About the author
Guan Tingfen: public information about his life and nationality is limited; all that is currently known is that one work stands under his name, the Supplement to the Anthology of Song Poetry (Songshi Chao Bu). Judging by the title and its common classification, the book is an augmented, supplementary compilation of a general anthology of Song poetry, partaking of the nature of retrieval and supplementation. It is a documentary work concerning Song poetic texts rather than an original treatise on poetics or a theoretical monograph. The knowledge base places it under Eastern philosophy, which reflects a broad cataloguing category rather than indicating that the book consists mainly of philosophical argument. Readers approaching Song poetry through this work may gain textual leads at the level of the works themselves; its value lies more in documentary preservation and retrieval than in interpretation or exposition. The available materials are insufficient to sketch his life or the full scope of his writing, and further discussion of his scholarly standing and influence awaits more complete bibliographic information and textual criticism.