Qiānjiā Shī 千家詩
Poems by a Thousand Masters attributed to 謝枋得 (attributed)
About the work
The Qiānjiā Shī 千家詩 (“Poems by a Thousand Masters”) is one of the most widely circulated elementary poetry anthologies in the Chinese literary tradition, containing poems arranged by genre (five-syllable quatrains, seven-syllable quatrains, five-syllable regulated verse, seven-syllable regulated verse) drawn predominantly from Táng and Sòng poets. The work served as a schoolbook for elementary readers alongside the Sānzì jīng 三字經, Bǎijiā xìng 百家姓, and Qiānzì wén 千字文 — collectively known as the Sān Bǎi Qiān 三百千 in the later imperial period. Wilkinson (§30.3.1) notes that when the Qiānjiā shī was added to this set, the group was called Sān Bǎi Qiān Qiān 三百千千.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The Kanripo text presents the anthology in 4 juǎn, organized by poem-type: juǎn 1 (five-syllable quatrains), juǎn 2 (seven-syllable quatrains), juǎn 3–4 (regulated verse forms). The title page attributes the work to “Xiè Fāngdé” 謝枋得 (of the Míng, as the text’s header indicates), but the Qiānjiā Shī attribution to Xiè Fāngdé 謝枋得 (1226–1289) — the Sòng loyalist martyr — is traditional and contested. Xiè is credited in many Míng imprints, but the text that circulated under his name differs from the original Sòng compilation attributed to him (Chóngdìng qiānjiā shī gézhí 重訂千家詩格致). Another attribution — to Wáng Xiāngzhī 王相之 of the Míng — is also encountered.
The “received” Qiānjiā Shī as represented in the Kanripo text (and as it became standard in Míng–Qīng printings) is best understood as a Míng-period recension that drew on earlier Sòng compilations while reshaping the selection and order. The work selects poems by hundreds of Táng, Sòng, and a few earlier poets; the title “thousand masters” (qiānjiā 千家) is a round-number hyperbole, as the actual number of poets represented is far fewer. The anthology’s pedagogical function was to provide memorable, metrically regular, and thematically accessible models — especially poems on seasonal topics (spring, summer, autumn, winter), parting, friendship, and landscape. Wilkinson (§26.7.3) notes that inclusion in the Qiānjiā shī guaranteed preservation of the poems selected, and that its compilation was guided by the aim to “improve on” earlier schoolbook anthologies.
The Qiānjiā Shī is not in the Sìkù collection and has no Sìkù tíyào. It circulated outside the official literary canon precisely because it was a popular schoolbook rather than a scholarly anthology. The Táng shī sānbǎi shǒu 唐詩三百首 of 1763/4 was explicitly compiled by Sūn Zhū 孫洙 as a more scholarly alternative to the Qiānjiā shī, which he found too pedestrian (Wilkinson §26.7.3). The existing person note for 謝枋得 notes the contested attribution.
Translations and research
- Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. §19.3 (Sān Bǎi Qiān); §26.7.3 (Táng shī sānbǎi shǒu and the schoolbook tradition).
- Liu, James J. Y. The Art of Chinese Poetry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
No substantial secondary literature specifically on the Qiānjiā shī as a textual artifact located.
Other points of interest
The Qiānjiā Shī occupied a paradoxical position in the late-imperial literary field: despised by serious critics as pedestrian and pedagogically primitive, it was simultaneously the most widely read poetry book in China, familiar to virtually every literate person from childhood. Its association with Xiè Fāngdé — a martyr-hero — lent it a certain moral prestige that outlasted critical disdain.
Links
- Wikipedia: Qianjia Shi
- Wikidata: Q7269149