Readings in Chinese literary thought

In this compilation of seven major works and dozens of shorter pieces, Stephen Owen provides original texts, translations, and detailed commentary for fundamental works in Chinese literary thought from the Confucian period through the Ch'ing dynasty. Included are the systematic sixth-century Wen-hsin tiao-lung of Liu Hsieh, the mysterious ninth-century Twenty-Four Categories of Remarks on Poetry of Ssu-K'ung T'u, and the influential shih-hua collection Ts'ang-lang's Remarks on Poetry by Yen Yu. Owen draws on classical Chinese texts and scholarship to trace more than 2000 years of Chinese literary thought. He also explains how Western and Chinese literary theory diverge. This volume, with adjacent Chinese and English, should be indispensable to students of Chinese literature, while the translations and commentaries should give Western literary theorists access to Chinese thought.