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The is an anthology of
The is an anthology of Chinese poems
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language. While this last term comprises Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Yue Chinese, and other historical and vernacular forms of the language, its poetry ...
(Jp. ''kanshi ''漢詩) and 31-syllable Japanese waka (Jp. ''tanka'' 短歌) for singing to fixed melodies
A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combinati ...
(the melodies are now extinct).
The text was compiled by Fujiwara no Kintō
, also known as Shijō-dainagon, was a Japanese poet, admired by his contemporaries "... Fujiwara no Kinto (966–1008), the most admired poet of the day." pg 283 of Donald Keene's '' Seeds in the Heart''. and a court bureaucrat of the Heian p ...
ca. 1013. It contains 588 Chinese poems by some 30 Chinese poets, including Bai Juyi
Bai Juyi (also Bo Juyi or Po Chü-i; ; 772–846), courtesy name Letian (樂天), was a renowned Chinese poet and Tang dynasty government official. Many of his poems concern his career or observations made about everyday life, including as g ...
(Po Chü-i; 772－846), Yuan Zhen
Yuan Zhen (; 779 – September 2, 831), courtesy name Weizhi (), was a Chinese novelist, poet, and politician of the middle Tang Dynasty. In prose literature, Yuan Zhen is particularly known for his work ''Yingying's Biography'', which has often ...
(Yüan Shen; 779－831) and Xu Hun
Xu Hun (, fl. first half of ninth century) was a Chinese poet. He was poet in the Tang poetry tradition of the Tang Dynasty. By passing the rigorous requirements of the imperial examination system, he received his ''Jinshi'' degree, in 832, and ...
(Hsü Hun; fl ca 850) together with some 50 Japanese poets of Chinese verse such as Sugawara no Michizane
was a scholar, poet, and politician of the Heian Period of Japan. He is regarded as an excellent poet, particularly in Kanshi poetry, and is today revered in Shinto as the god of learning, . In the poem anthology '' Hyakunin Isshu'', he is know ...
, Minamoto no Shitagau (911－983), Ōe no Asatsuna (886－957), Ki no Haseo (845－912), and others. The 216 waka poems in the collection are by 80 famous poets such as Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (柿本 人麻呂 or 柿本 人麿; – ) was a Japanese ''waka'' poet and aristocrat of the late Asuka period. He was the most prominent of the poets included in the ''Man'yōshū'', the oldest ''waka'' anthology, but ap ...
, Ki no Tsurayuki
was a Japanese author, poet and court noble of the Heian period. He is best known as the principal compiler of the ''Kokin Wakashū'', also writing its Japanese Preface, and as a possible author of the '' Tosa Diary'', although this was publish ...
, Ōshikōchi Mitsune, among many other illustrious names.
''Wakan rōeishū'' is divided into two books: "Seasonal poems" occupy the first book, while Miscellanea are in the second. The poems are further sub-classified by common topics (Jp. ''dai'' 題); ''kanshi'' alternate with ''waka'' on the same subject.Thomas LaMarre (2000). ''Uncovering Heian Japan: an archaeology of sensation and inscription''. Durham, NC : Duke University Press. offers an in-depth theoretical discussion of the text (cf. Index at the back).
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