Appreciation of Poems and Prose from the Eight Dynasties Before the Qin Dynasty

Author: Zhou Xiaotian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-02-01
Features: The Appreciation of the Four Books of Xintuoju is a series of books personally written by Mr. Zhou Xiaotian, focusing on the appreciation of ancient Chinese lyrical literature, including poetry, fu, ci, and qu, and introducing methods of appreciation. The series consists of four volumes: Appreciation of Poems and Fu from the Pre-Qin and Eight Dynasties, Appreciation of Poetry and Ci from the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Appreciation of Poetry, Ci, and Qu from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, and Methods of Appreciating Classical Poetry and Ci.
"The Pre-Qin and Eight Dynasties" represent the period of the emergence and development of ancient lyrical literature. Poetry was primarily composed of five-character and ancient styles, while fu evolved from Shao-style and grand fu to lyrical small fu. "The Sui, Tang, and Five Dynasties" was a flourishing period for poetry, with a wide variety of poetic forms and no beauty unattained. At the same time, the ci form emerged and began to gain popularity. "The Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties" marked a period of transformation in poetry, with particular innovation in ci and qu composition.
The first three volumes of The Appreciation of the Four Books follow this chronological order and analyze famous works. The fourth volume is dedicated to introducing methods of appreciating poetry and ci, along with illustrative examples. Each book in the series includes an introduction or overview, providing a detailed explanation of the basic categories of Chinese lyrical literature and their processes of emergence, development, flourishing, and transformation. Biographical sketches of lyrical writers are included, placed before each selected work. Thus, the entire series integrates the history of poetry, poetics, famous works, appreciation, and methods into one cohesive whole. With one volume in hand, readers can gain systematic knowledge of Chinese lyrical literature and its methods of appreciation.
The Appreciation of the Four Books includes a stroke-order index and a phonetic index of author names and titles, placed at the end of the fourth volume, Methods of Appreciating Classical Poetry and Ci. The texts of the famous works are based on commonly accepted editions, with variant readings chosen for their excellence without specific annotation. Additionally, a list of major reference materials is provided at the end of the fourth volume for readers' reference and consultation.