New Songs from the Jade Terrace (玉台新咏 Yùtái xīnyǒng) is an anthology of early medieval Chinese poetry in the romantic or semi-erotic "palace style" (
gongti 宫体) 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 宫体诗) 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.
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《
玉台新咏》，作者不详，一说是南朝
徐陵所编集，凡10卷，收诗769篇，主要收录男女闺情之作。
玉台新咏以「选录艳歌」为宗旨，选录东周至梁时的诗歌，收诗769篇，有五言诗8卷，歌行1卷，五言四句诗1卷，只有《越人歌》一首为东周作品，其馀皆汉朝以后的著作，是今日研究汉到梁之诗歌的重要参考资料，中国最长篇叙事诗《孔雀东南飞》首见于此书，除艳歌外，《上山采蘼芜》写女性遭遇婚变，《娇女诗》写活泼可爱的少女，《王昭君辞》写王昭君远嫁异邦的辛苦。其他还有班婕妤、鲍令晖、刘令娴等女作家的作品。
2004年章培恒考证出《玉台新咏》为陈后主妃子张丽华所撰录，只是陈亡时张丽华被杀而不再用她的名字，并认为《隋书·经籍志》的著录《玉台新咏》为「徐陵撰」乃是「徐瑗撰」之误。
《玉台新咏》是继《诗经》、《楚辞》之后中国古代的第三部诗歌总集。收录作品上至西汉下至南朝梁代，主要收男女闺情之作。从内容广泛性看来，它不如成书略早的《文选》。
Read more...: 版本 参考书目 注释
版本
今日可见的最早刻本，是南宋的陈玉父序刻本，分十卷，收有六百九十首诗。后来明代的许多刻本，都是根据陈玉父本刻印的。但不知何时，这些本子中搀入了一百七十九首诗，全书成了八百六十九首诗。直到明末吴郡赵均得到宋本，才知是后人加入。于是赵氏仿宋本刻印行世（仍保留那一百七十九首），这就是赵氏寒山堂刻本。1955年文学古籍刊行社本的《玉台新咏》，就是用这个本子影印的。
清朝康熙年间，吴江秀才吴兆宜见到宋陈玉父刻本，便用宋本与赵氏寒山堂本互校，进行文字讹误的改正，并把后人增入的一百七十九首诗移至每卷末尾，作为附录。同时，吴兆宜又做了十卷的《玉台新咏笺注》，包括作者简介、作品题解和字词笺释三部份。之后，乾隆时的程琰用明嘉靖年间刻本与吴本对校，于乾隆三十九年（1774年）由稻香楼刻版印行。现在所看到的吴注本基本上都是经过程琰修订的。到了1985年，吴注《玉台新咏笺注》经穆克宏点校，对正文和注文都做了大量的校正，书末附上各种版本的序跋，由中华书局出版。
另有光绪五年（1879年）的宏达堂刊本，1935年世界书局标点排印了这个注本，并附入明郑玄抚的《续玉台新咏》，此收录了陈代和隋代的一些玉台体诗歌，可作为研究这一时代文学源流的参考资料。
参考书目
• 章培恒：《〈玉台新咏〉为张丽华所「撰录」考》，《文学评论》，2004年第2期
• 邬国平：《〈玉台新咏〉张丽华撰录说献疑——向章培恒先生请教》，《学术月刊》，2004年第9期
• 章培恒：《再谈〈玉台新咏〉的撰录者问题》，《上海师范大学学报》，2006年
• 牛继清、纪健生：《玉台新咏》是张丽华所「撰录」吗？——从文献学角度看《〈玉台新咏〉为张丽华所「撰录」考》
• 金开诚、葛兆光：《古诗文要籍叙录》
• 潘树广主编：《中国文学史料学》)
• 田晓菲：〈《玉台新咏》与中古文学的历史主义解读 〉。
注释
The text above has been excerpted automatically from Wikipedia - please correct any errors in the
original article.
