Sanqu congkan 散曲叢刊

Sanqu congkan 散曲叢刊 is a series of 15 anthologies (therefore also known as Sanqu congkan shiwu zhong 散曲叢刊十五種) of aria-style poems (sanqu 散曲) from the Yuan 元 (1279-1368) to the Qing 清 (1644-1911) period. The collection was compiled by Ren Zhongmin 任中敏 (1897-1991), original first name Ne 訥, style Erbei 二北 or Bantang 半塘, from Yangzhou 揚州, Jiangsu. He was a disciple of Wu Mei 吳梅 (1884-1939), a famous educator and writer (with a focus on theatre), and served as a professor in several universities of China.

Two of the anthologies included were selections created during the Yuan period, namely Yang Chaoying’s 楊朝英 Yangchun baixue 陽春白雪 and Yuefu qunyu 樂府羣玉. Four other anthologies were specialized collections of Yuan-period writers. These are Ma Zhiyuan’s 馬致遠 (c. 1250- c. 1321) Dongli yuefu 東籬樂府, Qiao Ji’s 喬吉 (c. 1280-1345) Mengfu sanqu 夢符散曲, Zhang Kejiu’s 張可久 (c. 1270- c. 1350) Xiaoshan yuefu 小山樂府, and Suantian yuefu 酸甜樂府 by Guan Yunshi 貫雲石 (1286-1324) and Xu Zaisi 徐再思 (c. 1280-1330). The other collections date from the Ming 明 (1368-1644) and Qing periods. The last three texts were compiled by Ren Zhongmin himself.

There was little interest in aria-style poetry in the past. Ren’s collection therefore substantially contributed to the study of this neglected poetry style. His own book "Ten Methods of writings poems" (Zuoci shifa shuzheng 作詞十法疏證) is a critical analysis of Zhou Deqing’s 周德清 (1277-1365) theory of poetry of the Yuan period (see his book Zhongyuan yinyun 中原音韵). In his book "The harmony of qu poetry" (Quxie 曲諧) reviews and appreciates the critique of qu-style poetry (quhua 曲話), and thus adds to much more common modes of literary critique that focused on regular-style (shihua 詩話) and lyric-metre-style poetry (cihua 詞話). Ren’s book Sanqu gailun 散曲概論 systematically discusses the system, characteristics, methods, genres and the history of "scatteres arias" (sanqu).

The book was published in 1930 by the Zhonghua Book Company 中華書局 in Shanghai in two different editions, one with two, and the other with 4 boxes of book volumes. A modern edition was published in 2013 by the Fenghuang Press 鳳凰出版社.