Wén xuǎn 文選
Selections of Refined Literature by 蕭統
About the work
The Wén xuǎn 文選 is the earliest extant general literary anthology of pre-Táng China, compiled at the eastern palace 東宮 of the Liáng crown prince Xiāo Tǒng 蕭統 (501–531, posthumously Zhāomíng tàizǐ 昭明太子) in Jiànkāng 建康 in the late 520s. Across 60 juǎn it gathers 761 pieces of poetry, fù, and prose by some 130 writers from the Warring States through the early sixth century. The texts are organised into a (variously counted) 37–39 genres, beginning with the great metropolitan fù on capitals and proceeding through sacrificial, hunting, travel, palace, and natural-phenomenon fù, then shī, yuèfǔ, qí, qǐ, edicts, memorials, letters, eulogies, tomb-inscriptions, laments, and the like. The work supplied the canonical literary curriculum from the Táng onwards — the proverb Wén xuǎn làn, xiùcái bàn 文選爛秀才半 (“the Wén xuǎn mastered, half a xiùcái won”) captures its place in examination preparation — and Xiāo Tǒng’s preface, with its triple criterion of shì chū yú chénsī 事出於沉思, yì guī hu hànzǎo 義歸乎翰藻 (matter from deep reflection, sense channelled into literary embellishment), became foundational for medieval literary theory. This entry records the bare-text Liùcháo 六朝 edition (without the standard Lǐ Shàn or Six-Officials annotations, which are catalogued separately under KR4h0002 and KR4h0003).
Abstract
The work as it survives almost certainly post-dates Xiāo Tǒng’s death in 531 in its final redaction. Xiāo’s own preface (preserved in KR4h0002 and elsewhere) explicitly excludes the Classics, the Histories, and the writings of the philosophical 諸子 — these, he argues, cannot be “cut and sliced” for an anthology — and so restricts the selection to jí-branch literature. The traditional ascription to Xiāo Tǒng alone is misleading: he must be understood as the patron and figurehead of a court editorial circle that included Liú Xié 劉勰, Yīn Yún 殷芸, Wáng Yún 王筠, Lù Chuí 陸倕 and others. Modern scholarship (Knechtges, Wáng Lìqún 2005) reconstructs a multi-stage process of compilation from earlier court anthologies (now lost) such as the Wényuàn yīnghuá of Liú Mián and Xiāo Tǒng’s own Zhèngxù 正序. The earliest received recension is the 30-juǎn form used by Lǐ Shàn 李善 (d. 689), redivided into 60 juǎn under the Táng; Dūnhuáng and Japanese (Kūkai-tradition) manuscript fragments preserve readings divergent from the standard 60-juǎn text. The present file is the un-annotated text only and does not reproduce a 提要; the Sìkù tíyào for the Wén xuǎn tradition is collated under the Lǐ Shàn edition (KR4h0002).
Translations and research
- David R. Knechtges, Wen Xuan, or Selections of Refined Literature, 3 vols. (Princeton University Press, 1982, 1987, 1996; repr. 2014) — the standard scholarly English translation, in progress; vols. 1–3 cover the fù genres in entirety, with vol. 4 on the shī sections in advanced preparation.
- James R. Hightower, “Wen-hsüan and Genre Theory,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 20 (1957): 512–533.
- David R. Knechtges, “Culling the Weeds and Selecting Prime Blossoms: The Anthology in Early Medieval China,” in Scott Pearce et al., eds., Culture and Power in the Reconstitution of the Chinese Realm, 200–600 (Harvard University Asia Center, 2001), 200–241.
- Wáng Lìqún 王立群, Wén xuǎn chéngshū yánjiū 文選成書研究 (Shangwu, 2005).
- Shiba Rokurō 斯波六郎, Monzen sakuin 文選索引 (concordance; Chinese translation Shanghai guji, 1997).
- The annotated commentarial tradition is studied in entries on KR4h0002 (Lǐ Shàn) and KR4h0003 (Six Officials).
Other points of interest
The Wén xuǎn generated one of the most extensive commentarial traditions in Chinese letters. The Suí scholar Cáo Xiàn 曹憲 established the first lectorate (Wén xuǎn xué 文選學) at Yángzhōu, transmitting to his pupils Xǔ Yǎn 許淹, Lǐ Shàn 李善, and Gōngsūn Luó 公孫羅; Wén xuǎn xué persisted as a formal scholastic discipline through the late imperial period and survives today as a vigorous subfield of Chinese literary studies (the Zhōngguó Wénxuǎn xué huì 中國文選學會 has held biennial conferences since 1988).
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §30.3.1, Box 174 — Wenxuan Genres.
- Wikipedia, “Wen Xuan”
- Wikidata Q1145275.
- Entry in Knechtges and Chang, eds., Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide (Brill, 2010–2014), vol. 3, 1313–1348.