The Literature Book

46

See also: Book of Changes 21 ■ Romance of the Three Kingdoms 66–67 ■

The Narrow Road to the Interior 92

C

hina has a tradition of

poetry that can be traced

back to the 11th century bce.

While some early poetry was in

a lyric style—ci—in the shape

of songs and love poems, a

more formal style—shi—tackled

reflective themes and used stricter

structures. During the early Han

dynasty, in the 3rd century bce,

a collection of 305 shi poems

was compiled, the Book of Odes

(Shijing). Considered one of the

Five Classics of Chinese literature,

it set the standard for subsequent

classical Chinese poetry.

Poetic traditions

This shi tradition reached its apex

in the Tang era (618–907 ce). In the

8th century in particular a number

of brilliant poets emerged. Foremost

among them were Li Bai (701–762),

also known as Li Po, whose poems

included nostalgic meditations on

friendship; his friend Du Fu (712–

770), known as the “poet-historian”;

and the polymath Wang Wei (699–

759), whose nature portraits seldom

mentioned any human interference.

In 1705, the Kangxi emperor

(reigned 1661–1722) commissioned

the scholar Cao Yin to compile a

definitive collection to be known

as the Quan Tangshi (“Complete

Tang Poems”) with almost 50,000

poems by more than 2,000 poets.

A shorter anthology was compiled

in around 1763 by Sun Zhu, Three

Hundred Tang Poems (Tangshi

sanbai shou), which, like the Book

of Odes, was accorded classic

status, and has remained essential

reading in China to the present. ■

SINCE LIFE IS BUT A DREAM,

WHY TOIL TO NO AVAIL?

QUAN TANGSHI (8TH CENTURY),

A COLLECTION INCLUDING POEMS BY

LI BAI (LI PO), DU FU, AND WANG WEI

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Imperial Chinese poetry

BEFORE

c.4th century bce A

collection of lyric poems,

Songs of Chu (Chu Ci), is

compiled, attributed to Qu

Yuan, Song Yu, and others.

2nd and 3rd centuries ce

Cao Cao, later the Emperor

Wu of Wei, and his sons Cao

Pi and Cao Zhi, establish the

jian’an style of poetry of the

later Han dynasty.

AFTER

960 –1368 During the Song

and Yuan dynasties, the lyric

ci style becomes more popular

than the Tang formal shi style.

1368–1644 Ming dynasty

poetry is dominated by Gao

Qi, Li Dongyang, and Yuan

Hongdao.

1644 Manchu rulers establish

the Qing dynasty, opening a

period of scholarship in and

publication of Tang literature.

We sit together, the mountain

and me, until only the

mountain remains.

“Alone Looking at

the Mountain”

Li Bai

US_046-047_Tangshi_Genji.indd 46 08/10/2015 13:03