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The literature anthology Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華 "Blossoms and flowers of the literature garden" is one of the four great encyclopedias of the Song period 宋 (960-1279), Song si da shu 宋四大書. It was compiled on imperial order by a compilation team of more than 20 persons under the supervision of Li Fang 李昉, Xu Xuan 徐鉉, Song Bai 宋白， Hu Meng 扈蒙 and Su Yijian 蘇易簡. The compilation began in 982 and the anthology was finished in 986. Emperor Zhenzong 宋真宗 (r. 997-1022) had it revised several times, and Xiaozong 宋孝宗 (r. 1162-1189) had made a text-critical revision which was undertaken by Zhou Bida 周必大, Hu Ke 胡柯 and Peng Shuxia 彭叔夏. This work was finished in 1204, and a print was made of which unfortunately only fragments are preserved. The whole book comprises 1,000 juan "scrolls" and contains the writings of persons from the Liang period 梁 (502-557) to the 10th century. It was meant to be a continuation of the anthology Wenxuan 文選, compiled by Prince Zhaoming 昭明太子, and records almost 20,000 writings of more than 2,000 persons. In the categorization it follows the pattern established in the Wenxuan. A part of the 39 categories has sub-divisions, especially the large category of rhapsodies (fu 賦), which is divided into 42 sub-categories. About one tenth of the book contains writings from the Southern and Northern Dynasties period 南北朝 (300~600), and 90 per cent of the writings stem from the Tang period 唐 (618-907). The selection of poetry has caused criticism, for instance, by Li Ximing 李慈銘 in his essay Yuemantang riji 越縵堂日記, where it is said that the poems negligently are listed one after the other, while the prose literature has been selected very carefully. Many writings had been transmitted in the shape of manuscripts and were, in the Wenyuan yinghua, printed for the first time. A lot of these writings are only preserved in the Wenyuan yinghua at all. The text-critical commentary is especially valuable because it provided text alternatives from other sources. The Wenyuan yinghua served during the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) as the main source for the compilation of the Quantangshi 全唐詩, Quantangwen 全唐文 and the collectaneum Siku quanshu 四庫全書. The Wenyuan yinghua does not only contain poetry and prose literature works but also a lot of historical documents, like imperial edicts, memorials, and tomb inscriptions. In 1566 a print was made, based on a very widespread manuscript version. In 1966 the Zhonghua shuju press 中華書局 printed a version based on 140 juan of a Song period print and 860 juan of a Ming period 明 (1368-1644) print, and added Peng Shuxia's text-critical commentary as well as Lao Ge's 勞格 supplement to the commentary.
Sources:
Cheng Yizhong 程毅中 (1992). "Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華", in: Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo lishi 中國歷史, vol. 3, pp. 1221-1222. Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe.
Qian Zhongzhen 錢仲朕 (1986) "Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華", in: Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo wenxue 中國文學, vol. 2, p. 974. Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe.
Zhao Hankun 趙含坤 (2005). Zhongguo leishu 中國類書, p. 79. Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin chubanshe.
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Contents:
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1-.150. 賦 fu rhapsodies
151.-330. 詩 shi lyric poetry
331.-350. 歌行 gexing songs
351.-379. 雜文 zawen miscellaneous writings
380.-419. 中書制誥 zhongshu zhigao announcements by the Secretariat
420.-472. 翰林制詔 Hanlin zhizhao edicts by the Imperial Academy
473.-476. 策問 cewen examination questions
477.-502. 策 ce scripts
503.-552. 判 pan judgements
553.-626. 表 biao memorials
627. 牋 jian memoranda
628.-644. 狀 zhuang descriptions
645.-646. 檄 xi proclamations
647.-648. 露布 lubu imperial edicts
649. 彈文 tanwen "touching matters" accusations
650. 移文 yiwen manifestos
651.-666. 啟 qi opening communications
667.-693. 書 shu letters
694.-698. 疏 shu notes
699.-738. 序 xu prefaces
739.-760. 論 lun treatises
761.-770. 議 yi debates
771. 連珠 lianzhu moods like "linked pearls"
771. 喻對 yudui parables
772.-779. 頌 song eulogies
780.-784. 贊 zan encomia
785.-790. 銘 ming inscriptions
791. 箴 zhen admonitions
795.-796. 傳 zhuan biographies
797.-834. 記 ji notes
835.-839. 諡哀冊文 shi'ai cewen lament writings
840.-841. 諡議 shiyi laments
842.-843. 誄 lei dirges
844.-934. 碑 bei epitaphs
935.-969. 誌 zhi memoirs
970. 墓表 mubiao grave memorials
971.-977. 行狀 xingzhuang conduct descriptions; and
978.-1000. 祭文 jiwen offerings
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Chinese literature according to the four-category system
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