Studies On Chinese Anthologies In Medieval Japan

In Medieval Japan, Zen monks became the main force of writing Chinese poems, which brings the prosperity of the so-called Gozan literature. Influenced by the ethos of Chinese Poetic Zen, the Gozan Zen monks throw themselves into reading and annotating Chinese scriptures, writing Chinese poems and even compiling Chinese poetic anthologies. They used the famous Chinese anthologies such as Santishi三体诗,Qianjiash ixuan千家诗选,Lianzhushige联珠诗格for reference, compiled some anthologies which meet their demands of studying Chinese poems. Xinxuanfenleijizhujiashijuan新选分类集诸家诗卷(hereafter Xinxuan新选)and Xuxinbianfenleizhujiashiji续新编分类诸家诗集(hereafter Xinbian新编)are two of the anthologies, and they contain almost 2500 poems together, which is too heavy to propagate. The Zen monk Ten’in Ryutaku天隐龙泽selected more than 300 poems from Xinxuan and Xinbian to compile a Chinese poetry anthology which named after Kinshudan锦绣段.Kinshudan is one of the most popular Chinese poetry anthologies in medieval Japan. There are many versions of Kinshudan since its formation, including several versions of annotations, and the most influential annotation is Kinshudanshoshu锦绣段详注.There is also a sequel of Kinshudan called ZokuKinshudan续锦绣段and its annotation book, which are both compiled by Ten’in Ryutaku’s disciple Gesshu Jukei月舟寿桂.These Chinese poetry anthologies are very valuable, they count for conserving lost poems, completing academic history, studying the literary activities of Zen monks and so on. This paper makes a study of the Chinese anthologies mentioned above which center around Kinshudan, and tries to explore the philological values and academic meanings of these anthologies.