How to Read Chinese Poetry/Zong-qi Cai

04/23/2026

Dear colleagues and friends,

We are delighted to present a new installment in our video series "How to Read Chinese Poetry," titled "Pentasyllabic Shi Poetry: Landscape Poetry." Please join our guest host, Professor Lucas Rambo Bender of Yale University, as he explores Six Dynasties landscape poetry, from imagined realms of the mind to the lived spaces of reclusion and exile.

Ep. 22: Landscapes of the Mind
https://youtu.be/DO373Ix7vJU?si=2uRyynuwnpIMerQY

This episode discusses the prehistory of Chinese landscape poetry. In the centuries before poets began to write consistently about their concrete, personal experiences in nature, landscape appeared in poetry primarily as a foil for the city and the court.

Ep. 23: Tao Qian's "Fields and Gardens"
https://youtu.be/H1Q45wn8UV4?si=kDVP6o6Ij4w-1lV6

After relinquishing his official career to retreat to Mount Lu, Tao Qian (365–427)—premodern China's most famous recluse—wrote poetry that extolls his enjoyment of life on the rural margins, while also narrating the difficulties of grappling with the recalcitrance of the natural landscape.

Ep. 24: Xie Lingyun's "Mountains and Waters"
https://youtu.be/6q-dqu0MmzU?si=L7B-rUP-ENdgz4Hz

Whereas Tao Qian had written predominantly about the partially wild landscapes near his cottage, Xie Lingyun (385–433)—the progenitor and paradigm of "mountains and waters" (shanshui 山水) poetry—took as his theme the dramatic wildernesses of the southlands. His verse often depicts the scenery of his massive estate, but his most powerful work emerges from the rugged, unforgiving landscapes he traversed on journeys into exile.

Have fun watching and feel free to share your thoughts!

Zong-qi Cai

03/26/2026

Dear FB Friends,

I am pleased to share that JCLC 12:2, the newest issue of the Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, is now available on Duke University Press Journals Online at https://read.dukeupress.edu/jclc/issue/12/2 and on Project MUSE at https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/56595 . Please find the table of contents below.

The previous issue (JCLC 12:1), a special issue titled "Key Terms of Chinese Literary Theory," is also available online on the same sites.

Volume 12 • Issue 2 • November 2025

Editors YUAN XINGPEI and ZONG-QI CAI

Good Things Come in Pairs: A Computational Study of Poetic Parallelism in the Six Dynasties
ZONG-QI CAI, MACIEJ KURZYNSKI, and XIAOTONG XU

Beheaded Meanings and Anonymous Signifiers: Forms of Truth and Conditions for Its Emergence in Late Ming Court Case Fiction
JINSU KIM

De-eroticizing the Inner Chamber: Zhou Qi's Ekphrastic Colophon in Lady at Dressing Table by Wang Qiao
LEIHUA WENG

Reconstructing Confucian Masculinity: Chen Tingzhuo's Poetic Ideal of "Depth and Circuitousness"
FAN WU

The Biji xiaoshuo 筆記小說 Tradition and News Media: The Dianshizhai Pictorial 點石齋畫報 as a Case Study
YING WANG

Book Reviews

Albert Galvany, ed. The Craft of Oblivion: Forgetting and Memory in Ancient China. SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Albany: SUNY Press, 2023.
PAUL R. GOLDIN

Yamamoto Yosh*taka 山本嘉孝. Shibun to keisei: bakufu jushin no jūhasseiki 詩文と経世：幕府儒臣の十八世紀 (Poetry, Prose, and Governance: The Eighteenth Century of Confucian Officials of the Shogunate). Nagoya: Nagoya University Press, 2021.

Ibi Takashi 揖斐高. Edo Kanshi no jōkei: fūga to nichijō 江戸漢詩の情景：風雅と日常 (The Emotions and Landscape of Edo Kanshi: Elegance and the Everyday). Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho no. 1940, 2022.

Sugish*ta Motoaki 杉下元明. Hikaku bungaku to sh*te no Edo Kanshi 比較文学としての江戸漢詩 (Edo Kanshi as Comparative Literature). Tokyo: Kyūko shoin, 2023.

Jonathan Chaves and Matthew Fraleigh. The Same Moon Shines on All: The Lives and Selected Poems of Yanagawa Seigan and Kōran. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024.

STEPHEN RODDY

Keith McMahon. Saying All That Can Be Said: The Art of Describing S*x in Jin Ping Mei. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2023.

Jiwei Xiao. Telling Details: Chinese Fiction, World Literature. New York: Routledge, 2022.

MARY SCOTT

Patricia Sieber and Regina Llamas, eds. How to Read Chinese Drama: A Guided Anthology. New York: Columbia University Press, 2022.

Wilt L. Idema, Wai-Yee Li, and Stephen H. West, eds. A Topsy-Turvy World: Short Plays and Farces from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. New York: Columbia University Press, 2023.

YING WANG

Titles in Chinese Literature from Academic Monthly 學術月刊 (Issues 1–12, 2024)

03/17/2026

Dear FB Friends,

We are pleased to share that the Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture (JCLC) 13.1, a special themed issue entitled "The Power of Witness: Japanese and Korean Sojourners in China, ca. 1840–1950," edited by Professor Stephen Roddy and Professor Liu Yucai, has completed the review and editing process and is now in press. It is scheduled to come out in April 2026. Please find its table of contents below or at https://www.chinesepoetryforum.org/?p=3484 .

02/15/2026

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

We are pleased to announce the release of Topics V and VI in our ongoing English video series, "How to Read Chinese Poetry." To date, this series is quickly approaching one million views with just 13 episodes. We extend our sincere gratitude to our viewers for their sustained interest and scholarly engagement.

Topic V: Han Yuefu: Songs of War and Love

In this topic, Professor Jui-lung Su of National University of Singapore discusses the two opposing interpretations of the poem "Mulberry Along the Lane": either as a representation of social injustice, or as a witty, playful exchange between a man and a woman.

Episode 18: Political Satire or Coquetry? An Ambiguous Song
https://youtu.be/VxXa7l1AeGQ?si=s7M9mzMfpb6FR7CW

Topic VI: Han Ancient-style Poetry: The "Nineteen Old Poems"

After nearly a millennium since its birth, Chinese poetry achieved an optimal convergence of sound and sense in the pentasyllabic poems developed during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE). Episode 19 explains how the magic of a single additional character led to the rise of reflective poetry on human transience, with a rhythm far more expressive than any that had existed before. Episode 20 examines how two formal features—binary structure and multilateral texture, as developed in the "Nineteen Old Poems"—correlate with the shift from oral performance to poetic writing, and from the dramatic/narrative mode to the lyrical mode of self-presentation. The final episode discusses the first poem in the collection, which is also its best-known work about an abandoned woman, highlighting its mosaic-like fusion of time, space, and emotional fragments that together capture an otherwise inexpressible melancholy.

Episode 19: I Ride My Carriage to the Upper East Gate
https://youtu.be/P4fedKcZnwo?si=U9F-_VXkjypQIsTd
Episode 20: Bright Moon Shines in the Clear Night
https://youtu.be/aPxzI8uubS4?si=sV8hIV7d3YaMRbkA
Episode 21: On and On, Again On and On You Go
https://youtu.be/A9nKXSQCEAU?si=bCrVjGrxxVMDONJd

Please enjoy the show, and feel free to share your thoughts! Wishing you a very happy Chinese New Year!

Zong-qi Cai
Program Host

02/10/2026

HAPPY NEW YEAR OF THE HORSE from the Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture! We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all colleagues and friends for their kind support over the past year!

Our special thanks go to Dr. Wang Ziwei 王紫微 who has designed this beautiful greeting card, as she has done every year since JCLC's launch in 2014. The borders of the card are adorned with images of horses in the sancai or "three-color" glaze of the Tang dynasty 唐三彩. To the people of that golden age, the horse not only symbolized Silk Road connectivity but also embodied the cosmopolitan spirit of their times.

As the New Year approaches, JCLC editorial team wishes you courage, strength, and brilliant success!

01/26/2026

Dear colleagues and friends,

We are delighted to present the fourth installment in our video series "How to Read Chinese Poetry," titled "The Lyrics of Chu: Qu Yuan and his Poetic Allegories." Please join our co-host, Professor Fusheng Wu of The University Of Utah, as he unpacks the rich symbolism and enduring legacy of Qu Yuan's poetry.

Episode 10 - A General Introduction to Chuci
https://youtu.be/bbgAWFQJnvw?si=ntaUNwsDyorKJa8Y
In this episode, Professor Wu provides a concise introduction to the Chuci tradition, followed by a close reading of the poem Xiang Jun (“The Lord of the Xiang River”)

Episode 12 - Spiritual and Imaginary Journeys in Lisao or "On Encountering Trouble"
https://youtu.be/gQ0B4m10E60?si=IV9wQo5S8tjythMw
In this episode, the focus turns to two spiritual journeys (supernatural flights) that ultimately fail to realize Qu Yuan's ideals. The analysis culminates in the poet's final, fateful decision, illuminating his profound disillusionment with his ruler and the society of his time.

Have fun watching and feel free to share your thoughts!

Zong-qi Cai

12/24/2025

Dear colleagues and friends,

We are delighted to invite you to watch the second topic of our video series "How to Read Chinese Poetry," co-hosted by Professor Wai-yee Li of Harvard University. This topic, titled "The Book of Poetry and Diplomacy," explores how poetry served as a tool for diplomatic negotiations and power struggles in ancient China.

Episode 5: The Book of Poetry and Diplomacy — Who is the Boss?
https://youtu.be/gcL69daUiqE?si=Dr8QQqhNBDtM8AG-
This episode explores the struggle for hegemony through two scenes centered on the recitation (and creative manipulation) of odes. The first depicts a Jin prince in exile who declares his ambition despite his precarious and dependent position. The second presents a Jin leader firmly countering the arrogant self-aggrandizement of a Chu prince.

Episode 6: The Book of Poetry and Diplomacy — What Does It Mean to Say, “I Love You”?
https://youtu.be/-S_dCqK6cps?si=gixBnQD9mbX48jiO
This episode examines the diplomatic use of the Book of Poetry, where verses of love and kinship became a coded language of statecraft. For instance, a minister from Lu quotes a wedding song to frame the relationship between small states and the powerful state of Jin as that of a bride being received by her groom. The careful gathering of artemisia by a woman becomes a metaphor for a strong state tenderly protecting a weaker one. A Zheng minister cleverly cites a poem of romantic pursuit to dissuade potential aggression, while a Jin leader reaffirms an alliance by reciting an ode celebrating brotherly bonds.

We hope you enjoy watching, and we welcome your thoughts!

Zong-qi Cai

This episode discusses how the language of love and kinship is used in diplomatic negotiations through the recitation of odes. For example, aLu minister uses...

12/14/2025

Dear colleagues and friends,

We are delighted to launch our "How to Read Chinese Poetry" video series, with the first topic now available on YouTube! Join us as we journey into the ancient world of The Book of Poetry (Shijing), guided by Professor William H. Nienhauser of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

👉 WATCH THE FIRST TWO VIDEOS HERE: The Book of Poetry – Courtship Poems 🎬
https://youtu.be/mXLb8VTp9fY?si=hKMRJLb6RBaCoFns
https://youtu.be/FBOh9nTdmFY?si=lDBpC-1LI8poN3rb
In the first two installments, Professor Nienhauser discusses courtship poems in The Book of Poetry, the earliest Chinese poetical collection. The three forms of courtship portrayed in “I Beg of you, Zhong Zi,” “The Banks of the Ru,” and “The Retiring Girl” present contrasting depictions of the courtship process in early China.

👉 WATCH THE THIRD VIDEO HERE: The Book of Poetry – A Paean to Zhou Dynastic Building 🎬
https://youtu.be/pl7O_2ahLME?si=iyIBwCYjMBPo0kt4
The next poem examined by Professor Nienhauser is “Mian” (Woven). Like many of the “Da ya” (Greater Odes), “Woven” sings of two of the heroes who laid the groundwork for their grandson and son to overcome the Shang and establish the Zhou dynasty. The text lends itself to memorization and may have been part of early court ritual as the Star-Spangled Banner celebrates an event in the early history of the United States.

Have fun watching and feel free to share your thoughts!

Zong-qi Cai

“Woven” like many of the Da ya (Greater Odes) sings of two of the heroes who laid the groundwork for their grandson and son to overcome the Shang and establi...

12/04/2025

Dear FB friends, I am pleased to share with you “Key Terms of Chinese Literary Theory,” the newest issue of the Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture (12:1). It is already available on Duke University Press Journals Online at https://read.dukeupress.edu/jclc/issue/12/1
and on Project MUSE at
https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/55852

The previous issue (JCLC 11:2) is also available online at the same websites. For subscription, please visit: http://www.chinesepoetryforum.org/?page_id=288

Volume 12, Issue 1, April 2025
Special Issue: Key Terms of Chinese Literary Theory
Special Issue Editor: ZONG-QI CAI

Table of Contents

Introduction: Toward Establishing Chinese Literary Theory as a Viable Subject of Sinological Studies
ZONG-QI CAI

Cosmology-Derived Terms

1. Ziran 自然 as a Term in Chinese Literary Theory and Its Conceptual Reductions
YE YE and XINDA LIAN

2. Literature and the Way: The Theoretical Foundation and Historical Development of Wendao 文道
LIU NING and YUGEN WANG

3. A Literary Anatomy of the Binary Concept “Emptiness-Substance”
LIU XIAOJUN and BENJAMIN RIDGWAY

4. Between Vocality and Textuality: The Concept of Qi 氣 in Chinese Literary Criticism
HU QI and YUEFAN WANG

Author-Focused Term

5. Literary Virtue: A Moral Cornerstone of Chinese Literary Theory
ZHOU XINGLU and THOMAS MAZANEC

Work-Focused Terms

6. The Formation and Evolution of the Theories of the Relation between Qing 情 and Jing 景 in Classical Chinese Poetics
ZHENG LIHUA and XIAOSHAN YANG

7. Unfolding the Layers of a Literary Standard: The Construction and Reconstruction of Yifa 義法 (Substantive Technique), a Conceptual Apparatus for Classical Prose Criticism
LU YIN and ALEXANDER DES FORGES

8. The Literary-Critical Use of the Term Duncuo 頓挫
LUCAS RAMBO BENDER

Reception-Focused Terms

9. Whence Comes the Wind? Transformations of the Concept of Fengyu 諷諭 from Admonition and Instruction to Analogy and Satire
CHENG SUDONG and STEPHEN RODDY

10. Inspired Appeal and Divine Resonance: Sensory and Spiritual Dimensions of Xingqu 興趣
CHEN GUANGHONG and CASEY SCHOENBERGER

11. “Old and New,” “Raw and Ripe,” and “Novel and Fresh”: The Concept of Originality in Classical Chinese Literary Theory
JIANG YIN and LI E

Theoretical Reflection

12. Key Terms Studies: Recovering the Inherent System of Chinese Literary Theory
ZONG-QI-CAI

11/17/2025

Dear colleagues and friends,

I am pleased to announce the launch of How to Read Chinese Poetry Videos, scheduled to be released every Tuesday beginning on 10pm Nov. 18, 2025 (Hong Kong time) on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/mXLb8VTp9fY?si=UIDIzupqPzeEEFpv (or scan the QR code in the poster).

This 55-episode series is a “videolization” of the podcast series broadcast about two years ago. It presents the highlights of the acclaimed book How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology by Columbia University Press to a broad general audience, covering 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.

I hope you will find these videos informative and enjoyable. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Zong-qi Cai, Program Host