Appreciation of Poetry and Lyrics from the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, and Ten Kingdoms Periods

Author: Zhou Xiaotian
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-03-24
Features: The Appreciation of the Four Books in Xintuoju is a series of books personally authored by Mr. Zhou Xiaotian, dedicated to appreciating ancient Chinese lyrical literature such as poetry, fu, ci, and qu, while also introducing methods of appreciation. The series consists of four volumes: Appreciation of Poetry 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 written in five-character and ancient styles, while fu evolved from Shao-style and grand fu to lyrical small fu. "The Sui, Tang, and Five Dynasties" were a flourishing era for poetry, with a wide variety of poetic forms and no beauty unattained. Meanwhile, the ci form emerged and began to gain popularity. "The Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties" marked a period of evolution 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, analyzing famous works. The fourth volume focuses exclusively on introducing methods of appreciating poetry and ci, accompanied by illustrative examples. Each book in the series includes an introduction or general overview, providing a detailed explanation of the fundamental categories of Chinese lyrical literature and their processes of emergence, development, flourishing, and evolution. 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 also includes a stroke-order index and a phonetic index of author names and work 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.