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Chinese Literature - Poetry - Ancient Poetry

Early poetry

The Book of Songs (Shi Jing) was the the first comprehensive anthology of Chinese poems including including 305 poems of the Zhou Dynasty (1122-256 B.C.). It was originally called Shi (Poems) and Shi Sanbai (Three Hundred Poems). Each poem in The Book of Songs was set to music and could be sung. The compilers classified the 305 poems into folk songs, ceremonial songs, and sacrificial songs, according to their contents and the style of the music.

In China "poetic education" in the original meaning is learning The Book of Songs. Confucius (551 B.C. - 479 B.C.), a great philosopher and educator was very fond of The Book of Songs. He used to recite the poems from time to time, and used it as a textbook for his pupils. In the Han Dynasty, The Book of Songs was formally accepted as a classic of the Confucian school, called Shi Jing. The Book of Songs has over a long period of times been highly appreciated, and has exerted a profound and far-reaching influence on the development of Chinese literature, especially that of poetry, over a period of more than 2000 years. It has also served as important historical data for the study of ancient China from the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period.

Classical poetry
During the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220), the Chu lyrics evolved into the fu (賦), a poem usually in rhymed verse except for introductory and concluding passages that are in prose, often in the form of questions and answers. A second early and influential poetic anthology was the Chuci (楚辭 Songs of Chu), made up primarily of poems ascribed to the semi-legendary Qu Yuan (ca. 340-278 B.C.) and his follower Song Yu (fourth century B.C.). The songs in this collection are more lyrical and romantic and represent a different tradition from the earlier Classic of Poetry (Shi Jing).

From the Han dynasty onwards, a process similar to the origins of the Shi Jing produced the yue fu poems. Again, these were song lyrics, including original folk songs, court imitations and versions by known poets (the best known of the latter being those of Li Bai).

From the second century AD, the yue fu began to develop into shi or classical poetry- the form which was to dominate Chinese poetry until the modern era. These poems have five or seven character lines, with a caesura before the last three characters of each line. They are divided into the original gushi (old poems) and jintishi, a stricter form developed in the Tang dynasty with rules governing tone patterns and the structure of the content. The greatest writers of gushi and jintishi are often held to be Li Bai and Du Fu respectively. All subsequent Chinese poetry derives its forms from the creations of this time. The number of known Tang poets runs into thousands; their output was enormous, and almost very great poet's work was published in one way or another. Yet a selection for common use from this vast field did not appear until the 18th century that an anonymous scholar who signed himself Heng-tang-tui-shi, the Retiring Scholar of the Fragrant Pool, compiled the third standard anthology of Chinese poetry, the Tang Shi San Bai Shou or Three Hundred Tang Poems. Three Hundred Tang Poems contains representative poems by seventy-seven of the greatest Tang poets. Nine of the seventy-seven poets in the anthology: Wang Wei, Zhang Jiuling, Meng Haoran, Li Bai, Du Fu, Li Shangyin, Bai Juyi, Du Mu and Liu Zongyuan, are read more than the others by the Chinese themselves. Readers in general accepted the book, and it has been reprinted in countless editions for two hundred years. Schools have used it all over China, and scholars generally know a great deal of it by heart.

Later classical poetry
Towards the end of the Tang dynasty, the ci lyric became more popular. Most closely associated with the Song dynasty, ci most often expressed feelings of desire, often in an adopted persona, but the greatest exponents of the form (such as Li Houzhu and Su Shi) used it to address a wide range of topics. As the ci gradually became more literary and artificial after Song times, the san qu, a freer form, based on new popular songs, developed. The use of san qu songs in drama marked an important step in the development of vernacular literature.

After the Song dynasty, both shi poems and lyrics continued to be composed until the end of end of the imperial period, and to a lesser extent to this day. However, for a number of reasons, these works have always been less highly regarded than those of the Tang dynasty in particular. Firstly, Chinese literary culture remained in awe of its predecessors: in a self-fulfilling prophecy, writers and readers both expected that new works would not bear comparison with the earlier masters. Secondly, the most common response of these later poets to the tradition which they had inherited was to produce work which was ever more refined and allusive; the resulting poems tend to seem precious or just obscure to modern readers. Thirdly, the increase in population, expansion of literacy, wider dissemination of works through printing and more complete archiving vastly increased the volume of work to consider and made it difficult to identify and properly evaluate those good pieces which were produced. Finally, this period saw the rise of vernacular literature, particularly drama and novels, which increasingly became the main means of cultural expression.

tao yuan-ming

Library of Chinese Classics: The Complete Works of Tao Yuanming
Written by Tao Yuanming  (the Eastern Jin Dynasty)
Translated into English by Wang Rongpei
Translated into Modern Chinese by Xiong Zhiqi
Publisher: Huan People's Publishing House, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
Publication Date: 2003-12
Language: Chinese and English
ISBN: 754383216x
Library Binding: hardcover, 277 pages buy

Tao Qian (T'ao Ch'ien, T'ao Yuan-ming) 365-427

Poet of the Eastern Jin dynasty and generally regarded as being one of the foremost pre-Tang poets after Qu Yuan in the history of Chinese poetry. A native of Chaisang (present-day Jiangxi), Tao's family belonged to the Xi minority, and although it boasted some illustrious forebears was poor by the time of the poet's birth. Around the age of 30, Tao served in local government but resigned his post not long afterwards. Other postings followed, but these too were of short duration. He abandoned his post and returned to the country life because he was not satisfied with the social realities of his day. He spent some 22 years in retirement, supporting his family by farming. Talented in various genres of prose and poetry, he described in his writings the natural beauty and his rustic life, permeated with his antipathy for the privileged and his aloofness in the status quo.

Over 120 pieces of Tao's writing have survived, many of them written in a philosophical vein. All his poems are full of emotion and everlasting pleasure, whether they del with the dreariness of official duties, the disgust for an official career, the beauty of country life, the fun of a leisurely life, the pleasure of farming, the inflictions of poverty, the meditation on human existence, the lessons drawn from nature, the nostalgia for ancient simplicity, or the eulogy of hermits and recluses. His nature poems are especially praise-worthy. He was a precursor of a type of pastoral landscape poetry known as tianyuan shi, and favored themes such as drinking and rustic life. The Tang poetry was under the direct influence of Tao Yuanming, especially the landscape poems and pastoral poems by Wang Wei, Meng Haoran, Chu Guangxi, Wei Yingwu and Liu Zongyuan. In the Song Dynasty, Tao Yuanming's personality and works were held in very high esteem. Since the Song Dynast, "plainness" and "naturalness" have become the fixed attributes to Tao Yuanming's poems, and Tao Yuanming has occupied an important place in the history of Chinese literature. Tao is also renowned for two prose works, Taohua yuan ji [A Record of Peach-blossom spring] about a utopia untouched by the ravages of civilization and Wuliu xiansheng zhuan [Biography of Mr Five Willows].

The Complete Works of Tao Yuanming comprises over 120 plain and sincere poems plus 11 simple and lucid prose essays, which have exerted great influence in the history of Chinese literature and have been circulated in many countries all over the world.

大中华文库汉英对照：陶渊明集

大中华文库汉英对照：陶渊明集
作　者：(东晋)陶渊明著; 汪榕培英译; 熊治祁今译
出版社：湖南出版
日　期：2004
开　本：24cm
页　数：277页
装　帧：精装
ISBN：754383216x

本书收录了陶渊明生平所作的全部优秀作品。

陶渊明(365～427)，晋宋时期诗人、辞赋家、散文家。一名潜，字元亮，私谥靖节。浔阳柴桑(今江西九江西南)人。陶渊明出生于一个没落的仕宦家庭。曾祖陶侃是东晋开国元勋，官至大司马，都督八州军事、荆江二州刺史，封长沙郡公。陶渊明的祖父作过太守，父亲早死，母亲是东晋名士孟嘉的女儿。陶渊明一生大略可分为三个时期。第一时期，晋孝武帝太元十七年(392)陶渊明28岁以前。由于父亲早死，他从少年时代就处于生活贫困之中。第二时期，学仕时期，从太元十八年他29岁到晋安帝义熙元年 (405)41岁。第三时期，归田时期,从晋安帝义熙二年(406)至宋文帝元嘉四年(427)病故。归田后20多年，是他创作最丰富的时期。陶渊明今存诗歌共125首，计四言诗9首,五言诗116首。他的四言诗并不太出色。他的五言诗可大略分为两大类；一类是继承汉魏以来抒情言志传统而加以发展的咏怀诗，一类是几乎很少先例的田园诗。陶诗的艺术成就从唐代开始受到推崇，甚至被当作是“为诗之根本准则”。陶渊明死后 100多年，萧统搜集他的遗文，区分编目，编定了《陶渊明集》 8卷，并亲自写序，作传。后来，北齐阳休之又在萧本基础上，增加了别本的《五孝传》和《四八目》，合序目为10卷本《陶潜集》。阳本隋末失其序目，为9卷本。此后，别本纷出，争欲凑成10卷，北宋时宋庠又重新刊定10卷本《陶潜集》，为陶诗最早刊本。以上各本都没有传下来。今能看到的最早版本是几种南宋至元初本。主要有:曾集诗文两册本,南宋绍熙三年刊，有清光绪影刻本；汲古阁藏10卷本，南宋刊，有清代影刻本；焦氏藏 8卷本，南宋刊，有焦氏明翻本,今《汉魏七十二家集》中《陶集》5卷亦即焦翻宋本。此外，还有宋刊《东坡先生和陶渊明诗》本和元刊苏写大字本等。最早为陶诗作注的是南宋汤汉。元以后注本、评本日增。元初刊本有李公焕《笺注陶渊明集》10卷：常见有四部丛刊影印本。清代陶澍注《靖节先生集》10卷，有家刊本及文学古籍刊行社排印本。近人古直《陶靖节诗笺》，有“隅楼丛书”本，“层冰堂五种”本，后者称为《陶靖节诗笺定本》。

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