 | The works of Li Po, the Chinese poet |  |
NOTES ON THE CHINESE TEXTS
Very shorty after the death of Li Po, Li Yang-ping
published a collection in ten books with a preface dated
762, in which he says that the poet had lost a large portion
of the poems written during his wanderings after
the Rebellion of An Lu-shan, and many pieces in the
books had been obtained from friends. Under the Sung
Dynasty and about the year 1000, Kuo Yo-shih brought
out a collection of ten books, which he combined with
that of Li Yang-ping, making twenty books with 765
poems altogether, beside ten books of miscellaneous
writings. In 1064 the first two of the three volumes of
another collection were discovered, adding 100 new
poems. Wei Hao's collection in two books was not
brought to light till 1068, which contributed 44 new
pieces. Thus the collection grew. In 1080 Sung Ming-chiu
published the complete works in thirty books, containing
nearly 1000 poems and 66 pieces in prose. Under
the Ming dynasty and in 1759 Wang Chi brought out
the final edition of the complete works in 30 books,
with copious annotations and six books of critical, biographical
and miscellaneous matter gleaned and gathered
from all possible sources. This edition was reprinted
in 1908 by the Soo Yeh Company of Shanghai.
Besides those enumerated above, there have been published
innumerable editions of complete works and selections
in past centuries. I have used a modern Japanese
edition of selected poems, consulted a Chinese
edition of the Sung period in the Newberry Library of
in the New York City Public Library. The textual variations
are few and unimportant as far as the poems in the
present book are concerned.
| The works of Li Po, the Chinese poet | |