This podcast presents the highlights of the acclaimed book How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology by Columbia University Press to a broad general audience. The podcast consists of 52 episodes, covering the major poetic genres developed from antiquity to the modern era. A team of leading experts guides listeners to explore the rich heritage of Chinese poetry, poem by poem, genre by genre, and dynasty by dynasty. Each episode provides a deep but pleasurable discussion of one or more famous poems and their cultural milieu. Special efforts will be made to demonstrate how the poems work in the original language to create a fascinating yet untranslatable kind of poetic beauty. Poems are read aloud in English and Mandarin, and for Tang and Song poetry in Cantonese as well, to the background of classical Chinese qin music.
Zong-qi Cai, Program Host
Pre-Qin Times
Poetic Theory and Practice in the Ming and Qing Dynasties : Poetry : The pain of loss and the pleasures of everyday life, Episode 55, Grace FONG
Poetic Theory and Practice in the Ming and Qing Dynasties : Poetry as autobiography, Episode 54, Grace FONG
Poetic Theory and Practice in the Ming and Qing Dynasties : Poetic theory and practice in the Ming and Qing, Episode 53, Grace FONG
Song Poems (sanqu) of the Yuan Dynasty : Poetry of rambunctious wit and impudent humor, Episode 52, Xinda LIAN
Song Poems (sanqu) of the Yuan Dynasty : The art of tongue-in-cheek : Two love songs by two great dramatists, Episode 51, Xinda LIAN
Song Poems (sanqu) of the Yuan Dynasty : The power of poetic imagery, Episode 50, Xinda LIAN
Long Song Lyrics (manci) of the Song Dynasty : Li Qingzhao : Singing her autumn sorrow, Episode 49, Xinda LIAN
Long Song Lyrics (manci) of the Song Dynasty : Su Shi : Meditation on the past, Episode 48, Xinda LIAN
Long Song Lyrics (manci) of the Song Dynasty : Liu Yong’s use of leading words (lingzi), Episode 47, Xinda LIAN
Short Song Lyrics (xiaoling) in the Song Dynasty : "I ask you, how much sorrow can there be?” : Later literati song lyrics, Episode 46, Maija SAMEI
Short Song Lyrics (xiaoling) in the Song Dynasty : Feeling and scene : Early literati song lyrics, Episode 45, Maija SAMEI
Short Song Lyrics (xiaoling) in the Song Dynasty : “I’ve no heart to love another” : A pair of anonymous poems in dialog, Episode 44, Maija SAMEI
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry : Transcultural performance : American Guqin artist at Lingnan : Tang poetry and Guqin music, Episode 43, John THOMPSON
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry : Transcultural performance : Li Bai in Nashville : An American singing Tang poems, Episode 42, Andrew MERRITT
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry : Transcultural performance : From Kuyin to Yinsong : Constructing and reciting regulated verse, Episode 41, Jonathan STALLING
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry : Transcultural performance : From Zhiyin to Yunxue : The rise of Chinese rhyme studies, Episode 40, Jonathan STALLING
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry : Mastering tonal patterns of recent-style poetry : Regulated poetic forms & modes of thinking : Sonnet and Lüshi, Episode 39, Zong-qi CAI
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry : Mastering tonal patterns of recent-style poetry : Constructing heptasyllabic regulated verse, Episode 38 Part II, Zong-qi CAI
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry : Mastering tonal patterns of recent-style poetry : Constructing pentasyllabic regulated verse, Episode 38 Part I, Zong-qi CAI
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry : Mastering tonal patterns of recent-style poetry : Constructing regulated quatrains, Episode 37 Part II, Zong-qi CAI
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry : Mastering tonal patterns of recent-style poetry : Mastering tones in modern and middle Chinese, Episode 37 Part I, Zong-qi CAI
Women and Poetry in the Tang Dynasty : A traitor and a murderess : the poetic nuns Li Ye and Yu Xuanji, Episode 36, Maija Bell SAMEI
Women and Poetry in the Tang Dynasty : Courtesans, poets, and the courtesan-poet Xue Tao, Episode 35, Maija Bell SAMEI
Women and Poetry in the Tang Dynasty : Writing women from the inner quarters to the halls of power : Shangguan Wan’er, Episode 34, Maija Bell SAMEI
The Tang Dynasty : Quatrains : Waking from a Yangzhou dream : Middle and late Tang, Episode 33, Charles EGAN
The Tang Dynasty : Quatrains : The boudoir and the frontier : High Tang, Episode 32, Charles EGAN
The Tang Dynasty : Quatrains : Empty mountains and mirror ponds : High Tang, Episode 31, Charles EGAN
The Tang Dynasty : Quatrains : Songs of the heart, verses of nature : Pre-Tang quatrains, Episode 30, Charles EGAN
Recent-Style Poetry : Pentasyllabic regulated verse : Wang Wei : the poet-Buddha of China, Episode 29, Zong-qi CAI
Recent-Style Poetry : Pentasyllabic regulated verse : Li Bai : the poet-immortal of China, Episode 28, Zong-qi CAI
Recent-Style Poetry : Pentasyllabic regulated verse : Du Fu : the poet-sage of China, Episode 27, Zong-qi CAI
Recent-Style Poetry : Pentasyllabic regulated verse : Dancing with shackled feet : Art of recent-style poetry, Episode 26, Zong-qi CAI
Pentasyllabic Shi Poetry : Landscape poetry : Xie Tiao : The integration of landscape, Episode 25, Lucas Rambo BENDER
Pentasyllabic Shi Poetry : Landscape poetry : Xie Lingyun’s “Mountains and Waters”, Episode 24, Lucas Rambo BENDER
Pentasyllabic Shi Poetry : Landscape poetry : Tao Qian's "Fields and Gardens", Episode 23, Lucas Rambo BENDER
Pentasyllabic Shi Poetry : Landscape poetry : Landscapes of the mind, Episode 22, Lucas Rambo BENDER
Han Ancient-style Poetry : The “Nineteen Old Poems” : Reflection through a female persona : A mosaic of emotions, Episode 21, Zong-qi CAI
Han Ancient-style Poetry : The “Nineteen Old Poems” : Interplay of images and emotions : Binary structure and multilateral texture, Episode 20, Zong-qi CAI
Han Ancient-style Poetry : The "Nineteen Old Poems" : The magic of one additional character and the rise of reflective poetry, Episode 19, Zong-qi CAI
Yuefu Poetry : Political satire or coquetry? An ambiguous song, Episode 18, Jui-lung SU
Yuefu Poetry : A bad breakup in the Han Yuefu, Episode 17, Jui-lung SU
Yuefu Poetry : War as a theme in early popular Chinese poetry, Episode 16, Jui-lung SU
Lisao : The poem and its author as a composite text : The Lisao as a composite intertext, Episode 15, Martin KERN
Lisao : The poem and its author as a composite text : The fusion of poetry and biography, Episode 14, Martin KERN
Lisao : The poem and its author as a composite text : The meaning of Qu Yuan in the Western Han, Episode 13, Martin KERN
The Lyrics of Chu : Qu Yuan and his poetic allegories : Spiritual and imaginary journeys in Lisao or “On Encountering Trouble”, Episode 12, Fusheng WU
The Lyrics of Chu : Qu Yuan and his poetic allegories : The poetic persona in Lisao or “On Encountering Trouble”, Episode 11, Fusheng WU
The Lyrics of Chu : Qu Yuan and his poetic allegories : A general introduction to Chuci, Episode 10, Fusheng WU
The Book of Poetry : The Han canonization : Dead deer meat as a gift, Episode 9, Zong-qi CAI
The Book of Poetry : The Han canonization : Romeo and Juliet-like rendezvous, Episode 8, Zong-qi CAI
The Book of Poetry : The Han canonization : A love song and a moral exemplum, Episode 7, Zong-qi CAI
The Book of Poetry and Diplomacy : What does it mean to say, “I love you”?, Episode 6, Wai-yee LI
The Book of Poetry and Diplomacy : Who is the boss?, Episode 5, Wai-yee LI
The Book of Poetry and Diplomacy : Who is the barbarian?, Episode 4, Wai-yee LI
The Book of Poetry : Zhou dynastic building, Episode 3, William H. NIENHAUSER
The Book of Poetry : Courtship poems, Episode 2, William H. NIENHAUSER
The Book of Poetry : Marriage poems, Episode 1, William H. NIENHAUSER