Ye Wan Collection is the earliest Japanese poetry collection, which is actually equivalent to the position of The Book of Songs in China.
Ye Wan Collection is the oldest collection of Japanese harmony songs. Collected more than 4,500 long songs, short songs and revolving songs (a kind of harmony songs) from the 4th century to the 8th century (from Emperor Rende to Emperor He Chun), including 260 Long song songs, 4 short songs170 songs and 6 revolving songs1song. Most of the works belong to the Nara era (the eighth century). The Book of Leaves is as important in the history of Japanese literature as The Book of Songs is in the history of China literature.
Twenty volumes of Ye Wan Ji were published in 770 (the first year of Treasure Turtle).
In Japan, there are different opinions on the interpretation of the title of Ye Wan Collection. Some people say that "Ye" means "Ye Yan" and Japanese "Ye Yan" means "speech" in Chinese, so "Ye Wan Collection" is "Wan Yan Collection". Some people say that "night" refers to the times, so "Ye Wan Ji" means "Wan Dai Ji" or "Shiwan Ji". Some people say that a collection of songs is like a forest of songs. Where there are forests, there are leaves. "Leaves" refers to leaves, and "Leaves Collection" refers to poetry collections.
Poems in The Collection of Ye Wan can be divided into three categories: miscellaneous songs, Wen Xiang and elegies. The range of miscellaneous songs includes embracing the four seasons, bon voyage, hunting and traveling, and remembering the capital. What we hear from each other are emotional questions, mostly love songs from men and women, and poems from relatives and friends. Elegy mainly refers to poems mourning the dead.