Chinese Poetry, 2nd Ed., Revised: An Anthology of Major Modes and Genres

Wai-lim Yip

Duke University Press, Apr 21, 1997 - Literary Criticism - 357 pages

This is the first paperback edition of a classic anthology of Chinese poetry. Spanning two thousand years—from the Book of Songs (circa 600 B.C.) to the chü form of the Yuan Dynasty (1260–1368)—these 150 poems cover all major genres that students of Chinese poetry must learn.
Newly designed, the unique format of this volume will enhance its reputation as the definitive introduction to Chinese poetry, while its introductory essay on issues of Chinese aesthetics will continue to be an essential text on the problems of translating such works into English. Each poem is printed with the original Chinese characters in calligraphic form, coordinated with word-for-word annotations, and followed by an English translation. Correcting more than a century of distortion of the classical Chinese by translators unconcerned with the intricacies and aesthetics of the Chinese language, these masterful translations by Wai-lim Yip, a noted and honored translator and scholar, allow English readers to enter more easily into the dynamic of the original poems. Each section of the volume is introduced by a short essay on the mode or genre of poem about to be presented and is followed by a comprehensive bibliography.

Contents

• II: 1
• III: 29
• IV: 53
• V: 65
• VI: 75
• VII: 99
• VIII: 121
• IX: 129
• X: 163
• XI: 171
• XII: 177
• XIII: 201
• XIV: 223
• XV: 237
• XVI: 245
• XVII: 305
• XVIII: 333

About the author

Wai-lim Yip has been Professor of Literature at the University of California at San Diego for the past 30 years. A bi-cultural poet, translator, critic, and theorist, Yip has written more than 40 books in two languages. His works of poetry include Fugue, Crossing, Edge of Waking, Thirty Years of Poetry, Between Landscapes, and The Voice of Blooming. Yip’s scholarly works include Ezra Pound’s Cathay, Reading the Modern and the Postmodern, Chinese Poetics, and Diffusion of Distances: Dialogues between Chinese and Western Poetics. His translations include Modern Chinese Poetry 1955–1965, Lyrics from Shelters: Modern Chinese Poetry, 1930–1950, and Hiding the Universe: Poems of Wang Wei. He has been honored as one of the main figures of modern Chinese literary and cultural theory in Beijing and Taiwan and was awarded recognition in Taiwan as one of the “Ten Major Modern Chinese Poets.”

Bibliographic information

• Title: Chinese Poetry, 2nd Ed., Revised: An Anthology of Major Modes and Genres
• Author: Wai-lim Yip
• Editor: Wai-lim Yip
• Translated by: Wai-lim Yip
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Duke University Press, 1997
• ISBN: 0822319462, 9780822319467
• Length: 357 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / Poetry; Poetry / Anthologies (multiple authors); Poetry / Asian / Chinese; Poetry / General; Social Science / Regional Studies