How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology (How to Read Chinese Literature) by Zong-Qi Cai


How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology (How to Read Chinese Literature)
Title : How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology (How to Read Chinese Literature)
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0231139411
ISBN-10 : 9780231139410
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 426
Publication : First published January 1, 2007

In this guided anthology, experts lead students through the major genres and eras of Chinese poetry from antiquity to the modern time. The volume is divided into 6 chronological sections and features more than 140 examples of the best shi, sao, fu, ci, and qu poems. A comprehensive introduction and extensive thematic table of contents highlight the thematic, formal, and prosodic features of Chinese poetry, and each chapter is written by a scholar who specializes in a particular period or genre. Poems are presented in Chinese and English and are accompanied by a tone-marked romanized version, an explanation of Chinese linguistic and poetic conventions, and recommended reading strategies. Sound recordings of the poems are available online free of charge. These unique features facilitate an intense engagement with Chinese poetical texts and help the reader derive aesthetic pleasure and insight from these works as one could from the original.

The companion volume How to Read Chinese Poetry Workbook presents 100 famous poems (56 are new selections) in Chinese, English, and romanization, accompanied by prose translation, textual notes, commentaries, and recordings.

Contributors: Robert Ashmore (Univ. of California, Berkeley); Zong-qi Cai; Charles Egan (San Francisco State); Ronald Egan (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara); Grace Fong (McGill); David R. Knechtges (Univ. of Washington); Xinda Lian (Denison); Shuen-fu Lin (Univ. of Michigan); William H. Nienhauser Jr. (Univ. of Wisconsin); Maija Bell Samei; Jui-lung Su (National Univ. of Singapore); Wendy Swartz (Columbia); Xiaofei Tian (Harvard); Paula Varsano (Univ. of California, Berkeley); Fusheng Wu (Univ. of Utah)


How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology (How to Read Chinese Literature) Reviews


  • Oliver Ho

    An interesting book but I think it might be aimed more at students of Chinese language and literature, rather than a layperson like me. It felt quite academic at times, and was a bit of a slog to get through. Regardless, it's still a good introduction to classical Chinese poetry and it offers insights into the historical contexts, development and interpretation of the poems. In particular, I appreciated the word-for-word translations that accompanied most of the poems, along with a more standard translation. These showed the difficulty of translation, and led me to another book I would like to read, called, "19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei," which takes a short poem and demonstrates how it can be interpreted and translated at least 19 different ways. I will probably dip into this anthology again from time to time.

  • Stan Murai

    Since I have a working knowledge of Chinese and
    Japanese, I used to compare the original Chinese
    text to the translation of any Chinese poetry that
    I was reading. I often felt something was lacking in
    the translation since the sources for the Chinese texts
    were generally included accompanying aids, like
    annotations, commentaries, background information
    on the poem and author, plus a paraphrase in modern
    Chinese or Japanese. Most Chinese or Japanese collections
    of Chinese poems are like the well-known study aids
    Cliff Notes with all kinds of helpful information for
    understanding poems.

    This "guided" anthology, edited by Professor Zong-Qi Cai
    is a collection of essays by experts who guide students
    through the major genres and eras of Chinese poetry from
    ancient to relatively the modern times. The book is divided
    into 6 chronological sections and includes more than 140
    examples of the best poems in various styles (shi, sao, fu, ci,
    and qu poems). It is a comprehensive introduction to the
    thematic, formal, and prosodic features of Chinese poetry.
    Each chapter is written by a scholar with a specialty in a
    particular period or genre. The poems are presented in
    Chinese and English, accompanied by a tone-marked
    romanized version with an explanation of Chinese
    linguistic and poetic conventions, and recommended
    strategies for reading the poems. Sound recordings of the
    poems are available online free of charge. This book
    fulfills a real need for tools to understand the Chinese
    poetic tradition. The kind of information accompanying
    each poem is much like the notes that appear in Chinese and
    Japanese anthologies of poems. It also helps dispel certain
    myths about Chinese poetry and the written language that
    are commonly held because of Ezra Pound and Ernest
    Fenollosa, who lacked any real knowledge of Chinese
    in spite of the success of their translations. They were
    impressed by features such as the iconicity of the ideograms
    which are really only a very small part of the
    written language and have little effect on the production
    of the actual poems.

  • Jared

    If you've been reading lots of Classical Chinese Poetry in translation (as I have) this book is totally fascinating, and gives you a comprehensive technical understanding of forms and genres. If you're into technique, this'll really change the way you think about, for example, how syntactic parallelism can create relationships in a pretty non-metaphoric way. Also really helps you understand the challenges of translation, helps you read translations with a clearer sense of how the original forms operate (and are pretty difficult to translate literally). It's totally technical!

  • Anders

    Extremely thorough in breadth and depth, and an excellent place to start for those wishing to work towards an understanding of this mind-bogglingly rich subject.
    As it can be highly technical at times, and unavoidably caters to those with some Chinese ability, it works best either as a slow, careful read-through taking notes or as a multilayered reference source for historical background, verse technique and cultural reference points not readily apparent to the untrained barbarian.

  • Michael Pratt

    This volume is an essential reference for any student of Chinese--or simply any poetry lover--interested in how Chinese verse works. The recordings of the anthologized poems which can be downloaded for free from the publisher's website are an added benefit. I cannot recommend this marvelous and enlightening book too strongly.