Myriad Moods (The Birth of Tang and Song Love Poetry)

Author: Chen Donggen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: At a banquet, Li Shangyin met Jin'er, and their eyes met. In an instant, they were deeply smitten. But who was Jin'er—Lingor Chu, the beloved courtesan of his benefactor, and the favored maiden of Lingor Tao, the young master. Their feelings burned fiercely, yet they could only secretly convey their longing. "On the tower at dusk, I long to gaze but pause. The jade ladder blocked, the moon like a hook. The banana leaves unfurl not, the lilac knots entwine, Both facing the spring breeze, each sorrowful." The poem appended at the end of the letter truly won Jin'er's admiration! Based on the concentration and readability of the story, this book specially selects ten poets and lyricists from the Tang to the Song dynasties, using their poems as clues to trace their lives. From the perspective of combining ancient and modern, and catering to both refined and popular tastes, it weaves a series of timeless tales. These ten geniuses are: Tang Dynasty: Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen, Li Shangyin, Du Mu, Wen Tingyun, Han Wang; Song Dynasty: Liu Yong, Su Shi, Yan Jidao, Qin Guan. They largely represent the romanticism of the Tang and Song eras. The author has extracted a fresh and engaging story from the dusty volumes of professional research, using authentic historical records, reliable poems, and detailed biographical anecdotes, hoping to draw readers closer to the versatile and compassionate scholar of over a thousand years ago, to understand those distant scholars and literati who gradually faded away.