The Wen-lin-kuan was established on the ping-wu day 丙午 of the second moon in the fourth year of wu-ping 武平 (573), as indicated in the Pel Ch'i shu Hou-chu chi. 北斉書後主記 This may be illustrated as follows. In the autumn of 573 soon after the compilation of a great anthology named Sheng-shou-t'angyu-lan 聖寿堂御覧 was completed, Premier Tsu Ting 祖珽 summoned seventeen literary gentles to the Hsiu-wen-tien to assign them to revise and supplement the anthology. Prior to this revision work, Emperor Hou-chu, who had been reputed extremely imbecile and fond of screen paintings with pictures of the famous old sages and varied stanzas of contemporary light verse, sometimes invited Yen Chih-t'ui 顔之椎 and others to the Court as Kuan-k'o 館客 and enjoyed their company in reciting poems. After Yen joined in the revision, in the second moon of 574 the two circles were combined to form the Wen-lin-kuan, with the participating literary gentles renamed tai-chao 待詔. The Hsiu-wen-tien yu-lan was completed a month after the Wen-lin-kuan was thus set up. Although the anthology is no longer extant, it was composed of 360 scrolls, according to the existing catalogues. It was to be used as one of the sources in the preparation of the T'ai-ping yu-lan 太平御覧 of the Sung Dynasty.

松本信廣先生古稀記念