How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context: Poetic Culture from Antiquity through the Tang

How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context: Poetic Culture from Antiquity through the Tang is the third in a three-book series that “aims to break down barriers that have long stood in the way of both teaching and learning Chinese poetry” (xxi). While the previous volumes focus primarily on language and translation, this final one consists of essays meant to put the poetic works it presents into a range of intertwined contexts, including but not limited to the historical, aesthetic, social, and political. It should be noted that, while the three volumes are connected, their historical ranges vary. The first, How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology (2008), includes works in a chronological range from the Shijing 詩經 to the shi poems of the Qing dynasty. The second volume, How to Read Chinese Poetry Workbook (2012), also begins with poems from the Shijing but includes only a single work...