A new translation of a beloved anthology of poems from the golden age of Chinese culture—a treasury of wit, beauty, and wisdom from many of China's greatest poets.
These roughly three hundred poems from the Tang Dynasty (618-907)—an age in which poetry and the arts flourished—were gathered in the eighteenth century into what became one of the best-known books in the world, and which is still cherished in Chinese homes everywhere. Many of China's most famous poets—Du Fu, Li Bai, Bai Juyi, and Wang Wei—are represented by timeless poems about love, war, the delights of drinking and dancing, and the beauties of nature. There are poems about travel, about grief, about the frustrations of bureaucracy, and about the pleasures and sadness of old age.
Full of wisdom and humanity that reach across the barriers of language, space, and time, these poems take us to the heart of Chinese poetry, and into the very heart and soul of a nation.
Foreword
Bai Juyi (772–846)
Cen Shen (715–770)
Chang Jian
Chen Tao
Chen Ziang (661–702)
Cui Hao (?–754)
Cui Shu (?–739?)
Cui Tu
Dai Shulun (732–789)
Du Fu (712–770)
Du Mu (803–852)
Du Qiuniang (?–825?)
Du Shenyan (648?–708)
Du Xunhe (846–904)
Emperor Xuanzong (685–761)
Gao Shi (716?–765)
Gu Kuang (725?–814?)
Han Hong
Han Wo (842?–923)
Han Yu (768–824)
He Zhizhang (659?–744?)
Huangfu Ran (716?–770)
Jia Dao (779–843)
Jiaoran (730?–799)
Jin Changxu
Li Bai (701–762)
Li Bin (?–876)
Li Duan
Li Qi
Li Shangyin (813?–858?)
Li Yi (748–827?)
Liu Changqing (710?–789?)
Liu Fangping
Liu Shenxu
Liu Yuxi (772–842)
Liu Zhongyong
Liu Zongyuan (773–819)
Lu Lun (737?–798?)
Luo Binwang (640?–684?)
Ma Dai
Meng Haoran (689–740)
Meng Jiao (751–814)
Pei Di
Qian Qi (722?–780?)
Qin Taoyu
Qiu Wei
Qiwu Qian (692?–755?)
Quan Deyu (759–818)
Shen Quanqi (650?–713)
Sikong Shu
Song Zhiwen (?656–?712)
Wang Bo (649?–676)
Wang Changling (690?–756?)
Wang Han
Wang Jian (751?–830?)
Wang Wan
Wang Wei (701–761)
Wang Zhihuan (688–742)
Wei Yingwu (737?–792?)
Wei Zhuang (836?–910)
Wen Tingyun (?–866)
Xu Hun
Xue Feng
Yuan Jie (719–772)
Yuan Zhen (779–831)
Zhang Bi
Zhang Hu (785?–852?)
Zhang Ji (1) (776?–829?)
Zhang Ji (2)
Zhang Jiuling (678–740)
Zhang Qiao
Zhang Xu
Zheng Tian (824?–882?)
Zhu Qingyu
Zu Yong
Notes
*Dates not given if not known.
PETER HARRIS graduated from Oxford in classical Chinese and has a Ph.D. in Asian history from Monash. He lived and worked for many years in different parts of Asia including China, where he was representative of the Ford Foundation and a visiting professor at Nanjing University. He is now a Senior Fellow in the China Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Volumes he edited for Everyman's Library include The Travels of Marco Polo, The Art of War, Zen Poems, Three Hundred Tang Poems, and Hanshan: Cold Mountain Poems.