Renjian cihua is a masterpiece of literary criticism written by Wang Guowei (1877–1927), a scholar of the Chinese classics who lived during the late Qing and early Republican periods. Since its publication in 1908 and 1909, it has been one of the most influential academic works in China. Elegantly written, Wang’s set of "remarks on ci poetry" (cihua) retains a traditional Chinese impressionistic critical approach, and can present difficulties to the common reader. This set of lectures by Florence Chia-ying Yeh explains the text to readers, making accessible Wang’s famous theory of jingjie ("aesthetic realm" or "artistic conception"), his views on how the ci differs from the shi genre of Chinese poetry, and his critical judgments of various famous ci poets from the Tang, Five Dynasties, and Song periods. The lectures are presented here in an English translation by Maija Bell Samei.

The twentieth century witnessed dramatic changes in terms of the structure of society, economics, politics, science, and technology, driving a change in Western literature from traditional to modern: old value systems were shattered; writing approaches and aesthetics changed; writers began to explore the psychological world and expand the discussion of humankind and modern civilization. This title takes classic literature by European and American authors of the twentieth century as research objects in order to comprehensively explore their thoughts, values, aesthetics, and narratives. Six major themes are used as units for analysis—existential meaning, self-identity, war and human nature, growing confusion, love and marriage, and anti-utopia. The authors argue that the six themes extend the themes of traditional literature and epitomize the unique characteristics of twentieth-century Western literature. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of literature, especially Western literature and twentieth-century literature.

Tang poetry is one of the most valuable cultural inheritances of Chinese history. Its distinctive aesthetics, delicate language and diverse styles constitute great literature in itself, as well as a rich topic for literary study. This two-volume set is the masterpiece of Professor Lin Geng, one of China’s most respected literary historians, and reflects decades of active research into Tang poetry, covering the “Golden Age” of Chinese poetry (618–907 CE). In the first volume, the author provides a general understanding of poetry in the “High Tang” era from a range of perspectives. Starting with an indepth discussion of the Romantic tradition and historical context, the author focuses on poetic language patterns, Youth Spirit, maturity symbols, and prototypes of poetry. The author demonstrates that the most valuable part of Tang poetry is how it can provide people with a new perspective on every aspect of life. The second volume focuses on the prominent Tang poets and poems. Beginning with an introduction to the “four greatest poets”—Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, and Bai Juyi—the author discusses their subjects, language, influence, and key works. The volume also includes essays on a dozen masterpieces of Tang poetry, categorized by topics such as love and friendship, aspirationsand seclusion, as well as travelling and nostalgia. As the author stresses, Tang poetry is worth rereading because it makes us invigorate our mental wellbeing, leaving it powerful and full of vitality. This book will appeal to researchers and students of Chinese literature, especially of classical Chinese poetry. People interested in Chinese culture will also benefit from the book.

Different from previous researches weighted toward historical description and individual writer and work, this book establishes a general analytical system and a multi-angled methodology to examine Chinese literature. In ancient China, there was no definite concept of pure literature. Considering both modern ideas of literature and the corresponding traditional concept, this book broadly discusses Shi and Fu poetry, Ci poems and Qu verses, novels and essays. The four chapters deal with the origins, evolutions, structures and styles of the various genres respectively, analyzing some representative works. It's worth mentioning that the book is written from an individual perspective. Based on his own appreciation as a reader, the author expresses the depth of his various related impressions on Chinese literature. In addition, it conveys many fresh points of views, which will enrich and inspire related researches. This book will appeal to scholars and students of Chinese literature and comparative literature. People who are interested in Chinese literature and Chinese culture will also benefit from this book.

Marxism initiated a new era not only for people to fight for socialist future, but also for each discipline of sciences to witness profound changes. In such a context, literature, which has always been closely related to politics, will inevitably move toward a new direction. This book is composed of two parts. Part One studies the development of literary theories in contemporary China from a Marxist perspective. It introduces the basic ideas of Marxist literary theories as well as their spread and development in China, such as the combination of the theories and Chinese revolutionary literature. Moreover, it discusses the challenges facing Marxist literary theories in the 21st century under the background of diversification of literature and art, in terms of theory and practice, and high technologies which brought about electronic writing and digital communication of literary works. The second part elucidates the author’s insights into major issues concerning literary theories (e.g. the relationship between literature and people, literature and reality, perception and rationality in literary creation, etc.) This book will appeal to scholars and students of literary aesthetics and Chinese literary and cultural studies. People who are interested in history of contemporary Chinese literature will also benefit from this book.

Different from previous researches weighted toward historical description and individual writer and work, this book establishes a general analytical system and a multi-angled methodology to examine Chinese literature.

Since the reform and opening up of China in 1978, Western literary criticism has begun to flourish and gain in popularity within the country’s academic literature community. These two volumes meticulously select and examine nine of the most influential keywords from Western literary theory while identifying the intricate historical sources of these terms and analyzing their relevance to other disciplines and ideas. The result shows how these words function as heterogeneous cultural contexts in the complexity of experience but also how they function within the context of Chinese culture as well as Chinese literature and criticism. In this volume, the editors focus on metaphor, the other, ideology and the body from the perspectives of etymology, documentation, meanings and other core factors. Students of literature and languages, and especially Chinese literature, will benefit from this two-volume set.

Each age has its value system of literary criticism whose construction is inseparable from the mainstream ideology of the society. In contemporary China, the mainstream ideology is inevitably Marxism. This book is composed of two parts. The first part studies literary criticism in contemporary China whose development is closely related to the popularization of Marxism and the unavoidable collisions between Marxism and other theories. It also introduces some relevant critical debates, such as the debate on the criticism of Yu Pingbo, a representative and one of the authoritative scholars studying The Dream of the Red Chamber. In the second part, the author expounds the history of Chinese literature from a macro-level perspective, involving works, genres, ideologies, schools, etc. He also discusses the challenges facing Chinese literature under the background of economic globalization. Will politics, cultures, including literature and arts, be globalized? In addition, the author puts forward that a dynamic concept is needed for a better understanding of Chinese culture and gives his suggestions about the "adjustments" Chinese people should make for the present. This book will attract scholars and students of literary criticism studies and Chinese literary studies. People who are interested in Chinese literature and thought will also benefit from this book.

This volume is the masterpiece of Chao Gejin, one of the best-known Chinese scholars of Epic studies, representing his most influential works on the change of the nature of the Epic across the twentieth century. The discussion ranges from Homeric and Indo-European epics to renewed discoveries of age-old African and Asian epics. The author details developments in research from Parry and Lord’s work on Serbo-Croat oral poetry to his own research on the Mongol heroic epic. The book traces the formation of theoretical systems such as Oral Formulaic Theory, Ethnopoetics and Performance Theory, and ends with the author’s explorations of the 20th-century Mongolian bard Arimpil’s singing of his native epic poetry. Using methods that previous scholars used to demonstrate the fundamentally oral nature of the Homeric epic, Chao brings to light the poetic richness of the still-living Mongol oral epic tradition. Students and scholars of epic studies, literature, folklore and anthropology will find this an essential reference.

Tang poetry is one of the most valuable cultural inheritances of Chinese history. Its distinctive aesthetics, delicate language, and diverse styles constitute great literature in itself, as well as a rich topic for literary study. This two-volume set constitutes a classic analysis of Tang poetry in the “Golden Age” of Chinese poetry (618–907 CE). In this volume, the author provides a general understanding of poetry in the “High Tang” era from a range of perspectives. Starting with an indepth discussion of the Romantic tradition and historical context, the author focuses on poetic language patterns, Youth Spirit, maturity symbols, and prototypes of poetry. The author demonstrates that the most valuable part of Tang poetry is how it can provide people with a new perspective on every aspect of life. This book will appeal to researchers, scholars, and students of Chinese literature and especially of classical Chinese poetry. People interested in Chinese culture more widely will also benefit from this book.