Essays in Medieval Chinese Literature and Cultural History

Paul W. Kroll is Professor of Chinese in the Dept. of East Asian Languages & Civilizations, University of Colorado, USA and the editor of the Journal of the American Oriental Society.

• Contents: Preface; In and About the High T'ang: The dancing horses of T'ang; The flight from the capital and the death of Precious Consort Yang; Verses from on high: the ascent of T'ai Shan; Lexical landscapes and textual mountains in the high T'ang; Nostalgia and history in mid-9th-century verse: Cheng Yü's poem on 'The Chin-yang Gate'. Poetry from Different Angles: 7 rhapsodies of Ts'ao Chih; The image of the halcyon kingfisher in medieval Chinese poetry; The egret in medieval Chinese literature; The memories of Lu Chao-lin; Tamed kite and stranded fish: Interference and apology in Lu Chao-lin's fu; The significance of the fu in the history of T'ang poetry; Index.

'This book [...] is not just another entertaining book to read to learn about Chinese literature and history. It provides an impressive demonstration of how to conduct research in the field of classical Chinese literature. The author locates one issue or object of study in each of his writing, collects copious data about the object, and then unveils a comprehensive picture of all the author has discovered through analysis of the literary work.'China Review International"Paul W. Kroll’s "Heyue yingling ji and the Attributes of High Tang Poetry" challenge today’s views of anthologies and collections.Working on the Heyue yingling ji 河嶽英靈集, an anthology from the High Tang, Kroll finds very different selections of poems, critical comments on each poet, and a preference for old-style verse."Hsiang-Lin Shih, St. Olaf College