is the first imperially commissioned Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese kanshi

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...

 collection. It was compiled by Ono no Minemori, Sugawara no Kiyotomo and others under the command of Emperor Saga

Emperor Saga

was the 52nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Saga's reign spanned the years from 809 through 823.-Traditional narrative:...

. The text was completed in 814

814

Year 814 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* Charlemagne dies in Aachen, aged 67 or 72...

.

Title

The title, Ryōunshū, is an allusion to poetry so great that it soars higher than the clouds. The preface also gives the title as , describing it as a "new collection".

Contents

The text begins with a preface outlining the background for and editorial principles surrounding the subject matter. The main text contains 91 poems contributed by 24 authors composed in kanshi style. The poems were ordered by author.