Selection and Annotation of Qing Dynasty Poems and Lyrics on Tibet

Author: Gao Ping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-12-01
Features: For many years, the author has been dedicated to seeking out poems about Tibet written by Qing Dynasty scholars, striving to collect as many as possible. From eight different classical texts, the author selected 216 poems by 23 authors to compile this annotated collection, Poems on Tibet by Qing Scholars. Among these poems, there are few purely literary works; most were composed by military and political officials in their spare time, serving as authentic records of their personal experiences. They hold varying degrees of historical or literary value. The poems left behind by these 23 authors, with their distinctive Tibetan themes, may help to fill a gap in the tradition of frontier poems about the western borders. Due to historical limitations, some poems refer to Tibetans as "Fan" or "Man," and others promote the "benevolent grace of the imperial court"—this cannot be blamed on the predecessors. These authors were not renowned for their poetry, so from an artistic perspective, most cannot be compared to the frontier poems of the Tang Dynasty. This, too, cannot be faulted.