Library of Chinese Classics: 300 Early Chinese Poems

Library of Chinese Classics: 300 Early Chinese Poems (206 BC-618 AD)
Translated into modern Chinese by Hong Zheng and Xiong Zhiqi
Translated into English by Wang Rongpei
Library binding book, vol. I, II, dimensions 960 x 640, 1/16
Publisher: Hunan People's Publishing House, 2006
ISBN: 7543844699 9787543844698

This anthology contains 300-old poems from the Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty (206 BC-618 AD), providing a glimpse of the Early Chinese poetry during this period. As an important page in the growth of Chinese poetry, the poems in these 800 years carry on and bring into fully play the fine tradition of The Book of Poetry and The Verse of Chu, and give a vivid panorama of the social reality at that time. Attempts are made in these poems to explore new genres and ways of versification to transform the four-syllabic poetry into five-syllabic and seven-syllabic poetry, thus laying the foundation for further flourishing and development of Chinese poetry in the Tang Dynasty.
300-old poems are contained in this volume, selected from the 6,000 extant poems, to present an overview of the poetry during this period. The dynasties include the Western Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Wei Dynasty, the Jin Dynasties, the Southern Dynasties (the Song Dynasty, the Qi Dynasty, the Liang Dynasty and the Chen Dynasty, the Northern Dynasties (the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Northern Qi Dynasty, and the Northern Zhou Dynasty), and the Sui Dynasty. The poetic styles cover the yuefu (yue fu) in the Han Dynasty, five-syllabic and seven-syllabic poems, the pastoral poems, and rhythmic rhymed poetry.