The Book of Poetry : Marriage poems

Many of the 160 guofeng or airs of the states are poems depicting lovers both true to their partners and false. “On the mountain is the thorn elm” seems to depict a relationship gone bad. It is followed by one of the most famous marriage poems, “The Peach Tree Tender,” in which a village singer outside the family praises the selection of a new bride

The Book of Poetry : Zhou dynastic building

“Woven” like many of the Da ya (Greater Odes) sings of two of the heroes who laid the groundwork for their grandson and son to overcome the Shang and establish the Zhou dynasty. The text lends itself to memorization and may have been part of early court ritual as our own Star-Spangled Banner celebrates an event in the early history of our country

The Book of Poetry : Courtship poems

The three courtship forms, “I Beg of you, Zhong Zi,” “The Banks of the Ru,” and “The Retiring Girl,” present contrasting depictions of the courtship process in early China. In the first, a village encounter between two lovers or potential lovers is depicted. The man and the woman in “The Banks of the Ru” may be married or simply lovers, but the link to the previous poem is the concern about the girl’s parents. This is the most clearly erotic of the poems presented. “The Retiring Girl” depicts a couple in a relationship with the young woman still reticent to have their love made public

TANG DYNASTY TALES:A Guided Reader

The book begins with a history of previous translations of Tang tales, surveying how Chinese scholarship has shaped the reception and rendition of these texts in the West. In that context, Tang Dynasty Tales offers the first annotated translations of six major tales (often called chuanqi, “transmitting the strangeâ€) which are interpreted specifically for students and scholars interested in medieval Chinese literature. Following the model of intertextual readings that Glen Dudbridge introduced in his The Tale of Li Wa (Oxford, 1983), the annotation points to resonances with classical texts, while setting the tales in the political world of their time; the “Translator's Notes†that follow each translation explain how these resonances and topical contexts expand the meaning of the text. Each translation is also supported by a short glossary of original terms from the tale and a bibliography guiding the reader to further studies.The meticulous scholarship of this book elevates it above all existing collections of these stories, and the inclusion of a history of the translation work in the west, intended for graduate students, researchers, and other translators, broadens the collections' appeal.Tang Literature, Tang Tales, Traditional Chinese Literature, Traditional Chinese Fiction, Chuanqi, Tang Language