient texts. The publication of Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty complements the existing Complete Poems of the Song Dynasty, Complete Ci Poems of the Song Dynasty, and the ongoing Complete Notes of the Song Dynasty (which has already published two volumes), forming the main part of a comprehensive database for the Song Dynasty. It is also the earliest bilingual collection of poetry, ci poems, and prose compiled according to modern academic norms. If combined with the annotated editions of historical works such as The Extended Edition of the Song History and The Collected Records of the Song Imperial Court, as well as the ongoing compilation of The Collected Records of the Song Dynasty and The Comprehensive Examination of Documents, it will have a lasting and profound impact on the study of Song Dynasty literature, history, and philosophy. Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty was edited by Zeng Zaozhuang and Liu Lin, with the collective efforts of all colleagues from the Institute of Ancient Texts at Sichuan University and some external experts from Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu. The project was proposed in 1985, and during the initial project review, there were many objections. With the strong support of scholars such as Deng Guangming, Cheng Qianfan, and Mou Yue, the National Committee of Ancient Texts Compilation in Higher Education, chaired by Zhou Lin, made a visionary and decisive decision to approve the project and provided continuous funding. Under the leadership of the young and energetic editors Zeng and Liu, the survey and collection work was completed in just two years, and the publication process began. With the strong support of Bashu Book Society, the first 50 volumes were published from 1988 to 1994. Due to well-known reasons, the publication work was interrupted, and Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty faced the risk of being abandoned midway. In 2003, Shanghai Cishu Publishing House took over the publication of Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty and invested heavily in this major project, a move that can be considered highly visionary. After nearly three years of revision and editing, and with the collaboration of Anhui Education Press, the book was finally ready for printing. The entire collection includes over 170,000 articles by nearly 10,000 authors, with a total of about 100 million characters, divided into 360 volumes. It is not only the largest and most extensive collection of articles from a single dynasty but also the largest ancient texts project completed since the founding of the People's Republic of China. This magnificent and meticulously crafted collection, which took 20 years to compile, will undoubtedly attract significant attention from academic circles both at home and abroad, and will have a profound social impact by facilitating scholars' access and use. (I) The origin of total collections in China can be traced back to the Book of Documents and the Book of Songs, which were classified under the Four Books and Five Classics system and thus fell into the category of Confucian classics. As a result, the "ancestral" status of these total collections was forgotten. The earliest true total collection dates back to Liu Xiang's compilation of the Chu Ci in the Western Han Dynasty, which consisted of 16 volumes. However, this book is now lost, and what remains is Wang Yi's Commentary on the Chu Ci from the Eastern Han Dynasty, which has 17 volumes. Subsequent collections of poetry and prose appeared in each dynasty. During the Song Dynasty, with the development and popularization of printing technology, total collections sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain. Only the bibliographic records of the Song and Ming dynasties list over 300 such collections, and there were likely many more that remain unknown or lack prefaces and annotations. Over the period, more than a thousand total collections have survived to this day, but most are actually collections of selected poetry and prose. The compilation of total collections that aim to "comprehensively include both the fine and the coarse" (as stated in the General Catalogue of the Four Treasuries, Volume 189, Records of the Song Prose) seems to have begun with Feng Weina's Comprehensive Collection of Ancient Poetry from the Ming Dynasty, which has 150 volumes and collects poems from ancient times to the Six Dynasties. Mei Dingzuo's Comprehensive Collection of Prose from Ancient Times to the Sui Dynasty is a "complete collection of prose" from ancient times to the Sui Dynasty, including 12 books and 203 volumes. These two books truly pioneered the tradition of total collections of poetry and prose. In terms of their nature, they are collections of poetry and prose from before the Tang Dynasty, but their quality is far from commendable. Fortunately, this shortcoming has beened by Yan Kejun and the modern scholar Liu Qinli in the Qing and modern dynasties, respectively. The Qing Dynasty scholars proposed two basic requirements for the compilation of total collections: "first, to gather what is scattered and lost, so that even the smallest fragments can find a place; second, to eliminate the redundant and select the essence" (as stated in the General Catalogue of the Four Treasuries, Volume 186, Preface to the Category of Total Collections). The true sense of a total collection of a single dynasty should be the Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty compiled during the Kangxi period. Compared to the above criteria, it largely meets the requirements. However, as the Newly Compiled Complete Poems of the Tang and Five Dynasties is about to be published, it is clear that the Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty still has many shortcomings that are unsatisfactory. The Complete Writings of the Tang Dynasty has 1,000 volumes, covering the Tang Dynasty and including the Five Dynasties. It began to be compiled in the 13th year of the Jiaqing reign (1808) and was completed in six years. It was edited by Dong Gao, with over 100 scholars participating in its preliminary compilation, such as Fa Shishan (1753–1813) and Xu Song (1781–1848), who were all outstanding figures of their time. After its completion, it was published in an official edition by Yangzhou, which was widely praised for its convenience. It includes over 20,000 articles by more than 3,000 authors, with about 98 million characters (according to the Complete Writings of the Tang Dynasty, the figures are approximately 8.5 times, 3.3 times, and 10 times those of the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty, respectively). However, the book has two major flaws: first, it does not note the sources of the collected Tang Dynasty texts and author biographies; second, there are still many omissions and gaps. During the Guangxu period, Lu Xinran used his rich collection of books and with the help of Mou Quansun, he compiled The Extended Collection of Tang Writings (72 volumes) and The Supplementary Collection of Tang Writings (16 volumes), totaling 88 volumes, adding nearly 3,000 new Tang Dynasty texts and over 480 new authors. His "meticulous examination, precise collation, and extensive collection" (as stated in Chen Shangjun's preface to The Supplementary Collection of the Complete Writings of the Tang Dynasty, Zhonghua Book Company, 2005) surpasses the previous book. Lu Xinran is undoubtedly a contributor to the Complete Writings of the Tang Dynasty. When the Complete Writings of the Tang Dynasty was established, the study of the Qianlong and Jiaqing schools of learning was at its peak, and the prevailing scholarly atmosphere made both the collection and collation far superior to those of the Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty. However, it also had many problems, which were criticized by scholars such as Lao Ge in the Qing Dynasty and Cen Zhongmian in the modern era, and continue to be pointed out by contemporary scholars. The scholar Chen Shangjun made significant contributions to the supplementary and annotated parts of the Complete Writings of the Tang Dynasty, adding more than 6,000 new Tang Dynasty texts (including fragments) and more than 2,000 authors, compiled into 160 volumes. His Supplementary Collection of the Complete Writings of the Tang Dynasty is another great contribution to the Complete Writings of the Tang Dynasty. However, with the return of overseas documents and the discovery of newly unearthed texts, as well as the compilation and publication of large-scale series and encyclopedias, there is still room for collecting, supplementing, and annotating. This proves that even the revision and perfection of a single dynasty's total collection requires the unremitting efforts of several generations. Subsequent total collections such as the Complete Poems of the Jin Dynasty, Complete Poems of the Five Dynasties, Complete Writings of the Lia Dynasty, Complete Yuan Qu, Complete Ci of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, Complete Qu of the Qing Dynasty, Complete Poems of the Tang and Five Dynasties, Complete Qu of the Ming Dynasty, and Complete Writings of the Yuan Dynasty have also been published. In my opinion, Yan Kejun's Complete Writings of the Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Periods (hereinafter referred to as Yan's Book), Liu Qinli's Poetry of the Pre-Tang Dynasty (hereinafter referred to as Liu's Book), and Tang Guizhang's Complete Ci of the Song Dynasty can be considered masterpieces of great depth and scope, far surpassing the official Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty and Complete Writings of the Tang Dynasty. Let us briefly examine the common success factors of these three books. First, all three were compiled by a single individual; second, they were the result of decades of dedication; third, they are research-based works; fourth, they clearly indicate the sources of the materials; fifth, they have concise author biographies; sixth, they are nearly exhaustive; and seventh, they have relatively complete formats. The latter five points are close to the academic requirements for compiling total collections in the modern era. Upon closer examination, in addition to their commonalities, each has its own characteristics. Yan Kejun (1762–1843), styled Jingwen, and known as Tieqiao, was a native of Wucheng (now Wuxing in Zhejiang). He was a jinshi in the fifth year of the Jiaqing reign (1800) and once served as the magistrate of Jiande County in Yan'an. His family had a vast collection of books, numbering over 20,000 volumes, and he was knowledgeable in various fields, particularly in the study of ancient Chinese. He was known for his meticulous research and extensive writings ("His works are as numerous as the grains of sand in the river" as stated in the Poetry Collection of the Late Qing Dynasty). His major works include Comprehensive Examination of the Shuowen Jiezi, Comprehensive Examination of the Shuowen Jiesheng, Comprehensive Examination of the Shuowen Jieyi, Random Drafts of Tieqiao, and Comprehensive Collection of the Four Records (over 1,200 volumes). It is said that when the Complete Writings of the Tang Dynasty was established, many famous scholars were invited to participate, but Yan was excluded. He then devoted 27 years to compiling this total collection of writings from before the Tang Dynasty with a single-minded determination, revising the manuscript several times, and finally completing it during the Daoguang reign. Yan's Complete Writings includes nearly 3,500 authors and over 10,000 articles, classified into 15 sets and compiled into 746 volumes, with the original manuscript divided into 156 volumes. The manuscript was not published during Yan's lifetime and is now preserved in the Shanghai Library. During the Guangxu period, Zhang Zhidong, as governor of the two provinces, established the Guangya Book Society. After eight years of meticulous collation by Wang Yujiao and others, the book was finally published. The book's greatest strengths are its "completeness" and "precision." Yan stated in his preface: "All writings from before the Tang Dynasty are gathered here," and Wang praised it as "a grand spectacle of the sea of learning and a treasure trove for the art of letters." This is well-deserved. Yu Zhengxie (1775–1840) believed in The Drafts of Gaiji that this book was actually the work of Sun Xingyan (1753–1818), and that Yan merely "copied and pasted" the text, but this is hearsay. According to Chen Yuan'an and Yu Jiaxi, among others, Yan's book also has flaws such as including incorrect or duplicate texts, misattributing authors, and incorrectly combining or splitting texts. It is a pity that the current popular edition of Yan's book is still a photocopied version, and no revised edition has been published for over a hundred years. However, it is undeniable that the book is a rare and excellent collection of total collections, meticulously researched and free from errors. Yu Zhengxie (1910–1973) spent 24 years compiling a total collection of poetry from before the Tang Dynasty, which has 135 volumes. Its characteristics are rich in materials, complete in variant texts, meticulous in annotations, and well-organized in arrangement. The book has withstood the test of time and has rarely seen critical supplements since its publication in 1983. In contrast, the numerous publications on supplementing and correcting the Complete Poems of the Song Dynasty have emerged in large numbers, creating a stark contrast in quality and refinement. Poetry, also known as Ci, reached its peak in the Song Dynasty. All styles were represented, with a plethora of renowned masters and a surge of outstanding works, making it a literary phenomenon unprecedented in history. Professor Tang Guizhang, in the midst of difficult times, devoted himself to compiling the Complete Ci of the Song Dynasty with unwavering dedication. It was published by Commercial Press in Changsha in 1940 as a line-bound edition of 300 volumes and 2 appendices, with prefaces by Wu Mei and others. This book not only had a limited print run and was not widely disseminated but also had many shortcomings due to the limitations of the time and resources. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Professor Tang revised the book and submitted it to Zhonghua Book Company in June 1959, asking Wang Guowei's successor, Wang Zhongwen (1903–1966), to supplement and correct it. Wang did not disappoint and, with the help of the rich collection of books in Beijing and his deep knowledge of Song Dynasty literature and history, supplemented and corrected over 100 articles and collected more than 70 additional lost texts, totaling over 200 supplements. This book has the same value as the Complete Ci of the Song Dynasty and has been a great success in the history of Chinese publishing. It is a monument to Chinese culture and publishing history, the result of the joint efforts of dozens of scholars over more than 20 years and the collaboration of publishing houses in Shanghai and Anhui. The Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty is the largest literature collection ever published, encompassing all existing single-paragraph prose, parallel prose, and rhyme-based texts from the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, as well as all other literary works except poetry and Ci. It is a monumental collection of documents that has been compiled over 20 years and is the largest ancient texts project completed since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty is divided into 15 major categories and consists of 360 volumes, with a total of over 100 million characters, covering all aspects of literature, art, history, and philosophy. Among the more than 100,000 articles of various types included in the entire collection, many materials are being published for the first time, and 95% of the authors have not been included in any specialized collections before now. Therefore, it has pioneering and pioneering historical value in many aspects and can be considered one of the largest and most influential document collections in China and the world. The 360 review records The compilation of Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty began in the summer of 1985. At that time, the Institute of Ancient Texts at Sichuan University took on the responsibility and proposed the plan to compile Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty. The following year, in May, the project review group of the National Committee of Ancient Texts Compilation in Higher Education formally approved the project. Since then, over the past 20 years, under the leadership of the two editors Zeng Zaozhuang and Liu Lin, some scholars from Sichuan University have dedicated themselves to searching, sorting, cataloging, annotating, and reviewing old papers. Due to various reasons, the publication of Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty by the original publishing house was interrupted after the publication of dozens of volumes. In 2003, Shanghai Cishu Publishing House took over the publication of Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty and a group of scholars from Fudan University and East China Normal University joined the ranks of the reviewers. The publication of Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty is particularly complex in terms of versions, and the text contains many differences between ancient and modern Chinese, making the division of paragraphs and sentences particularly difficult. The inevitable errors of "fish and shrimp" are unavoidable, and the compilation and annotation work are especially complex and challenging. Therefore, the publisher specially invited research experts with outstanding achievements in Song Dynasty literature and history, such as Zhu Ruixi, Chen Shangjun, and Yan Zuozhi, as well as more than ten senior editors from within and outside the society, to conduct a careful review of the entire manuscript before editing. Then, their review comments were summarized, and a special team was sent to Sichuan to hold a symposium with the editors and some experts to exchange views. The Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty involves more than 9,000 Song Dynasty writers, and one of the more difficult problems in the review process is the correspondence between the ancient and modern names of the writers' places of origin. Due to the changes in many place names today, it is necessary to first determine the secondary place names of the writers' places of origin to show the difference between ancient and modern place names. For example, Xiaoshan is now part of Hangzhou, Wuxian has been merged into Suzhou, and Boyang has been changed to Poyang, etc. For this reason, the editors of Shanghai Cishu Publishing House have reorganized thousands of current place names according to the Comprehensive Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Chinese Place Names and other authoritative reference books and corrected them in consultation with the authors based on current materials. The editor-in-chief of the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty has also established a review file for the 360 volumes of the book. The editor jokingly calls the 360 review records the "appendix" of the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty. It "records" the hard work of the editors. The publication of Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty is also the crystallization of the sincere cooperation in cultural exchange between Shanghai and Anhui. Moreover, changing the ancient line-bound book into the modern publication is a great challenge to modern publishing. Anhui Education Press, which took on the design of the book's binding, repeated deliberation and determination of the plan, and carefully selected printing paper, making the form and content complement each other. Anhui Xinhua Printing Co., Ltd. also undertook the printing task of the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty. The publishing departments of the two presses operated in unison under unified command to firmly guarantee the quality of the printing and binding of the entire book. Only the sample of the hardcover edition was repeatedly tested and improved until the fourth sample was finally satisfactory to both sides. The continuous battle for more than three months completed 1,000 sets of 360,000 hardcover copies, achieving first-class quality. The high attention of scholars at home and abroad The compilation and publication of such a unprecedented documentary masterpiece has attracted the high attention of scholars at home and abroad. Professor Deng Guangming, a specialist in the study of the Song Dynasty, once said: "Publishing the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty is a very important work, but also very arduous, and the significance is very great. The Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty is not only related to the history of Chinese literature but also to the history of China, and it is also extremely important for the construction of China's spiritual civilization." Mr. Ren Jiyu, Librarian of the National Library, said: "The Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty is very useful. Such a large book is not only for reference but also for research, and it is very beneficial for research." Wang Shui Zhao, President of the Society of Chinese Song Literature, wrote: "New Song literature is a treasure trove of documents, and Tianquan is a treasure house of poetry and prose." Professor Zhu Ruixi, President of the Society of Chinese Song History, said: "In the history of our country, the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty is the first large-scale collection of Song Dynasty documents, with very high documentary value and sufficient to benefit future scholars." Preface to the compilation of the collection The compilation of a collection of the full text of one or several generations for easy reference dates back to the Ming Dynasty. Mei Dingzuo collected and compiled the writings before the Chen and Sui dynasties, compiling them into Comprehensive Collection of Prose. From the、Western Han、Eastern Han to the Sui Dynasty, it has more than 100 volumes. Although the collection is rich in materials, the collation is not precise, and there are many contradictions and omissions in every volume, so it is not suitable as a classic. The academic style of the Qing Dynasty tended to be rigorous, and the compilation of full texts was better than that of the Ming Dynasty. Officially compiled ones, such as the Complete Writings of the Tang Dynasty compiled during the Jiaqing period, and privately compiled ones, such as Yan Kejun's Complete Writings of the Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Periods, still had some minor flaws, but they were generally appropriate. After the chaos was rectified and culture and education flourished, the of ancient texts became a great cause. Following the track of the predecessors and bestowing blessings on the future, the compilation of Complete Poems of the Song Dynasty, Complete Poems of the Ming Dynasty, and Complete Ci of the Qing Dynasty have successively begun. The Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty was compiled by the Institute of Ancient Texts at Sichuan University, with Zeng Zaozhuang and Liu Lin taking charge. The two gentlemen are rigorous in their studies and meticulous in their handling of affairs. Since 1985, all colleagues at the Institute of Ancient Texts at Sichuan University have worked together to start the arduous task of compiling the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty. The compilation of the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty has four difficulties. The writings of the Song Dynasty, with more than 700 collections with separate collections, if combined with those without separate collections and scattered texts, the number of authors will exceed 10,000, and the number of works will exceed 100,000. Therefore, the compilation of the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty must include not only separate collections and total collections but also historical records, local chronicles, encyclopedias, notes, inscriptions, Buddhist and Taoist canons, etc. It should be included in the collection. As the name suggests, Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty should be able to include not a single article. This is the difficulty of the general survey and collection. The compilation of the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty is also complex. Some have been compiled by themselves, some by their descendants, relatives, and disciples, some by a combination of self-compiled and others, and some have been recompiled by people. The transmission and printing are often full of errors such as "fish and shrimp," and the compilation may have the loss of correct and forged works. Clarifying the confusion relies on "the"; analyzing the subtle relies on "the mirror." This is the difficulty of collation and identification. The compilation of the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty is similar to taking from the separate collections of various families, supplementing their lost articles, and adding them in order of the era, which is relatively easy. However, this is the compilation of the collection of the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty and is not suitable for the format of the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty, and the arrangement of the various collections is also very mixed and not convenient for reference. If each work is taken as a separate piece and rearranged and then compiled in order of the author's era，it is more appropriate. However，it is difficult to determine the chronological order when arranging the chronological order，and the division of the body is very complicated. If the division of the body is used，how to weigh the ancient and the modern，the outline should be clear，the system should be unified，and it should be convenient for retrieval. This is the difficulty of classification and arrangement. As for writing author biographies and punctuating the original text，it is inevitable that there will be differences and discrepancies due to the division of tasks among many hands，so it is necessary to carefully consider and think through in advance and formulate detailed rules for the compilers to follow，and for the reviewers to make precise judgments. This is another difficulty in formulating rules. Our nation, standing between heaven and earth for thousands of years, has created a rich and brilliant culture, benefiting the world. The purpose of ancient texts is also to enable the people of our country to better understand the history and culture of China, to take the essence and discard the dross, and to apply it to the present day. The Song Dynasty lasted for more than 300 years and was the turning point of Chinese history from ancient to modern times. At that time，the politics, economy, philosophy, thought, literature, and art were all undergoing transformation，and were particularly rich in the spirit of exploration and innovation. Professor Chen Yinchu wrote in the preface to the of Deng Guangming's Song History Administrative Postscript that：“The culture of the Huaxia nation has undergone thousands of years of evolution and reached its peak in the Song Dynasty.” Therefore，the study of Song Dynasty history and culture，to take the ancient as a mirror and the present as a guide，will be of great help. The study of Song history relies on various historical books，but the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty，which belongs to the category of collected works and is of poetic nature，is numerous and rich in content，involving everything from national finance and people's livelihood to social customs and customs，from interpreting classics and examining history to discussing the way of life and participating in Zen，from the rise and fall of officials to mountain and river tours，as well as anecdotes and stories, as well as the appreciation of literary and art. Some can be used to verify and correct the errors in historical books，some can be used to supplement the gaps in historical books，and there are also many authors who express their innermost thoughts and reflect the heart of the generation, which historical books cannot do. Therefore，the role of collected works cannot be merely labeled as poetry and prose. Moreover，even in terms of poetry and prose，the prose of the Song Dynasty，following the ancient Chinese prose movement of Han Yu and Liu Yuxi after the Tang Dynasty Han Liu's ancient prose movement，developed healthily and flourished，opening a new path with a clear and smooth style，influencing the style of literature in Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, and becoming a treasure in the history of Chinese prose. Therefore，the compilation of the Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty will provide researchers of Song Dynasty history and culture with a wealth of materials for multi-directional acquisition and promote the in-depth study of Song Dynasty history and culture. The importance of its meaning is self-evident and does not need to be elaborated.