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The Matrix of Lyric Transformation: Poetic Modes and Self-Presentation in Early Chinese Pentasyllabic Poetry

Book
Cai Zong-qi
2020
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summary
Pentasyllabic poetry has been a focus of critical study since the appearance of the earliest works of Chinese literary criticism in the Six Dynasties period. Throughout the subsequent dynasties, traditional Chinese critics continued to examine pentasyllabic poetry as a leading poetic type and to compile various comprehensive anthologies of it.
The Matrix of Lyric Transformation enriches this tradition, using modern analytical methods to explore issues of self-expression and to trace the early formal, thematic, and generic developments of this poetic form. Beginning with a discussion of the Yüeh-fu and ku-shih genres of the Han period, Cai Zong-qi introdues the analytical framework of modes from Western literary criticism to show how the pentasyllabic poetry changed over time. He argues that changing practices of poetic composition effected a shift from a dramatic mode typical of folk compositions to a narrative mode and finally to lyric and symbolic modes developed in literati circles.

Table of Contents

Cover

Half Title Page

pp. i-ii

Title Page

pp. iii

Copyright

pp. iv

Dedication

pp. v-vi

Contents

pp. vii-viii

Acknowledgments

pp. ix-x

Half-Title Page

pp. xi

List of Abbreviations

pp. xii

Introduction

pp. 1-6

1. An Overview: Pentasyllabic Poetry from the First to the Third Century

pp. 7-20

2. Han Yüeh-fu: Dramatic and Narrative Modes

pp. 21-60

3. Han Ku-shih: The Emergence of the Lyrical Mode

pp. 61-94

4. Ts’ao Chih: The Development of the Lyrical Mode

pp. 95-146

5. Juan Chi: The Formation of the Symbolic Mode

pp. 147-188

6. Synthesis: Poetic Modes and Changing Forms of Self-Presentation

pp. 189-196

Notes

pp. 197-226

Glossary

pp. 227-232

Bibliography

pp. 233-252

Index

pp. 253-260
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