Tang and Song Ci - (Treasure Edition)

Author: Lin Guanfu (Selected and Commented)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: Poetry (ci) is a major category in ancient Chinese literature and a special one. When discussing this literary category, there are often two situations: sometimes, poetry and ci are mentioned together, and sometimes, ci is included within poetry. This is because the concept of poetry has both broad and narrow meanings in literary studies. When used narrowly, poetry and ci each have their own domains, while when used broadly, it also encompasses the textual forms of other categories like ci and sanqu. Therefore, ci can be seen as merely a special branch within the broader field of poetry, or as a category within general poetry. As a branch of the overall field of poetry, ci naturally shares the common characteristics of general poetry. The greatest difference in expressive forms between ci and poetry lies in the complex similarities and differences in their chapters and sentence structures. Both ci and narrow poetry are set to music and sung, and both have an extraordinary connection with music.