Quantangshi 全唐诗 "The Complete Collection of Tang Period shi Poems"

The Quantangshi 全唐诗 is a collection of all preserved shi poems 诗 from the Tang 唐 (618-907) and Five Dynasties 五代 (907-960) periods. It was compiled in the early years of the 18th century by a team led by Cao Yin 曹寅 and Peng Dingyiu 彭定求. Some of the team members were Shen Sanceng 沈三曾, Yang Zhongna 杨中讷, Pan Conglü 潘从律, Wang Shihong 汪士纮, Xu Shuben 徐树本, Ju Dingjin 车鼎晋, Cha Sili 查嗣瑮, Wang Yi 汪绎, and Yu Mei 俞梅. The Quantangshicontains nearly 50,000 poems (including fragments) of more than 2,200 persons, arranged in 900 juan “scrolls”. To each person a short biography is added.

Before this complete collection was undertaken there were mainly two collections of Tang shi poems, namely Hu Chenheng’s 胡晨亨 Tangyin tongqian 唐音统签 from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) and Ji Zhenyi’s 季振宜 Quantangshi in 717 juan. Neither of these two had been printed, but they served as the basis for the large Quantangshi, after a thorough revision of the references. Nevertheless there are still errors in the Quantangshi, like the recording of some poems written during the Southern Dynasties period (Nanchao 南朝, 420~589), or the confusion of titles containing names of persons with the name of the author (like “bidding farewell to XY” being attributed to XY).

The first printing was done by the Yangzhou poetry bureau 扬州诗局 in 120 booklets, the common modern printing is that by the Zhonghua shuju press 中华书局 from 1960 in 12 volumes. This edition is enriched by a supplement , the Quantangshi yi (Zentōshi ichi) 全唐诗逸, edited by the Japanese “He Shining” 河世宁 (Ichikawa Kansai 市川宽斎) in 3 juan (Taibei: Guangwen Press 广文书局, 1970). In 1982 the Zhonghua shuju press published another supplement, theQuantangshi waibian 全唐诗外编, edited by Wang Zhongmin 王重民. This collection contains Wang’s Bu Quantangshi 补全唐诗 (104 poems) and Dunhuang Tangren shiji canjuan 敦煌唐人诗集残卷 with 62 poems found in Dunhuang, Sun Wang’s 孙望 Quantangshi buyi 全唐诗补遗 in 20 juan (896 poems), and Tong Yangnian’s 童养年 Quantangshi xu buyi 全唐诗续补遗 in 21 juan (more than 1,200 poems). Wang Zhongmin also published 52 further poems in the periodicalZhonghua wenshi luncong 中华文史论从, 1981, 4.