num_pages: 460
description: General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1901Original Publisher: Heinemann Subjects: Chinese literatureHistory / Asia / ChinaLiterary Collections / AsianLiterary Criticism / Asian / GeneralLiterary Criticism / Asian / Chinese Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free.Excerpt: CHAPTER II POETRY . At the beginning of the second century B. c., poetry was still composed on the model of the Li Sao, and we are in possession of a number of works assigned to Chia I (b. c. 199-168), Tung-fang So (b. B. c. 160), Liu Hsiang, and others, all of which follow on the lines of Ch'ii Yiian's great poem. But gradually, with the more definite establishment of what we may call classical influence, poets went back to find their exemplars in the Book of Poetry, which came as it were from the very hand of Confucius himself. Poems were written in metres of four, five, and seven words to a line. Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju (d, B. C. 117), a gay Lothario who eloped with a young widow, made such a name with his verses that he was summoned to Court, and appointed by the Emperor to high office. His poems, however, have not survived. MEI ShÂ£ng (d. B. C. 140), who formed his style on Ssu-ma, has the honour of being the first to bring home to his fellow-countrymen the extreme beauty of the five- word metre. From him modern poetry may be said to date. Many specimens of his workmanship are extant: -- (i.) " Green grows the grass upon the bank, The willow-shoots are long and lank; A lady in a glistening gown Opens the casement and looks down. The roses on her cheek blush bright, Her rounded arm is dazzling white ; A singing-girl in early life, And now a careless roufs wife. . . , Ah, if he does not mind his own, H...
language: English
title: A History of Chinese Literature
titlecomplete: A History of Chinese Literature
genres: History
ratings_count: 9
publisher: Tuttle Pub