The Compass of the Reception History of BAI Juyi——The Circulation and Transformation of BAI Juyi's Anthologies Through the Ages

Among the numerous poetry and prose anthologies of all dynasties, the selection ratio of BAI Juyi's works serves as a barometer of his position in the history of reception and a display of the degree of attention to his works. It also plays a guiding and restrictive role in the choices and reading interests of the recipients. Given the abundance and redundancy of BAIs poems, they must be carefully selected to achieve refinement and elimination for improvement, therefore the selection process is not an easy task. If there are too few works to select from, it is difficult to extract the essence; if there are too many, it is challenging to make eliminations. Combing through the circulation and transformation of BAI Juyi's poetry and prose anthologies before the Qing Dynasty, investigating the specialized and thematic selections of his works, and analyzing and comparing their selection criteria, general principles, comments, annotations, prefaces, and postscripts, is an important aspect in the study of the reception history of BAI Juyi. It is not an exaggeration to call it a compass.