Tang people selected Tang poems

Author: Linghu Chu, Yin Fan, et al. (editors)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-16
Features: During the golden age of Chinese poetry in the Tang Dynasty, critics, connoisseurs, and numerous poets once possessed their own distinct criteria for evaluation and aesthetic principles. The poems they cherished, the masterpieces recited among them, and the poetic ideals they admired were far from the monotonous uniformity we know today. Without a doubt, as time passed, many important poems were lost, and some outstanding poets were forgotten, obscuring the poetic aspirations and poetic ideals of the Tang people to varying degrees. Since the Song Dynasty, numerous compilers of Tang poetry have emerged, with countless anthologies being published, most of which are known as "Three Hundred" or "Selections." People read Tang poetry based on the perspectives, tastes, and even preferences of different compilers. In other words, the interests, minds, and scopes of various compilers have shaped the "standards" of poetic taste for later readers, inevitably leading to deviations or shifts in value orientation and aesthetic judgment. Many poems well-known to later generations were not favored by the Tang people; on the other hand, masterpieces selected by Tang people based on their aesthetic and poetic views have become rare in the modern era. Viewing Tang poetry through the lens of the Tang Dynasty—emphasizing the poetic tastes and trends of the year 6190 (likely a typo for 6190)—is undoubtedly a unique perspective on reading Tang poetry today. Tang People’s Selections of Tang Poetry provides a text spanning millennia for those who love and study Tang poetry in this sense.