Quanyuanqu 全元曲 The Complete Collection of Yuan Period qu Arias

 The Quanyuanqu 全元曲 "Complete collection of Yuan period qu arias" is a collection of all surviving Yuan period (1279-1368) qu style 曲 arias.

The term qu normally includes two different types of literature, the first being "scattered arias" (sanqu 散曲) that were written like poems or songs, and the second being arias (geju 歌剧) as part of operas or theatre plays (zaju 杂剧). The interest of Chinese scholars and literati in Yuan period songs and operas was not very deep, and even important collectors like the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Li Kaixian 李开先 published not more than a few songs by Qiao Ji 乔吉 and Zhang Kejiu 张可久. The same authors were also the only ones regarded as worth mentioning by the authors of the eminent Qing period 清 (1644-1911) collectaneumSiku quanshu 四库全书. Wu Mei 吴梅 was the first scholar studying Yuan period arias, and the first publications on this type of songs were made by Ren Zhongmin 任中敏 (the collectaneum Sanqu congkan 散曲丛刊) and Lu Qian 卢前 (Yinhongyi suo kan qu 饮虹簃所刊曲). These publications instigated a lot of researches and collections, among these some rarities, like the sanqu collections Yangchun baixue 阳春白雪, Liyuan yuefu 梨园乐府, Taiping yuefu 太平乐府 and Yuefu qunyu 乐府群玉. The earliest comprehensive collection of "scattered arias" was Sui Shusen's 隋树森 Quan Yuan sanqu 全元散曲 that includes 3,853 songs (xiaoling 小令) and 457 suites (taoqu 套曲), with a total number of 4,310 songs. This is, of course, much less than the poems included in the Quantangshi 全唐诗 and Quansongci 全宋词, but the large number alone shows how productive Yuan period writers were in comparison to their collegues of earlier dynasties.
Except songs, the genre of qu includes whole theatre plays. The Yuan period plays consisted of spoken passages (kebai 科白) carrying on the plot, and of arias expressing the thoughts and feelings of the main characters (jiaose 角色). only the main female and male character sing arias - this is the main difference to European operas. According to the books Luguibu 录鬼簿 by Zhong Sicheng 钟嗣成, Luguibu xubian 录鬼簿续编 by Jia Zhongming 贾仲明 and Zhu Quan's 朱权 Taihe zhengyin pu 太和正音谱, there must have been some 600 theatre plays, of which only a small part has survived. In 1616, the collectors Zang Jinshu 臧晋叔 and Liu Yanbo 刘延伯 published a book including 100 seleced theatre plays, the Yuanquxuan 元曲选. Zang Jinshu has much been criticized by contemporarians that he had polished the original texts of many plays and not copied the original wording. Yet he was also praised for his merit to have been the first systematically collecting, arranging and publishing a large amount of surviving Yuan period theatre plays. The great historian Wang Guowei 王国维 (Song-Yuan xiqu kao 宋元戏曲考) and the Japanese scholar Yoshikawa Kōjirō 吉川幸次郎 acknowledged Zang's efforts. His book was followed by a series of other publications, like Yuankan zaju sanshi zhong 元刊杂剧三十种类, Li Kaixian's Gaiding Yuan xian chuanqi 改定元贤传奇, Zhao Qimei's 赵琦美Maiwangtang chaojiaoben gujin zaju 脉望堂钞校本古今杂剧, Gujin zaju xuan 古今杂剧选 by Xijizi 息机子, Chen Yujiao's 陈与郊 Gu mingjia zaju 古名家杂剧, Huang Zhengwei's 黄正位Yangchunzou 阳春奏, Gu Quzhai's 顾曲斋 Guzaju 古杂剧, or the books Liuzhiji 柳枝集 and Leijiangji 酹江集. Sui Shusen later enlarged his collection by the Yuanquxuan waibian 元曲选外编 that includes a further 62 plays. Zhao Jingshen 赵景深 has added a further collection of Yuan plays, the Yuanren zaju goushen 元人杂剧钩沉. These collections were the basic sources for the Quanyuanqu. A Ying 阿英 opened a new aspect of research in Yuan operas with his book Yuanren zaju shi 元人杂剧史, published in 1954, by investigating the social and economical circumstances of the time, as reflected in the plays of Guan Hanqing 关汉卿 and other authors. The field of Yuan operas since experienced a quick development, and the books published on this topic can be divided into several categories, like bibliographies, editions, textual critique, commentaries, melodies, historical relics, commented selections, translation, collections, or history.

The Quanyuanqu includes all known qu arias written by Yuan period authors, those known by name as well as anonymous writings. It includes in total 162 theatre plays, including the full text, and not only the arias. In addition to the above-mentioned number of "scattered arias", 45 fragmentary arias are included. It is also the case that some of the theatre plays are not complete, especially those copied from the earliest collection Yuankan zaju sanshi zhong. The authors are the main chapters of the collection, their order is not chronological but follows the order in the Luguibu. In these books, authors mainly writing theatre plays appear first, followed by authors professing in "scattered arias" (anonymous sanqu are not included). Full texts are ranging before fragments. Arias with the same musical mode (gongdiao 宫调) and the same basic melody pattern (qupai 曲牌) are brought together. For all authors, short biographies are provided, and all pieces are richly commented, including a text-critique comparing different editions and versions.