We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Find out more
Cover

Elegies of Chu

Nicholas Morrow Williams

27 February 2022

ISBN: 9780198818311

336 pages
Paperback
196x129mm

In Stock

Oxford World's Classics

Price: £12.99

This anthology, Elegies of Chu, will provide readers with an understanding of Chinese literature, examining its evolution from free-spirited, mythico-religious songs to the more formal, polished style of the Han court.

Share:

Description

This anthology, Elegies of Chu, will provide readers with an understanding of Chinese literature, examining its evolution from free-spirited, mythico-religious songs to the more formal, polished style of the Han court.

  • Elegies of Chu (in Chinese, Chuci), is one of the two surviving collections of ancient Chinese poetry, and a key source for the whole tradition of Chinese poetry
  • The translation is based on the original anthology compiled in the Han dynasty by Wang Yi (fl. 2nd century CE), and containing poems compiled roughly between the 3rd century BCE through the Han dynasty
  • Employs literary English devices in order to emphasise the original structure of these Chinese poems
  • Examines the vivid diction of the source text through close analysis of the onomatopoeia, ornate descriptions, exotic flowers, dramatic landscapes, metaphors and startling similes found in the selected elegies

About the Author(s)

Nicholas Morrow Williams, Assistant professor in the School of Chinese of the University of Hong Kong and editor of Tang Studies.

Nicholas Morrow Williams is Associate Professor in the School of Chinese of the University of Hong Kong and editor of Tang Studies. He studies and translates classical Chinese poetry both for its own sake and in the contexts of comparative literature, Buddhist studies, Sino-Japanese cultural interactions, translation studies, intellectual history, and other fields. His research increasingly concerns the role of Buddhism in the development of Chinese literature and culture.

Table of Contents

    Introduction
    A Note on the Translation
    Select Bibliography
    Timeline
    1:Sublimating Sorrow (Li sao)
    2:Nine Phases
    3:Nine Songs
    4:Heavenly Questions
    5:Nine Avowals
    6:Far Roaming
    7:Divination
    8:Fisherman
    9:Summons to the Recluse
    10:Summons to the Soul
    11:Nine Longings
    12:Seven Remonstrances
    13:Nine Threnodies
    14:Lamenting Time's Fate
    15:Rueful Oath
    16:Greater Summons
    17:Nine Yearnings
    Explanatory Notes
    Index

Reviews

"The harmony of erudition and elegance of Williams' renditions will allow his translation to become the standard English version of the Chuci text for years to come." - William H. Nienhauser, Jr., Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews

Related Titles