Full Description
This book, first published in 1962, is a majestic survey of the whole structure of Chinese poetry. It is a critical introduction to the field as well as an exposition of Chinese views on the nature of poetry. It discusses the Chinese language as a poetic medium from various angles - visual, semantic, auditory, grammatical and conceptual. It also describes the bases of Chinese versification and the major verse forms, and offers interpretations of various schools of traditional Chinese criticisms of poetry. The author suggests a synthesis among the different schools and evolves a view of poetry from which critical standards for Chinese poetry can be derived. In applying these standards, he attempts a further synthesis - one between this mainly traditional Chinese view of poetry and the modern Western method of verbal analysis. Imagery, symbolism, allusions and other features of Chinese poetry are analysed critically.
Contents
Part 1. The Chinese Language as a Medium of Poetic Expression 1. The Structure of Chinese Characters 2. Implications and Associations of Words and Characters 3. Auditory Effects of Chinese and the Bases of Versification 4. Some Grammatical Aspects of the Language of Poetry 5. Some Chinese Concepts and Ways of Thinking and Feeling Part 2. Some Traditional Chinese Views on Poetry 6. The Didactic View: Poetry as Moral Instruction and Social Comment 7. The Individualist View: Poetry as Self-Expression 8. The Technical View: Poetry as Literary Exercise 9. The Institutionalist View: Poetry as Contemplation Part 3. Towards a Synthesis 10. Poetry as Exploration of Worlds and of Language 11. Imagery and Symbolism 12. Allusions, Quotations and Derivations 13. Antithesis
