A Study On The Versions Of Yi Yuan Zhi Yan

The number of the volume of Yi yuan zhi yan that has been recorded in Wangshizhen’s works is four, six, eight, twelve and twenty-five. Previous studies such as Li Yanqing’s "the Study on Yi yuan zhi yan" were only focus on the eight-volume and sixteen-volume, as a result, some questions about the versions of Yi yuan zhi yan can’t be solved:did the four volume one really existed? What was the content of the six-volume one recorded by Wang Shizhen himself? What was the relationship between the sixteen-volume and the ones recorded by Wang Shizhen?I discover a Ming copy of the six-volume of Yi yuan zhi yan. Based on this copy, some analysis and comparison of the six-volume, eight-volume and sixteen-volume has been done to get new understandings of the version of Yi yuan zhi yan: This six-volume was printed by Wangshizhen himself in Ming Jiajing Forty-four years (AD1565) and it’s the earliest version of exiting Wangshizhen’s Yi yuan zhi yan. The four-volume was arranged to transmit around Wang Shizhen’s friend and wasn’t printed or published. The twenty-five-volume contented more than the critism of poetry, poems. It also contented the textual research of the allusions in the laterally Wan wei yu bian that had been called "bieji""bielu""fulu" and not been apart from Yi yuan zhi yan at that time. The sixteen-volume was a transition outcoming of the six-volume evoluting to eight-volume.