New Songs from the Jade Terrace (玉臺新詠 Yùtái xīnyǒng) is an anthology of early medieval Chinese poetry in the romantic or semi-erotic "palace style" (
gongti 宮體) that dates to the late Southern dynasties period (420589). Most editions of
New Songs contain 670 poems by many different authors, mainly comprising pentasyllabic poetry but also some
yuefu lyrical verse and other types of poems.
New Songs was probably compiled around the early to mid-530s by
Xu Ling, an official and scholar who served at the court of
Xiao Gang, a crown prince of the
Liang dynasty (502587) who later ascended the throne as Emperor Jianwen of Liang.
The term "Jade Terrace" is a reference to the luxurious palace apartments in to which upper-class women were often relegated, and a number of scholars have concluded that the New Songs was probably compiled to provide reading material for palace ladies. The American sinologist Burton Watson notes that this expression may also refer to "a mirror stand of jade such as women use in their toilet; and since the Chinese are fond of elegant euphemisms for parts of the body, it may even have some more esoteric connotation." New Songs from a Jade Terrace is an important collection of Chinese poetry, in part because of the individual poems which it contains, but also because the overall theme of the collection involves the discussion of sex and gender roles and ideals of love and beauty.
Read more...: History Contents
History
A number of details regarding the creation of New Songs from the Jade Terrace are unclear and subject to debate. Its first surviving mention appears in the bibliographic section of the Book of Sui, the official dynastic history of the Sui dynasty (589618), and lists "Xu Xiaomu" (the courtesy name of Chinese writer Xu Ling) as its compiler. However, in Xu Ling's official biography in the earlier Book of Chen, the dynastic history of the Chen dynasty (557589), the New Songs is not mentioned. Strangely, the New Songs does not contain any poems by Xu Ling's father Xu Chi (徐摛; 471551), a notable scholar and poet who was traditionally considered the founder of the "palace style" poetry (gōngtǐ shī 宮體詩) the New Songs collects.
The textual history of New Songs is particularly complicated. Although it was compiled in the early- to mid-530s, no manuscript or printing of the New Songs from before the Ming dynasty (13681644) has survived to modern times. The traditional edition of the New Songs was printed in 1633 and is based on a late Song dynasty (9601287) edition printed in 1215 that itself was a "patchwork" of two other printed editions and one manuscript copy. It contains 654 poems and was long considered the best surviving edition, but recent scholarship has indicated that it contains a number of significant flaws and errors, causing renewed attention toward other surviving editions.
Contents
New Songs from a Jade Terrace contains poems by about 115 poets, of whom 14 were female. It is divided into ten sections, and 769 headings of verses "devoted almost entirely to poems about love," that is, the primary emphasis is upon male-female love in the context of the women's apartments, and contains material ranging from anonymous Han Dynasty ballads through poems contemporary to the time of composition. The various poems are mostly by men, though some by women. The collection contains over 600 pieces focused on the ideals of feminine beauty, and some of the poems are matter-of-factly homoerotic, describing the beloved young man involved in much the same terms as the female beloved is in other pieces. In other cases, a "hint of fetishism" is shown in poetic verses describing the objects associated with the men or women described in the poems; that is, their bedrooms and feast halls, the musical instruments, lamps or mirror-stands which they handle, or the fine stationary upon which they write their love notes.
The text above has been excerpted automatically from Wikipedia - please correct any errors in the
original article.

《
玉臺新詠》,作者不詳,一說是南朝
徐陵所編集,凡10卷,收詩769篇,主要收錄男女閨情之作。
玉臺新詠以「選錄豔歌」為宗旨,選錄東周至梁時的詩歌,收詩769篇,有五言詩8卷,歌行1卷,五言四句詩1卷,只有《越人歌》一首為東周作品,其餘皆漢朝以後的著作,是今日研究漢到梁之詩歌的重要參考資料,中國最長篇敘事詩《孔雀東南飛》首見於此書,除豔歌外,《上山採蘼蕪》寫女性遭遇婚變,《嬌女詩》寫活潑可愛的少女,《王昭君辭》寫王昭君遠嫁異邦的辛苦。其他還有班婕妤、鮑令暉、劉令嫻等女作家的作品。
2004年章培恆考證出《玉臺新詠》為陳後主妃子張麗華所撰錄,只是陳亡時張麗華被殺而不再用她的名字,並認為《隋書·經籍志》的著錄《玉臺新詠》為「徐陵撰」乃是「徐瑗撰」之誤。
《玉臺新詠》是繼《詩經》、《楚辭》之後中國古代的第三部詩歌總集。收錄作品上至西漢下至南朝梁代,主要收男女閨情之作。從內容廣泛性看來,它不如成書略早的《文選》。
Read more...: 版本 參考書目 注釋
版本
今日可見的最早刻本,是南宋的陳玉父序刻本,分十卷,收有六百九十首詩。後來明代的許多刻本,都是根據陳玉父本刻印的。但不知何時,這些本子中攙入了一百七十九首詩,全書成了八百六十九首詩。直到明末吳郡趙均得到宋本,才知是後人加入。於是趙氏仿宋本刻印行世(仍保留那一百七十九首),這就是趙氏寒山堂刻本。1955年文學古籍刊行社本的《玉臺新詠》,就是用這個本子影印的。
清朝康熙年間,吳江秀才吳兆宜見到宋陳玉父刻本,便用宋本與趙氏寒山堂本互校,進行文字訛誤的改正,並把後人增入的一百七十九首詩移至每卷末尾,作為附錄。同時,吳兆宜又做了十卷的《玉臺新詠箋注》,包括作者簡介、作品題解和字詞箋釋三部份。之後,乾隆時的程琰用明嘉靖年間刻本與吳本對校,於乾隆三十九年(1774年)由稻香樓刻版印行。現在所看到的吳注本基本上都是經過程琰修訂的。到了1985年,吳注《玉臺新詠箋注》經穆克宏點校,對正文和注文都做了大量的校正,書末附上各種版本的序跋,由中華書局出版。
另有光緒五年(1879年)的宏達堂刊本,1935年世界書局標點排印了這個注本,並附入明鄭玄撫的《續玉臺新詠》,此收錄了陳代和隋代的一些玉臺體詩歌,可作為研究這一時代文學源流的參考資料。
參考書目
• 章培恆:《〈玉台新詠〉為張麗華所「撰錄」考》,《文學評論》,2004年第2期
• 鄔國平:《〈玉台新詠〉張麗華撰錄說獻疑——向章培恆先生請教》,《學術月刊》,2004年第9期
• 章培恆:《再談〈玉台新詠〉的撰錄者問題》,《上海師範大學學報》,2006年
• 牛繼清、紀健生:《玉台新詠》是張麗華所「撰錄」嗎?——從文獻學角度看《〈玉台新詠〉為張麗華所「撰錄」考》
• 金開誠、葛兆光:《古詩文要籍敘錄》
• 潘樹廣主編:《中國文學史料學》)
• 田曉菲:〈《玉台新詠》與中古文學的歷史主義解讀 〉。
注釋
The text above has been excerpted automatically from Wikipedia - please correct any errors in the
original article.