Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華

The literature anthology Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華 "Blossoms and flowers of the literature garden" is one of the four great encyclopaedias 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 process lasted from 982 to 986. Emperor Zhenzong 宋真宗 (r. 997-1022) had the draft revised several times by Su Yijian 蘇易簡 (958-997) and Wang You 王祐 (923-986). Much later, Emperor Xiaozong 宋孝宗 (r. 1162-1189) had made a text-critical revision which was undertaken by Zhou Bida 周必大 (1126-1204), Hu Ke 胡柯 (fl. 1195) and Peng Shuxia 彭叔夏 (jinshi degree 1193). This work was finished in 1204, and a print was produced of which unfortunately only fragments are preserved.

The whole book comprises 1,000 juan and contains the writings of persons from the Liang period 梁 (502-557) to the 10th century. 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 book was projected as a continuation of the anthology Wenxuan 文選, compiled by Prince Zhaoming 昭明太子 (Xiao Tong 蕭統, 501-531), and records almost 20,000 writings of more than 2,000 persons. In the categorization of writings, it follows the pattern established in the Wenxuan. Part of the 39 categories has sub-divisions, especially the large category of rhapsodies (fu 賦) that is divided into 42 sub-categories.

The selection of poetry has caused criticism, for instance, by Li Ximing 李慈銘 (1830-1895) in his diary Yuemantang riji 越縵堂日記, where it is said that that poems of different quality are negligently listed one after the other, while the prose literature has been selected very carefully. The Wenyuan yinghua was very important for the popularization of famous Tang-period writers like Han Yu 韓愈 (768-824), Yuan Zhen 元楨 (779-831), Bai Juyi 白居易 (772-846) and Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元 (773-819), but also includes works of less prestigious writers like Chen Zi'ang 陳子昂 (661-702), Zhang Yue 張說 (667-731), Zhang Jiuling 張九齡 (678-740), Li Ao 李翱 (774-836), Quan Deyu 權得輿 (759-818), Li Shangyin 李商隱 (813-c. 858), Gu Yun 顧雲 (d. 894) or Luo Yin 羅隱 (833-910).

Many writings had been transmitted in the shape of manuscripts and were, in the Wenyuan yinghua, printed for the first time. A lot of older texts are only preserved in the Wenyuan yinghua at all, like Li Shangyin's Fannan jiayi ji 樊南甲乙集 or the collected writings Zhang Yue ji 張說集. The text-critical commentary to the Wenyuan yinghua is particularly 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 collections Gushji 古詩紀 "Records of ancient poems", Quantangshi 全唐詩 "The complete shi-style poems of the Tang period", Quantangwen 全唐文 "The complete prose literature of the Tang period" and various individual collected writings in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書.

During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong, Yao Xuan 姚鉉 (967-1020) extracted important writings from the Wenyuan yinghua that he published with the title Tangwencui 唐文粹. This book was in the end more widespread than the Wenyuan yinghua itself.

The Wenyuan yinghua does not only contain poetry and prose literature works, but also numerous historical documents, like imperial edicts, memorials, and tomb inscriptions. In 1566 a new print was produced that was based on a very widespread manuscript version. Peng Shuxia's commentary Wenyuan yinghua bianzheng 文苑英華辨證 from the Southern Song period 南宋 (1127-1279) is included in the series Zhibuzuzhai congshu 知不足齋叢書. A reprint from Canton included in the series Wuyingdian juzhenban shu 武英殿聚珍版書 is enriched with Lao Ge's 勞格 (1819-1864) supplementary commentary Bianzheng shiyi 辨證拾遺. 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 critical commentary as well as Lao Ge's supplement to it.