Listen to this articlebiéjí 别集
Individual Collection
汇集某一作家个人诗文作品的集子（与汇集多人诗文作品的“总集”相对）。西汉刘歆《七略》有“诗赋略”，录有屈原、唐勒、宋玉等66家的作品，皆以作家为单位，是图书“别集”之始。东汉以后别集渐繁，两汉魏晋南北朝别集见于《隋书·经籍志》的就有886部，历代文人学者几乎人人有集。只收诗作的称为诗集，单收文或诗文并收的称为文集。别集常以作家姓名、字号、谥号、籍贯、居住地等命名。别集保存了某一作家的全部传世作品，是作家心灵世界的真实展示，也是后人认识和研究作家思想与文学成就的主要材料。
The term refers to a collection of works by an individual author, in contrast to an anthology which amalgamates the works of many writers. In the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xin composed Seven Categories, one of the categories being “The Catalogue of Shi and Fu,” which collects the literary works of 66 writers including Qu Yuan, Tang Le, and Song Yu. Organized by author, “The Catalogue of Shi and Fu” was regarded as the beginning of individual collections. Many more individual collections were compiled in the Eastern Han Dynasty, as exemplified by the 886 collections of writers from the Han through Wei and Jin to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, recorded in The History of the Sui Dynasty. Nearly every author had his own collection. Collections devoted to poetry were usually entitled collection of poems while those concerned with prose or both poetry and prose were entitled collection of writings. An individual collection might be entitled after the author’s name, pen name, posthumous title, birth place, or residence. Containing all the major works of an author, an individual collection enables readers to learn about the author’s aspirations and therefore provides a valuable source for the study of his ideas and literary achievements for later generations.
引例 Citation：
◎别集之名，盖汉东京之所创也。自灵均已降，属文之士众矣，然其志尚不同，风流殊别。后之君子，欲观其体势而见其心灵，故别聚焉，名之为集。（《隋书·经籍志》）
（别集的名称，大概是东汉时创立。自屈原以下，写作文章的文士太多了，但他们各自的志向和崇尚不同，风格和遗韵也相差很大。后代的人想通过文章考察作家的风格气势并窥见其内心世界，于是把他们的作品单独汇总在一起，称之为“集”。）
What is known as bieji (别集) appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Literary history since Qu Yuan witnessed an increasing number of creative writers with distinctive aspirations, preferences, literary features, and tastes. To examine the style, strength, as well as the spiritual world of a specific author, later generations put together all his works and called it ji (集) or collection. (The History of the Sui Dynasty)
