Selected Poems of the Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties

Author: Wu Guoping (Editor)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: Poetry from the Western Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty, which was also commonly referred to as the "Eight Dynasties Poetry." The time span is approximately from 200 BC to 600 AD, encompassing over 800 years of creation and circulation history. This is a long and significant stage in the evolution of Chinese poetry, from the Book of Songs and Chuci to the Tang Dynasty poetry. In the grand river of poetic history, it can be regarded as the lineage of the Book of Songs and Chuci, and the source of Tang Dynasty poetry. This book selects 150 poets and over 530 works, including more than 100 anonymous works. The selected works are categorized by dynasty and then roughly arranged in chronological order of the poets' birth years. Due to the prioritization of dynasty classification, poets are assigned to dynasties based on (customary practice) of their later official appointments, which sometimes conflicts with chronological ordering. As a result, older poets may appear later in the list, and poems composed in response to each other may end up belonging to different dynasties. We kindly ask readers to bear with this, as such cases are not numerous. Biographical introductions, poem titles, annotations, and commentaries are provided, with references to the opinions of past and present scholars clearly noted. Generally, the main text of the poems is not annotated, but if variant readings are relevant to the understanding of the poem's meaning, they are also annotated accordingly.