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Jun. 3rd, 2021 09:55 pm
Next Up: You Decide
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x_losWith only four more weeks of Shi Jing left, it's time to to start thinking about what comes next.
I'm going to outline some options and their pros and cons, and in the comments you can argue in favour of any of these, or make a case for something I've not thought about. Then I'll do a tick-box poll where you can express a preference for multiple choices.
All readings will be provided free, and will be bilingual.
In chronological order:
- Chu Ci: Heavy on shamanism, beasts, other supernatural beings and myths. It's less tidy and official than the Shi Jing, and looks to be an interesting read for anyone keen on xianxia. There is a heavily glossed, recentish and impressively fluid translation. But while later than the Shi Jing, it is another early collection. People seem to want a break from that period, so it might be best left until later on. This looks like it might take us roughly 17 weeks.
- Nineteen Old Poems: A Han era collection that would take us about two weeks, which has many decent translations available. This pulls us from the Shi Jing into later work, and gives us that nice 'only took two weeks!' feeling of accomplishment before we begin any longer project. It is still 'earlyish', though, which might be a point against it.
- New Songs from the Jade Terrace: Romantic and a bit sexy, at nearly 700 poems, to me, this collection seems a bit long for us at present.
(Wen Xuan is not in the running: too long.)
- Three Hundred Tang Poems: This multi-author collection features the greatest hits from an era generally considered the apex of the Chinese poetic tradition. (Though a few conservative calls were involved in this 'best of' reckoning, leaving Li He, the Devilish Talent, out completely.) My concern would be that it is, very deliberately, exactly as long as the Shi Jing, which might put people off. This would take about 30 weeks.
A nice, free 'complete works of Wang Wei' translation recently came out. There's also his famous co-authored compilation, Wangchuan ji. I feel both might be better left until we've decided whether we want to go forward with Wang Wei in particular. We're not even discussing Quan Tangshi, it's too long.
douqi expressed some interest in Yuan poetry or Song work, which includes poets like "Ouyang Xiu (kind of), Liu Yong, Su Shi, Li Qingzhao (the Genius Smurfette of the lot), Qin Guan, either Zhou Bangyan or Jiang Kui, maybe the Yan father-son duo, and the soldier guys: Fan Zhongyan, Xin Qiji and that one cannibalistic Yue Fei poem". Qing poetess Gan Lirou also sounds pretty hot. We'd need to hopefully identify a particular collection, though, so I'm not just sourcing random poems in my area of no-expertise.
Comments and suggestions welcome! I'm especially interested in classic collections like the Three Hundred Tang Poems, which have their own historical presence (which increases the chances that someone's written some interesting nonfiction about them).
I'm going to outline some options and their pros and cons, and in the comments you can argue in favour of any of these, or make a case for something I've not thought about. Then I'll do a tick-box poll where you can express a preference for multiple choices.
All readings will be provided free, and will be bilingual.
In chronological order:
- Chu Ci: Heavy on shamanism, beasts, other supernatural beings and myths. It's less tidy and official than the Shi Jing, and looks to be an interesting read for anyone keen on xianxia. There is a heavily glossed, recentish and impressively fluid translation. But while later than the Shi Jing, it is another early collection. People seem to want a break from that period, so it might be best left until later on. This looks like it might take us roughly 17 weeks.
- Nineteen Old Poems: A Han era collection that would take us about two weeks, which has many decent translations available. This pulls us from the Shi Jing into later work, and gives us that nice 'only took two weeks!' feeling of accomplishment before we begin any longer project. It is still 'earlyish', though, which might be a point against it.
- New Songs from the Jade Terrace: Romantic and a bit sexy, at nearly 700 poems, to me, this collection seems a bit long for us at present.
(Wen Xuan is not in the running: too long.)
- Three Hundred Tang Poems: This multi-author collection features the greatest hits from an era generally considered the apex of the Chinese poetic tradition. (Though a few conservative calls were involved in this 'best of' reckoning, leaving Li He, the Devilish Talent, out completely.) My concern would be that it is, very deliberately, exactly as long as the Shi Jing, which might put people off. This would take about 30 weeks.
A nice, free 'complete works of Wang Wei' translation recently came out. There's also his famous co-authored compilation, Wangchuan ji. I feel both might be better left until we've decided whether we want to go forward with Wang Wei in particular. We're not even discussing Quan Tangshi, it's too long.
douqi expressed some interest in Yuan poetry or Song work, which includes poets like "Ouyang Xiu (kind of), Liu Yong, Su Shi, Li Qingzhao (the Genius Smurfette of the lot), Qin Guan, either Zhou Bangyan or Jiang Kui, maybe the Yan father-son duo, and the soldier guys: Fan Zhongyan, Xin Qiji and that one cannibalistic Yue Fei poem". Qing poetess Gan Lirou also sounds pretty hot. We'd need to hopefully identify a particular collection, though, so I'm not just sourcing random poems in my area of no-expertise. Comments and suggestions welcome! I'm especially interested in classic collections like the Three Hundred Tang Poems, which have their own historical presence (which increases the chances that someone's written some interesting nonfiction about them).
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