Essays in Medieval Chinese Literature and Cultural History

This is one of a pair of volumes by Paul Kroll (the companion volume deals with medieval Taoism and the poetry of Li Po). Collecting eleven essays by this leading scholar of Chinese poetry, the volume presents a selection of studies devoted to the medieval period, centering especially on the T'ang dynasty. It opens with the author's famous articles on the dancing horses of T'ang, on the emperor Hsüan Tsung's abandonment of his capital and forced execution of his prized consort, and on poems relating to the holy mountain T'ai Shan (with special attention to Li Po). Following these are detailed examinations of landscape and mountain imagery in the poetry of the "High T'ang" period in the mid-8th century, and of an extraordinary attempt made in the mid-9th-century to recall in verse and anecdote the great days of the High T'ang. The second section of the book includes two articles on birds (notably the kingfisher and the egret) in medieval poetry, and four of Kroll's influential studies focusing on the verse-form known as the fu or "rhapsody," especially drawing from the 3rd-century poet Ts'ao Chih and the 7th-century poet Lu Chao-lin.

Contents: Preface; In and About the High T'ang: The dancing horses of T'ang; The flight from the capital and the death of Precious Consort Yang; Verses from on high: the ascent of T'ai Shan; Lexical landscapes and textual mountains in the high T'ang; Nostalgia and history in mid-9th-century verse: Cheng Yü's poem on 'The Chin-yang Gate'. Poetry from Different Angles: 7 rhapsodies of Ts'ao Chih; The image of the halcyon kingfisher in medieval Chinese poetry; The egret in medieval Chinese literature; The memories of Lu Chao-lin; Tamed kite and stranded fish: Interference and apology in Lu Chao-lin's fu; The significance of the fu in the history of T'ang poetry; Index.

Paul W. Kroll is Professor of Chinese in the Dept. of East Asian Languages & Civilizations, University of Colorado, USA and the editor of the Journal of the American Oriental Society.