Wenyuan Yinghua
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.
[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.
The founding emperor of Song wants to secure his place and increase the legitimacy of his reign by leaving a mark in literature.
The work they quoted could be Chinese classics dating further back, such as "Zhuang Zi", "Zuo Zhuan", or "Lun Yu".
Those examples listed are all classics required for Chinese scholars to memorize for the imperial exam, so the audience would not have problems understanding the quoted reference.
For instance, Du Fu's poem "Li Ren Xin" included a detailed description of the banquet in the palace.
Although it seemed to be depicting the scene, Du implies the extravagant lifestyle of nobles is built on the hardship of ordinary people, secretly conveying discontent.
Poets in Tang and Song left comments on the tenancy of nature, praising the firmness and persistence of bamboos and orchids.
Metaphors and analogy serve the purpose of saving words of description here since they use the commonly known character of one object to describe another lesser-known thing.
The "imperial examination" selects officials mainly through literature skills, which significantly facilitates the prosperity of poems and lyrics in Song.
For example, in the "Early snow in Spring" exam poem collected in Wenyuan Yinghua, the author says it's the god that lets snowfall, responding to the goodwill and high moral standard of the emperor.
Detailed accounts in poems for astronomy, math, architecture, fireworks, and other inventions all show the progress of technology in Song.
A flood or drought going on in Hebei might be neglectable for historians, but writers who experienced or witnessed the destruction it brought would record them in their writing.
Besides, it might make a difference—famous poets describing the scenes and conditions of citizens could sometimes attract the attention of the imperial court and eventually have the impacted states got official support.
The lyrics and poems written by poets such as Su Shi and Du Fu are still well known in present-day as they put out a voice for the commons and sympathize with their pain and hardness.
It was just like other numerous famous narrative poems that appeared in Wenyuan Yinghua until Disney made it a buzz by producing the animation "Mulan."
However, the core structure of the story stayed the same as it was originally composed by a Northern Dynasty poet and collected in Wenyuan Yinghua.
Although few know the source of the piece in the west, Chinese poems with Wenyuan Yinghua as an example prove that it contains vast amazing stories and lyrics that can still have meaning to modern-day people.
[10] Wenyuan Yinghua, as collected literature of refined works, generated huge value for future Chinese writers and scholars.
Wenyuan Yinghua was spread to these countries through cultural exchange by the "Imperial embassy to China" (put wiki link).
