The Art of Chinese Poetry
Prerequisites
Requires a rudimentary reading knowledge of Modern Chinese, either through some native exposure or one to two years of prior study of Chinese and its writing system.
Course Description
Have you ever wondered if you have anything in common with people who lived long ago (like 1000 years or more)? And in a completely different culture? One way to try to find out is to read what they wrote in their most intimate and heartfelt types of expression. That is what this course will put in your hands and challenge you to understand. What feelings and viewpoints might such writing express? Can we ever truly understand what the male and female poets were trying to get across in, say, the year 756 c.e.?
Chinese poetry from the Tang dynasty is recognized as one of the glories of world literature. It has been abundantly translated into English and other languages, and even exerted a profound influence upon modern English verse. But how about reading it in the original language, so we don’t need to obsess over what’s “getting lost in translation”? This course will introduce students to Tang dynasty poetry in the original language used thirteen centuries ago. You will read poems that jump off the page with vivid imagery, melodic language, and strong emotion. You will learn the basic rules of Chinese verse, and how to look up characters you may not know. You will memorize short poems and learn the proper way to recite them (in today’s Mandarin or Cantonese). You will incidentally learn a lot about the language known as Literary Chinese, including its vocabulary and syntax.
This course assumes no prior exposure to traditional Chinese poetry.
Meet the Instructor: Ronald Egan
“I have been studying Chinese language and literature for more years than I care to think about (learning, forgetting, and learning again)! I first encountered Chinese,with no prior background myself, as a first-year student in college. I was (and am still) fascinated by the language and its writing system. This love of Chinese language gradually extended for me to its literature, history, and culture generally. I teach courses in those fields here at Stanford, in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. I have long wanted to offer an introductory course in Chinese poetry of medieval times, the writing that first excited my own interest in China and Chinese. This is that course.”
