Xiān-Qín Hàn Wèi Jìn Nánběicháo Shī 先秦漢魏晉南北朝詩
Poetry from Pre-Qin through the Northern and Southern Dynasties compiled by 逯欽立 逯欽立 (編)
About the work
Xiān-Qín Hàn Wèi Jìn Nánběicháo shī 先秦漢魏晉南北朝詩 is the most authoritative modern anthology of pre-Tang Chinese poetry (shī and yuèfǔ forms), compiled by Lù Qīnlì 逯欽立 (1911–1973) of Jílín University and published posthumously by Zhōnghuá Shūjú in three volumes in 1983. The work was completed by 1965 but not printed in Lù’s lifetime. The Kanripo file (KR4h0177) preserves a portion of the text, beginning with the most ancient anonymous songs (gē 歌) — including the Dàn gē 彈歌, Jī rǎng gē 擊壤歌, and Gèng gē 賡歌 — and extending into the Han dynasty (closing with poems attributed to Lǐ Líng 李陵 and Sū Wǔ 蘇武 and various gǔshī 古詩 fragments). The file covers the Pre-Qin and Han sections; the Wei, Jin, and Southern/Northern Dynasties sections are not separately represented in the Kanripo corpus as distinct files.
Each poem is presented with its text followed by a systematic list of the encyclopedic, literary, and archival sources from which it was recovered (e.g., Yìwén lèijù 藝文類聚, Tàipíng yùlǎn 太平御覽, Yuèfǔ shíjí 樂府詩集, Shǐjì 史記, and Shī jì 詩紀 [the Ming anthology by Féng Wéinà 馮惟訥]). Textual variants are noted with the symbol ㊣. This apparatus makes the compilation an essential reference work rather than a purely literary anthology.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source. This is a twentieth-century modern scholarly anthology with no Siku tiyao.
Abstract
Lù Qīnlì 逯欽立 (1911–1973) spent decades working on this anthology, which superseded earlier collections — notably Féng Wéinà’s 馮惟訥 (1511–1580) Gǔ shī jì 古詩紀 (Ming dynasty), Dīng Fùbǎo’s 丁福保 Quán Hàn Sānguó Jìn Nánběicháo shī 全漢三國晉南北朝詩, and Yú Guānghuá’s 于光華 selections — as the standard reference for pre-Tang poetry. Lù’s method was rigorously philological: for each poem he listed every known source citation, including variant attributions and textual variants, making the anthology as much a critical apparatus as an anthology.
The work is arranged chronologically by dynasty and, within each dynasty, by individual poet or category (anonymous, court, regional). Short biographical notices accompany each author. The full anthology extends from pre-Qin antiquity through the fall of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (589 CE), covering the Wei 魏, Jin 晉, and all the Northern and Southern dynasties beyond the Han section preserved in this Kanripo file. A companion author-and-title index (Xiān-Qín Hàn Wèi Jìn Nánběicháo shī zuòzhě piānmù suǒyǐn 先秦漢魏晉南北朝詩作者篇目索引, compiled by Cháng Zhèngguó 常振國 et al.) was published by Zhōnghuá in 1988.
Translations and research
- Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. §30.2. Standard reference description.
- Cháng Zhèngguó 常振國 et al., comp. Xiān-Qín Hàn Wèi Jìn Nánběicháo shī zuòzhě piānmù suǒyǐn 先秦漢魏晉南北朝詩作者篇目索引. Zhōnghuá, 1988.