How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context: Poetic Culture from Antiquity Through the Tang (How to Read Chinese Literature)

__How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context__Each chapter focuses on a specific theme to show the interplay between poetry and the world. Readers discover the key role that poetry played in Chinese diplomacy, court politics, empire building, and institutionalized learning; as well as how poems shed light on gender and women's status, war and knight-errantry, Daoist and Buddhist traditions, and more. The chapters also show how people of different social classes used poetry as a means of gaining entry into officialdom, creating self-identity, fostering friendship, and airing grievances. The volume includes historical vignettes and anecdotes that contextualize individual poems, investigating how some featured texts subvert and challenge the grand narratives of Chinese history. Presenting poems in Chinese along with English translations and commentary, unites teaching poetry with the social circumstances surrounding its creation, making it a pioneering and versatile text for the study of Chinese language, literature, history, and culture. How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context is an introduction to the golden age of Chinese poetry, spanning the earliest times through the Tang dynasty (618–907). It aims to break down barriers—between language and culture, poetry and history—that have stood in the way of teaching and learning Chinese poetry. Not only a primer in early Chinese poetry, the volume demonstrates the unique and central role of poetry in the making of Chinese culture. Each chapter focuses on a specific theme to show the interplay between poetry and the world. Readers discover the key role that poetry played in Chinese diplomacy, court politics, empire building, and institutionalized learning; as well as how poems shed light on gender and women's status, war and knight-errantry, Daoist and Buddhist traditions, and more. The chapters also show how people of different social classes used poetry as a means of gaining entry into officialdom, creating self-identity, fostering friendship, and airing grievances. The volume includes historical vignettes and anecdotes that contextualize individual poems, investigating how some featured texts subvert and challenge the grand narratives of Chinese history. Presenting poems in Chinese along with English translations and commentary, How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context unites teaching poetry with the social circumstances surrounding its creation, making it a pioneering and versatile text for the study of Chinese language, literature, history, and culture. CONTENTS THEMATIC CONTENTS PREFACE TO THE HOW TO READ CHINESE LITERATURE SERIES PREFACE TO THE VOLUME CHRONOLOGY OF HISTORICAL EVENTS SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS Introduction: The Cultural Role of Chinese Poetry PART I: PRE-HAN TIMES 1. Poetry and Diplomacy in Zuo Tradition (Zuozhuan) 2. Poetry and Authorship: The Songs of Chu (Chuci) PART II: THE HAN DYNASTY 3. Empire in Text: Sima Xiangru’s “Sir Vacuous/Imperial Park Rhapsody” (“Zixu/Shanglin fu”) 4. Poetry and Ideology: The Canonization of the Book of Poetry (Shijing) During the Han 5. Love Beyond the Grave: A Tragic Tale of Love and Marriage in Han China PART III: THE SIX DYNASTIES 6. Heroes from Chaotic Times: The Three Caos 7. The Worthies of the Bamboo Grove 8. The Poetry of Reclusion: Tao Qian 9. The Struggling Buddhist Mind: Shen Yue PART IV: THE TANG DYNASTY 10. Knight-Errantry: Tang Frontier Poems 11. Tang Civil Service Examinations 12. Tang Women at the Public/Private Divide 13. Poetry and Buddhist Enlightenment: Wang Wei and Han Shan 14. Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon: Li Bai and the Poetics of Wine 15. Du Fu: The Poet as Historian 16. Poetry and Literati Friendship: Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen 17. Li He: Poetry as Obsession Acknowledgments Contributors Glossary-Index