THE T'ANG AND SUNG DYNASTIES

Chinese Poetry

Just as landscape painting embodied Taoist thought, so did nature poetry and music played on the Ch'in. Therefore, read James Liu's The Art of Chinese Poetry. Study the principles governing Chinese poetry, noting how the very structure of the Chinese language, which has no need for number or tense, and which often employs no subject or no verb, increases the ability of the poet to express impersonal, universal concerns. In addition, the terse and compact nature of the language makes for vividly concise and forcefully concrete expressions of the significance of nature and the relationship of human beings to nature. Note the themes the Chinese poet uses and the principles of Taoism that are reflected in the poems. Discuss at least two poems thoroughly. Point to specifics in the poems to substantiate what you have to say. This discussion will be the third section of your integrated essay.

If you already have a background in Chinese literature and language, then seek out more demanding texts such as the following: Frankel, Hans H. The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady. Interpretations of Chinese Poetry. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976. Graham, A.C. Poems of the Late T'ang. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1965. Owen, Stephen. Traditional Chinese Poetry and Poetics. New York: Braziller, 1980. Soong, Stephen E. ed. A Brotherhood in Song: Chinese Poetry and Poetics. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986. Sullivan, Michael. The Three Perfections: Chinese Painting, Poetry and Poetics. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986. Watson, Burton. Chinese Lyricism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1971. Yip, Wai-Lin, ed. and tr. Chinese Poetry: Major Modes and Genres. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.

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