Textual Research on Different Editions of Selected Poems of the Tang Dynasty by Wang Jinggong

Wang Anshi,alias Wang Jinggong,a reformer who sought to regulate many aspects of Northern Song culture from education to the military,was born to a modest family with a history of government service.When the conservative forces in the government opposed his reforms,he fell from favor and resigned.He was a protege of Ouyang Xiu,who praised his work.His works were seen as in the Confucian tradition of promoting moral and social improvements.His collected poems consist of more than 1500 pieces,and a number of his prose pieces also survive.He is known for the simplicity and clarity of his poems,especially for those written in the regulated verse form,and as one of the Eight Masters of Song and Tang Dynasty Prose.The important work authored by Wang Anshi,titled the Selected Poems of the Tang Dynasty by Wang Jinggong,has come in many different editions since the Northern Song Dynasty,often without any substantial differences.This paper aims to identify the many different editions extant by classifying them into two categories:one being individual transmitter-based and the other being circulating type-based.