| Sumario: | This article reassesses the development of the preface as a literary genre through an examination of a preface composed by Yan Yanzhi 顏延之 (384-456) for an imperial banquet held in 434. The preface by Yan Yanzhi is an important example of the phenomenon of the paratext whose fame came to surpass that of its text. Although this work was well-regarded during and after the author's lifetime, later critics have viewed it as excessive in length and insufficient in its treatment of the poems it ostensibly accompanied. Modern scholarship has struggled to reconcile the ostentatious rhetoric and grand scale of Yan Yanzhi's work with the paratextual functions of the preface. An overview of early prefaces, with attention to the subgenre of prefaces to banquet poem collections, reveals that, far from disregarding the functional requirements of prefaces, Yan Yanzhi builds on an existing framework to construct a work befitting his task and worthy of the occasion. In situating Yan Yanzhi's preface within the development of the genre, this discussion highlights the representation and expression of authority (in both senses of the word) in prefaces and contributes to ongoing research on imperial engagement with literary composition in Chinese courts.
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