Yu xuan li dai shi yu 御選歷代詩餘 [Imperial Selection of Lyrics of All Ages]

48 vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [Shanghai]: Yinyin lu 蟫隱廬, ca. 1920-31.




Fine edition of this selection of lyrics, compiled on the order of the Kangxi emperor (1654-1722), by Shen Chenyuan, Wang Yiqing, and other court officials. The phrase shiyu, “what remains beyond poetry,” refers to ci (tz’u) 詞 poetry, or lyrics, “one of the major poetic genres in China.” Lyrics were “originally song text[s] set to existing musical tunes.” The genre “emerged in the T’ang dynasty in response to the popularity of foreign musical tunes newly imported from Central Asia.” Titles of such poems “point to particular tz’u-p’ai 詞牌 (tune (truncated) patterns) for which the poems are composed” (The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Vol. 1, 846-49). Our book collects lyrics, arranging them by their tune patterns.


The Kangxi emperor was one of the longest-reigning emperors in Chinese history, ruling over the vast Qing empire, whose borders expanded during his rule. Kangxi commissioned numerous editorial projects, especially in the latter half of his reign.


The book was first published in 1707 by the Imperial Household Department, a so-called palace edition. Judging by a comparison of our copy with the palace edition held at Hubei Provincial Library, ours is a facsimile edition of the original (Wan & Hu, Hubei sheng tushuguan cang guji shanben tulu, 107).


Our edition was published by Yinyin lu, “Cottage where the moth hides,” an antiquarian bookstore and publisher in Shanghai. We do not know exactly when our book was published, but Yinyin lu is known to have published books at least between 1920 and 1931. It produced both lead movable type editions and facsimile printings (Wu & Zhang, “Lu Xun riji zhong de Yinyin lu,” 149-50).



References


Nienhauser, William H., Jr. The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature. Second, revised edition. Vol. 1. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.


Wan Qunhua 万群华, Hu Yinfang 胡银仿 et al., eds. Hubei sheng tushuguan cang guji shanben tulu 湖北省图书馆藏古籍善本图录. Beijing: Beijing tushuguan chubanshe, 2004.


Wu Pingli 吴萍莉 & Zhang Xiang 张翔. “Lu Xun riji zhong de Yinyin lu” 《鲁迅日记》中的蟫隐庐. Shanghai Lu Xun yanjiu, Fall 2014. (Inventory #: 9637)