The Fu Genre of Imperial China : : Studies in the Rhapsodic Imagination / / ed. by Nicholas Morrow Williams.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Amsterdam University Press Complete eBook-Package 2019
• MitwirkendeR: Cheng, Yu- yu,; Jui-lung, Su,; Lien, Y. Edmund,; Morrow Williams, Nicholas,; Neather, Robert,; Schoenberger, Casey,; Shih, Hsiang-Lin,; Zhangcan, Cheng,
• HerausgeberIn: Williams, Nicholas Morrow,
• Place / Publishing House: Leeds : : ARC Humanities Press, , [2019]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: East Meets West: East Asia and Its Periphery from 200 BCE to 1600 CE
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.)

This is the first book in English to examine the fu, one of China's oldest and culturally central literary forms, from its origins up to the late imperial era. Fu poems are highly revealing sources for understanding the culture, society, and politics of their periods. Though no English term even approximates it, "rhapsody" at least suggests the energy and recitative origins of the fu, which is a poetic form of tireless ambition that has been used for exhaustive descriptions of cities and palaces, as well as private reflections and lamentations, but also for carefully modulated political protest and esoteric ruminations on philosophical subtleties. In this volume, eleven essays by prominent scholars treat the fu from four major perspectives: its original use in court recitation; as a poetic genre with distinctive formal features; as a vehicle of philosophical inquiry; and as a major mode of political expression.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Preface -- 1. Introduction: The Rhapsodic Imagination -- Part One. RECITATION AND DISPLAY -- 2. The Origins of the Term "Fu" as a Literary Genre of Recitation -- 3. Into the New Realm of Belles Lettres: Intersections of Sevens and Song Verses in Jian'an Poetry -- Part Two. LYRICISM AND FORM -- 4. The Assimilation and Dissimilation of Fu and Shi Poetry up to the Tang Dynasty -- 5. Xu Wei's Early Modern Rhapsodies: Catalogue and Critique, Lyricism and Logic -- Part Three. PHILOSOPHY AND DIALOGUE -- 6. The Metaphysical Rhapsody of the Six Dynasties -- 7. Argumentation and Generic Change in the Mid- Tang Fu: Li Guan's (766- 794) "Fu on Suffering the Pitiless Rains" and the Role of the Shelun Genre -- Part Four. CRITIQUE AND PROTEST -- 8. The Hidden Message of Zhang Heng's "Contemplating the Mystery" -- 9. A New Discourse on "Lament for the South" in the Fu of the Ming- Qing Transition -- Bibliography -- Index