Exemplars of the Beautiful and the Refined in Tang Poetry

Ming dynasty (1368�1644), Tianqi period (1621�1627)

Compiled and edited by Yang Zhaozhi (17th century)

Wucheng, Zhejiang Province: Wucheng Min Yishi, 1621

8 columns per half folio; 18 characters per column; columns not ruled; white folding margin at center of folio; single-line borders; printed in black and red ink; overall dimensions of volumes: 30.0 x 18.2 cm; block sizes of text: approx. 20.5�20.7 x 14.3�14.4 cm; stitched binding

Inventory number: 18666

The compiler of this anthology, Yang Zhaozhi, was particularly fond of Tang poems, which feature beautiful women, courtesans, and flowers as their principal subject.� His selections were divided into the following four groups: Tang shi ming yuan ji (Collection of Renowned Beauties in Tang Poetry), Tang shi xiang lian ji (Collection of Fragrant Trousseaux in Tang Poetry), Tang shi guan ji ji (Collection of Gazing at Courtesans in Tang Poetry), and Tang shi ming hua ji (Collection of Famous Flowers in Tang Poetry).

The first edition of Yang's anthology was printed in 1618, but the 360 or so selections were not arranged in any particular order and were accompanied only by punctuation marks and no commentaries of any sort.� Min Yishi's 1621 edition, however, contains an additional ten poems and a plethora of commentaries garnered from numerous poetry critics.�� It also categorizes the poems into formal groups and corrects errors in the earlier edition.� This work is a fine example of a late Ming two-color, zhumo taoyin (multiple-block) edition, in which the main texts are printed in black, with commentaries and punctuation in red.� The colored ink appears all the more attractive on the bright white paper.