Poetry Anthology Interpretation

Author: Zhu Xi (Song Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Features: The Book of Songs is a collection of Chinese poetry, originally named Shijing, also known as "Three Hundred Poems," consisting of 305 chapters, with an additional 6 instrumental songs that have titles but no lyrics. The Book of Songs primarily collects works from the early Zhou Dynasty to the mid-Spring and Autumn period over a span of more than 500 years. The Collection Commentary on the Book of Songs was initially published in 20 volumes, with an appendix titled Discourse on the Interpretation of the Poem Prefaces, but the Discourse on the Interpretation of the Poem Prefaces was later deleted and is not included in any recorded historical catalogues or surviving Song Dynasty editions. By the time of the Qing Dynasty's Siku Quanshu (Complete Collection of the Four Treasuries), only an eight-volume edition remained, described as "a merged version from commercial printing" (Zongmu Tiaozhi), with many errors and alterations. The Siku Quanshu edition underwent some corrections. The 20-volume and 8-volume versions of The Collection Commentary on the Book of Songs represent two distinct systems of editions. Bao Lihong, through a comparative study of the annotations in the Collection Commentary on the Book of Songs across different historical editions, examines the original form and basis of Zhu Xi's annotations. She concludes that among the surviving printed editions, the 20-volume Collection Commentary on the Book of Songs in the Sibu Congkan Sanbian (Three Series of the Four Treasuries) with a photographic reproduction of the Song Dynasty edition holds the highest academic value, though volumes 12 to 17 are missing and should be used in conjunction with the old Song Dynasty printed Ming Dynasty edition preserved in the Beijing Library. The annotations in the 8-volume edition are believed to have been altered over the centuries and do not reflect Zhu Xi's original annotations. The primary basis for the annotations in the 20-volume edition is Lu Deming's Classical Texts and Their Annotations and Wu Yi's Supplementary Annotations to the Mao School's Book of Songs.