| Abstract |
Ouyang Wencui(《歐陽文粹》) is the earliest anthology of Ouyang Xiu's ancient essays that can be seen today. It is of great importance in the dissemination and acceptance of Ouyang Xiu's works, as well as the transformation and creation of ancient literature in the Song Dynasty. The editor, Chen Liang, praised Ouyang Xiu's works as "Achieve political principles based on benevolence and righteousness, assisted LiuJing(《六經》) spread and pass down through the age" and would like to use it as "The one who is familiar with the text of the time", "Clarify the law of the previous king." This article scrutinizes the book, examines the content and style of each chapter to explore its compilation standards and significance.As a result, the collection of Lun(論), Shu(書), Zhazi(劄子), Zou(奏), Xu(序), Ji(記), Zazhu雜著, Beiming(碑銘), Muming(墓銘), Mubiao(墓表) are not completely compulsory items for imperial examination; the contents not only include the three generations of kings' political laws and Liujing's doctrine but also involve the themes of Taoist philosophy, learning, scholar-seeking, and meeting. Moreover, the objects and eras involved in each article related to the Qingli New Deal a lot. Besides, the writing style of the book is rigorous and meticulous, inference with layers, making the book exquisite and unique. Something even more important is the consciousness of classification. There are some categories, such as Zhazi and Zhazhu, that are new to Ouyang Wencui. In fact, Zhazhu collected are mostly Tiba(題跋), which are comparatively simple and different from other complicated Zhazhus in Song Dynasty. Furthermore, Zhazhu works in this book might inspire the categorization of Liu Zhuqian's Song Wengjian (《宋文鑑》) and Zhou Bida's Ouyang Wenzhong gong Wenji(《歐陽文忠公文集》). Part of the selected chapters in the book are recognized as masterpieces of Ouyang Xiu by later generations, and they are also collected repeatedly in various anthologies, which proves that the editor has an eye for compilation. Also, the book is very likely to be the earliest single anthology of literati named after Wen Cui After that, such Wen Cui books have appeared one after another and were all the rage. In addition to the edition and document value, the significance of the compilation of Ouyang Wencui cannot be ignored. |
