Late in life, Meng Chiao (A.D. 751--814) developed an experimental poetry of virtuosic beauty, a poetry that anticipated landmark developments in the modern Western tradition by a millennium. With the T'ang Dynasty crumbling, Meng's later work employed surrealist and symbolist techniques as it turned to a deep introspection. This is truly major work-- work that may be the most radical in the Chinese tradition. And though written more than a thousand years ago, it is remarkably fresh and contemporary. But, in spite of Meng's significance, this is the first volume of his poetry to appear in English. Until the age of forty, Meng Chiao lived as a poet-recluse associated with Ch'an (Zen) poet-monks in south China. He then embarked on a rather unsuccessful career as a government official. Throughout this time, his poetry was decidedly mediocre, conventional verse inevitably undone by his penchant for the strange and surprising. After his retirement, Meng developed the innovative poetry translated in this book. His late work is singular not only for its bleak introspection and "avant-garde" methods, but also for its dimensions: in a tradition typified by the short lyric poem, this work is made up entirely of large poetic sequences.

China's tradition of ``rivers-and-mountains'' poetry stretches across millennia.

Brings together fiction, poetry, drama, folk stories, elegies, letters, travelogues, criticism and theory. It emphasizes the distinctive features of Chinese literature through the ages by means of its topical arrangement.

Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. At the conclusion of BIJOUX IN THE DARK, John Yau states, "I did not write a hauntingly beautiful book." A line that contrasts with the book's introductory poem, in which hauntings and beauty abound. With all of BIJOUX IN THE DARK, the answer is multifaceted as Yau disavows pretension and expectation and instead heeds a candor beyond categorization. Sonnets and pantoums abound alongside graffiti and Top Ten lists. Yau's work veers from satire, ekphrasis, and homage to imagined histories, surreal dimensions, and Egyptology. The book's list of characters includes Albrecht Durer, Hieronymus Bosch, Francis Bacon, Mark Wahlberg, Donald Trump, Dante, and Meng Chiao. Yet, from this miscellany there comes an ingenious whole deft in its wit and bite. Here John Yau is at home with the quirky and the profound, and any combination thereof.

In this vivid, contemporary translation, Victor Mair captures the quintessential life and spirit of Chuang Tzu while remaining faithful to the original text.

Poetry. This anthology gathers together over 1500 years of Chinese Zen (Ch'an) poetry from the earliest writing, including the Hsin Hsin Ming written by the 3rd Patriarch, to the poetry of monks in this century. Poets include Wang Wei, Li Po, Tu Fu, Yuan Mei, the crazy hermits Han-shan and Shih-te, as well as many anonymous monks and hermits.

An anthology of the best poetry ever written contains more than sixteen hundred poems, spanning more than four millennia, from ancient Sumer and Egypt to the late twentieth century

The Tang dynasty, lasting from 618 to 907, was the high point of medieval Chinese history, featuring unprecedented achievements in governmental organization, economic and territorial expansion, literature, the arts, and religion. Many Tang practices continued, with various developments, to influence Chinese society for the next thousand years. For these and other reasons the Tang has been a key focus of Western sinologists. This volume presents English-language reprints of fifty-seven critical studies of the Tang, in the three general categories of political history, literature and cultural history, and religion. The articles and book chapters included here are important scholarly benchmarks that will serve as the starting-point for anyone interested in the study of medieval China.