| Wenyuan Yinghua | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 文苑英華 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 文苑英华 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | literary flowers brilliant blossoms | ||||||
| |||||||
 | |
| Editors | Song Bai, Zhou Bida, Xu Xuan and other imperial scholars |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bai Juyi, Du Fu and other poets and writers |
| Language | Chinese (Han characters) |
| Genre | Poems and lyrics |
| Publisher | Song imperial editorial |
Publication date | 986 A.D. |
| Publication place | China |
| Media type | Book |
The Wenyuan Yinghua (Chinese: 文苑英華), sometimes translated as Finest Blossoms in the Garden of Literature, is an anthology of poetry, odes, songs and writings from the Liang dynasty to the Five Dynasties era.
Wenyuan Yinghua is a showreel of literature from around the Song dynasty. The book was initially compiled by a team of officers including Song Bai (宋白), Hu Meng (扈蒙), Xu Xuan (徐鉉) under an imperial order from 982 to 986 during the Northern Song dynasty. Southern Song scholar Zhou Bida printed the book at last in 1204, while four extensive alterations and countless minor revisions were put forth in the extent of the past 200 years. Wenyuan Yinghua is divided into 1,000 volumes and 38 genera by sections with 19,102 pieces of works written by about 2,200 authors; much of the crucial compilation of the writings came from the Tang dynasty scholars. It is considered one of the Four Great Books of Song.[1]
Despite this, Wenyuan Yinghua has a massive amount of valuable content regarding Chinese history and literature; this work has been mostly neglected by scholars in both the East and West since the book was composed and printed. It has an extensive association with other Tang and Song Chinese literary anthologies.[2]
- ^ Owen, Stephen (1995). "The Formation of The Tang Estate Poem". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 55 (1): 39–59. doi:10.2307/2719420. ISSN 0073-0548. JSTOR 2719420. S2CID 193941986.
- ^ Tahmoresi, Kevin W. (2020). The Wenyuan yinghua: Selecting Refined Literature (PhD). OCLC 1192499039.