The is an anthology of Chinese poems

Kanshi (poetry)

is a Japanese term for Chinese poetry in general as well as the poetry written in Chinese by Japanese poets. It literally means "Han poetry". Kanshi was the most popular form of poetry during the early Heian period in Japan among Japanese aristocrats and proliferated until the modern period.The...

 (Jp. kanshi 漢詩) and 31-syllable Japanese waka

Waka (poetry)

Waka or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature...

 (Jp. tanka 短歌) for singing to fixed melodies

Melody

A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...

 (the melodies are now extinct).

Compiled by Fujiwara no Kintō

Fujiwara no Kinto

, also known as Shijō-dainagon, was a Japanese poet, admired by his contemporaries and a court bureaucrat of the Heian period. His father was the regent Fujiwara no Yoritada and his son Fujiwara no Sadayori...

 ca. 1013.

This text contains 588 Chinese poems by some 30 Chinese poets, including Bai Juyi (Po Chü-i; 772－846), Yuan Zhen

Yuan Zhen

Yuan Zhen , courtesy name Weizhi , was a politician of the middle Tang Dynasty, but is more known as an important Chinese writer and poet, particularly for work Yingying's Biography , which was often adapted for other treatments, including operatic and musical ones...

 (Yüan Shen; 779－831) and Xu Hun

Xu Hun

Xu Hun was a Chinese poet of the Tang poetry tradition of the Tang Dynasty. He received his Jinshi degree through the imperial examination system in 832, and subsequently followed a "moderately distinguished" professional career...

 (Hsü Hun; fl ca 850) together with some 50 Japanese poets of Chinese verse such as Sugawara no Michizane

Sugawara no Michizane

, also known as Kan Shōjō , a grandson of Sugawara no Kiyotomo , was a scholar, poet, and politician of the Heian Period of Japan...

, Minamoto no Shitagau (911－983), Ōe no Asatsuna (886－957), Ki no Haseo (845－912), etc. The 216 waka poems in the collection are by 80 famous poets such as Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a Japanese poet and aristocrat of the late Asuka period. He was the most prominent of the poets included in the Man'yōshū, and was particularly represented in volumes 1 and 2. In Japan, he is considered one of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals...

, Ki no Tsurayuki

Ki no Tsurayuki

was a Japanese author, poet and courtier of the Heian period.Tsurayuki was a son of Ki no Mochiyuki. He became a waka poet in the 890s. In 905, under the order of Emperor Daigo, he was one of four poets selected to compile the Kokin Wakashū, an anthology of poetry.After holding a few offices in...

, Ōshikōchi Mitsune

Oshikochi Mitsune

Ōshikōchi no Mitsune was an early Heian administrator and waka poet of the Japanese court , and a member of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals. He was sent as the governor of Kai, Izumi and Awaji provinces, and on his return to Kyoto was asked to participate in the compilation of the Kokin Wakashū...

, among many other illustrious names.

Wakan rōeishū is divided into two books: "Seasonal poems" occupy the first book, while Miscellanea are in the second. The poems are further sub-classified by common topics (Jp. dai 題); kanshi alternate with waka on the same subject.