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Chinese books: Chinese English dictionary ( Pinyin Chinese English dictionary, Concise Chinese English dictionary), English Chinese dictionary; Chinese classic literature, Tang poems, Song Proses, famous classic novels, including A Dream of Red Mansions, Journey to the West, Water Margin / Outlaws of Margin, Three Kindoms; Ancient Chinese philosophy and philosophists, including Laozi, Sunzi, Confucius, Mencius; Classic Chinese philosophy books include The art of War, Analects, The great learning, doctrine of the mean; Chinese cooking and diet includes all Chinese Cuisine; Learn Chinese Arts include the books for Chinese Painting, Chinese calligraphy

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You are here: Books > Culture:Classic Literature

BOOKS

Song Proses

[1 Book]

System #: BA-02-0200

ISBN: 7-119-02819-7
ISBN: 7119028197

Author: Translated by XianYi Yang, Gladys Yang

Language: English/Chinese

Publisher: Foreign Languages Press, China

Type: Paperback

Pages: 312 Pages

List price: ~~$13.00~~

Our Price: $10.20

DESCRIPTION:

A choice selection of ancient poems
Song Proses is a unique collection of classical Chinese "ci" poetic gems rendered into naturally flowing modern Chinese and English verse. This book contains 59 "ci" lyrics from Song poets, among them, 7 from Liu Yong, 1 from Yan Shu, 1 from Ouyan Xiu, 1 from Yan Jidao, 9 from Su Shi, 1 from Qin Guan, 8 from Zhou Bangyan, 5 from Li Qingzhao, 20 from Xin Qiji, 6 from Jiang Kui. In China "poetic education" in the original meaning is learning The Book of Songs. This is the first comprehensive anthology of Chinese poems including including 305 poems of the Zhou Dynasty (1122-256 B.C.). It was originally called Shi (Poems) and Shi Sanbai (Three Hundred Poems). Each poem in The Book of Songs was set to music and could be sung. The compilers classified the 305 poems into folk songs, ceremonial songs, and sacrificial songs, according to their contents and the style of the music. Folk songs, which were popular among the people, made up the best part of The Book of Songs, while ceremonial songs and sacrificial songs were used mainly on sacrificial or ceremonial occasions to eulogize the merits and virtues of the Son of Heaven and of his forefathers.
Confucius (551 B.C. - 479 B.C.), a great philosopher and educator was very fond of The Book of Songs. He used to recite the poems from time to time, and used it as a textbook for his pupils. In the Han Dynasty, The Book of Songs was formally accepted as a classic of the Confucian school.
The Book of Songs has over a long period of times been highly appreciated, and has exerted a profound and far-reaching influence on the development of Chinese literature, especially that of poetry, over a period of more than 2000 years. It has also served as important historical data for the study of ancient China from the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period.
All three hundred and five songs were drawn from the region north of the Yellow River. They are typical products of north China, the area administered by the Kings of the House of Zhou in Confucius's time. By the 4th century B.C. China's boundaries had expanded to include the vast area of the Yangtze river valley, where the strong State of Chu became even stronger. This region is very fertile and the life of the inhabitants was more highly developed than that of the northern people. They produced their own type of song, a representative collection of which was compiled under the name of Chu Ci or The Songs of Chu. The representative poet is Qu Yuan, who wrote many excellent poems in his life, a large number of which were composed in his exile. The style of Qu Yuan's poems is different from that of The Book of Songs. It is called "poetic prose of Chu", or "the Sao style," in the history of Chinese literature. Southern poetry is different from the northern poetry styles both in verse (the verse divider xi ?, a particle expressing sighing) and in content. The northern literature is much more plain of feelings, while the poems in the southern state of Chu are full of sentiment and even mystical visions. Southern poetry later became very popular among Taoists that also saw man as a mere small being the cosmos and nature.
After the third century B.C. the various States of China were repeatedly annexed by whichever was militarily the strongest among them. The first Chinese Empire was formed under the House of Qin and extended over a wider area than any of the preceding agglomerations of States. The Qin dynasty stands shortly. The Qin dynasty was succeeded by the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-219 A.D.). In contrast to the preceding Qin dynasty, the Han was a period of cultural flowering. A poetic form that became the norm for creative writing, began to flourish. Emperor Wu created a music bureau, called "yuefu" in Chinese, specially to collect and record ceremonial chants, but also the songs and ballads of ordinary people. Collected by the Han Music Bureau "Yuefu", many of these songs are anonymous, but also men of letters wrote these tunes, folk ballads, many of them are very narrative. Later, during the Eastern Han, poems with five characters to a line in imitation of the yuefu style appeared. The employment of five characters to the line was found to be a more rewarding measure, permitting a smoother and more melodious effect and the evocation of subtler human feelings. During periods of social and political upheaval, from the 3rd to the 7th century, poets found refuge and consolation in nature. Some were hermits who created a so-called field-and-garden school of poetry; others produced some of the best Chinese folk lyrics, such as the love poems attributed to "Zi Ye", a woman poet who wrote "the Ballad of Mulan", celebrating the adventures of a woman soldier disguised as a man; and "the Peacock Flew to the Southeast," a long narrative of tragic family love, written in plain but vivid language. "The Peacock Flies to the Southeast" or "the Bride of Jiao Zhongqing" represents the magnificent yuefu folk songs. "The Song of Mulan" is specially popular with Chinese people.
The Tang Dynasty was a period of great radiance in literary creation and was especially noted for poetry writing, for which it has been dubbed the golden age of poetry, a predominant genre among all literary forms popular with both the rulers and the populace for about 300 years. There had emerged during this period of time a considerable number of brilliant poets and outstanding poetic compositions. All subsequent Chinese poetry derives its forms from the creations of this time. The number of known Tang poets runs into thousands; their output was enormous, and almost very great poet's work was published in one way or another.
In Chinese literary history, there were certain periods which were dominated by one distinctive predominant literary genre, such as "fu" (descriptive prose interspersed with verse) during the Han Dynasty, poetry in Tang, "Ci" poetry (a special poetic form) of Song and "qu" (singing verse) of Yuan. The "ci" lyric is very different from the "shi" type. While the older Tang Dynasty "shi" lyric can be read without minding the underlying melodies - even if there existed some underlying melodies - "ci" poetry must be seen as written songs. Most of the poems do not even have their own title, but they are named after an original melody. Composers and writers used this melody to write a new poem that could be sung to the original famous melody or tune pattern ("cipai" 詞牌), a technique called contrafactury. This is the reason why we often see the same title for a "ci" poem, like "Die Lian Hua", "Man Ting Fang", "Yu Mei Ren". There are more than 800 tune patterns. "Ci lyric" emerged during the Tang Dynasty in response to the popularity of foreign musical tunes imported from Inner Asia. Already the outer shape of the "ci" lyric is clearly different to the "shi" lyric: the verses have different length. The early "ci" writers of the 9th century wanted to meet the needs of singing girls in the entertainment quarters in the lower Yangtse area. The most famous "ci" poets of Tang Dynasty are Wen Tingyun and the last king of Southern Tang, Li Yu. The great time of "ci" lyric was the Song Dynasty. Under the the influence of the great writer "Su Shi" ("Su Dongpo"), the "ci" poem began to free itself from its musical background and became primarily a literary creation.

CCO Code: 444

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Song Proses

Culture:Classic Literature

chinese literature, classical chinese literature, ancient chinese literature

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Song Proses

Culture:Classic Literature