Complete Works of Song Dynasty (Volume 50)

Author: Zhu Shushu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1994-07-01
Features: A key project planned by the National Committee for the Collection and Research of Ancient Books in Higher Education Institutions. The Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty is a selected collection of Song Dynasty literature compiled in modern China. The entire work consists of 360 volumes and 8,345 chapters, edited by Zeng Zaizhuang, Liu Lin, and others. The compilation plan for The Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty was initiated in the summer of 1985, with the goal of "ensuring no repetitions, omissions, or errors in the collected texts and maintaining strict formatting standards." From 1988 to 1994, 50 volumes were published successively, but the project was halted due to financial constraints. In March 1996, Bashu Book Company transferred the copyright of The Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty to Chengcheng Group for 3.6 million yuan. In 2003, Shanghai Ci Shu Press took over the publication of The Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty. The work extensively collects the writings of Song Dynasty scholars, including historical records, local gazettes, encyclopedias, notes, inscriptions, calligraphy, Buddhist and Daoist scriptures, and more, all of which are included, even in the form of "complete collections" or "separate collections." The entire work contains over 170,000 texts by nearly 10,000 authors, most of which are reconstructed from lost sources. For example, the Yuan Xian Collection by Song Xiang was lost, but in the early Qing Dynasty, the Four Treasuries Editorial Commission reconstructed it from the Yongle Dadian, and The Complete Writings of the Song Dynasty further compiled 31 additional lost texts by Song Xiang, bringing the total word count to over 110 million. It also includes "Biographies of Authors" and is nearly ten times larger than The Complete Writings of the Tang Dynasty, which contains 98 million words.