In the preface the compiler assures us that "this is but a family reader for children; but it will hold good until our hair is white." This statement, as years have passed, has proved true. The collection has always stood in China as the most popular volume of poetry, for poets and for the mass of the people alike. Even illiterates are familiar with the title of the book and with lines from it. Other selections may be of a higher standard and please scholars better, but none can compare with this in extensive circulation and accessible influence.
The anthology in Chinese is in two volumes. The first contains all "ancient" or "unruled" poems, and the second all "modern" or "ruled" poems. The former is again divided into two parts of five-character lines and seven-character lines, the latter into four parts: (1) eight five-character lines, (2) eight seven-character lines, (3) four five-character lines, and (4) four seven-character lines. In learning Chinese poems the order is always reversed. The shorter line of fewer characters should come first. We have, however, rearranged the volume in English, according to poets rather than to poetic technique, the poets following one another in the alphabetical order of their surnames. (The surname in Chinese comes first.) Under each poet we have kept the following order of poems:
- Modern poems of four five-character lines.
- Modern poems of four seven-character lines.
- Modern poems of eight five-character lines.
- Modern poems of eight seven-character lines.
- Ancient poems of five-character lines.
- Ancient poems of seven-character lines.
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