The Wenyuan yinghua : selecting refined literature / Kevin W. Tahmoresi.

Thesis: Ph. D. (Asian Languages and Literature) University of Washington 2020.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 104-109).

The Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華 is the largest extant medieval Chinese literary anthology. Considered one of the four great works of the Song, it was compiled during the early Northern Song dynasty at the same time as the Taiping yulan 太平御覽 and Taiping guangji 太平廣記 by Li Fang 李昉 (925-996) and the same group of scholars who worked on the preceding works. At 1000 juan, the work represents a major collection of Tang dynasty poetry and prose. The work went through four major revisions over the course of 200 years before finally being printed in 1204 by the Southern Song scholar Zhou Bida 周必大 (1126-1204). Divided into 38 genres, the work contains 19,102 pieces written by over 2,200 authors. Despite this massive amount of material, the work has largely been overlooked by scholars in both the East and West since the time of its printing. This dissertation will explore the history of the Wenyuan yinghua from its compilation until the modern era. This exploration will include its compilation history and printing history as well as its association with other medieval Chinese literary anthologies. Special attention will be paid to the value the Wenyuan yinghua holds for scholars and the important role it plays in Tang studies. Consideration will also be given the Wenyuan yinghua bianzheng 文苑英華辯證.

Local access dig.pdf. [Tahmoresi-Wenyuan yinghua.pdf]