How to Read Chinese Poetry Podcast
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
The Grand Finale of How to Read Chinese Poetry Podcast
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode you are listening to is the soundtrack of the Grand Finale of How to Read Chinese Poetry Podcast. Click the link to watch the video and...
Poetry: Poetry of the Ming and Qing Dynasties: The Pain of Loss and the Pleasures of Everyday Life
27 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this final episode, we will first listen to the “Song of Suffering Calamity” by the woman poet and scholar Wang Duanshu (1621-ca. 1680), narrat...
Poetry of the Ming and Qing Dynasties: Poetry as Autobiography
20 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An outstanding development in this period is the practice of writing poetry as autobiography, as the record of a life story. We will discuss the life-...
Poetry of the Ming and Qing Dynasties: Poetic Theory and Practice in the Ming and Qing
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Ming, and especially the Qing, witnessed the unprecedented spread of writing poetry among literate men and women in the history of imperial China....
Song Poems (Sanqu) of the Yuan Dynasty: Poetry of Rambunctious Wit and Impudent Humor
06 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The carefree playfulness presented in Wang Heqing’s poem “On the Big Butterfly” tells us much about the cultural milieu of the time when the san...
Song Poems (Sanqu) of the Yuan Dynasty: The Art of Tongue-in-Cheek - Two Love Songs by Two Great Dramatists
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The two love songs—authored by Guan Hanqing and Bai Pu respectively—present humorous dramatic moments in a lively language of everyday speech. Gue...
Song Poems (Sanqu) of the Yuan Dynasty: The Power of Poetic Imagery
23 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Using a cluster of carefully chosen images, Ma Zhiyuan’s “Autumn Thoughts” invites readers to identify themselves with a weary traveler, a ...
Long Song Lyrics (Manci) of the Song Dynasty: Li Qingzhao - Singing Her Autumn Sorrow
16 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A master of tune and sense, Li Qingzhao knows how to bring out her almost unspeakable inner feeling through her skillful employment of the ci for...
Long Song Lyrics (Manci) of the Song Dynasty: Su Shi - Meditation on the Past
09 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Su Shi does not only expand the subject matter of the ci poetry, but also gives his song lyrics a genuine personal voice, an unambiguous autobiographi...
Long Song Lyrics (Manci) of the Song Dynasty: Liu Yong’s Use of Leading Words (lingzi)
02 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Thanks to his innovative use of leading words (lingzi), Liu Yong creates a multilayered structure for his poetic description and narration, which allo...
Short Songs in the Song Dynasty: “I ask you, how much sorrow can there be?” - Later Literati Song Lyrics
26 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses how the genre begins to broaden thematically in the work of somewhat later literati poets who continued to write in the short x...
Short Songs in the Song Dynasty: Feeling and Scene - Early Literati Song Lyrics
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses early efforts of literati poets in the song lyric, showing how their works reflect the genre’s origins in the entertainment q...
Short Songs in the Song Dynasty: “I’ve no heart to love another” - A Pair of Anonymous Poems in Dialog
12 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode introduces us to the genre of the song lyric using two anonymous poems that present a male and female speaker in dialog. The episode disc...
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry: Transcultural Performance - American Guqin Artist at Lingnan: Tang Poetry and Guqin Music
05 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast you are listening to is the soundtrack of the 9th episode of HOW TO READ CHINESE POETRY VIDEOS. John Thompson, the best-known perfor...
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry: Transcultural Performance - Li Bai in Nashville: An American Singing Tang Poems
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast you are listening to is the soundtrack of the 8th episode of HOW TO READ CHINESE POETRY VIDEOS. Andrew Merritt writes new songs insp...
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry: Transcultural Performance - From Kuyin to Yinsong: Constructing and Reciting Regulated Verse
21 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast you are listening to is the soundtrack of the 7th episode of HOW TO READ CHINESE POETRY VIDEOS. In Professor Stalling’s second epi...
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry: Transcultural Performance - From Zhiyin to Yunxue: The Rise of Chinese Rhyme Studies
14 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast you are listening to is the soundtrack of the 6th episode of HOW TO READ CHINESE POETRY VIDEOS. In the last few episodes, we have le...
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry: Mastering Tonal Patterns of Recent-Style Poetry - Regulated Poetic Forms & Modes of Thinking: Sonnet and Lüshi
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dear Listeners, This podcast you are listening to is the soundtrack of the 5th episode of HOW TO READ CHINESE POETRY VIDEOS. Going beyond th...
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry: Mastering Tonal Patterns of Recent-Style Poetry - Constructing Heptasyllabic Regulated Verse
30 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dear Listeners, This podcast you are listening to is the soundtrack of the 4th episode of HOW TO READ CHINESE POETRY VIDEOS. This episode sh...
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry: Mastering Tonal Patterns of Recent-Style Poetry - Constructing Pentasyllabic Regulated Verse
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dear Listeners, This podcast you are listening to is the soundtrack of the third episode of HOW TO READ CHINESE POETRY VIDEOS. This episode ...
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry: Mastering Tonal Patterns of Recent-Style Poetry - Constructing Regulated Quatrains
19 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dear Listeners, This podcast you are listening to is the soundtrack of the second episode of HOW TO READ CHINESE POETRY VIDEOS. Taking advan...
The Sounds of the Tang Poetry: Mastering Tonal Patterns of Recent-Style Poetry - Mastering Tones in Modern and Middle Chinese
10 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dear Listeners, Please accept our apologies for being late to upload this new episode of How to Read Chinese Poetry Podcast. AIGCS is pleased to launc...
Women and Poetry in the Tang Dynasty -A Traitor and a Murderess: the Poetic Nuns Li Ye and Yu Xuanji
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode tells the stories of two Daoist nuns, Li Ye, who became a palace woman, and Yu Xuanji, who became a courtesan. Both left behind highly re...
Women and Poetry in the Tang Dynasty -Courtesans, Poets, and the Courtesan-Poet Xue Tao
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses the interactions between courtesans and the literati during the Tang and how this is related to the formation of early ci poetr...
Women and Poetry in the Tang Dynasty - Writing women from the inner quarters to the halls of power: Shangguan Wan’er
19 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode introduces the problem of writing for women in the Tang in terms of the ritual regulation of women’s behavior and the social nature of ...
The Tang Dynasty: Quatrains - Waking from a Yangzhou Dream: Middle and Late Tang
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses the differences in tonal patterns between wujue and qijue, which had a clear impact on poetic practice. After the Tang, wujue b...
The Tang Dynasty: Quatrains - The Boudoir and the Frontier: High Tang
05 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Although a small number of Six Dynasties heptasyllabic quatrains are extant, and Early Tang poets experimented with the form, stylistically mature qij...
The Tang Dynasty: Quatrains - Empty Mountains and Mirror Ponds: High Tang
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Although Tang poets all used wujue to record concentrated poetic experience, and pursued the same fundamental aesthetic goals for the form, differing ...
The Tang Dynasty: Quatrains - Songs of the Heart, Verses of Nature: Pre-Tang Quatrains
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Chinese equivalent term of quatrain, i.e., jueju, literally means “cut-off lines.” It was erroneously believed by many critics that this meant...
Recent-Style Poetry: Pentasyllabic Regulated Verse - Wang Wei the Poet-Immortal
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode examines how Wang Wei embodies moments of heightened perception or rather Buddhist enlightenment through his painterly depiction of a mou...
Recent-Style Poetry: Pentasyllabic Regulated Verse - Li Bai the Poet-Immortal
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode examines Li Bai’s self-fashioning as a free spirit or rather the creator of the universe in a poetic form seemingly ill suited for maki...
Recent-Style Poetry: Pentasyllabic Regulated Verse - Du Fu the Poet-Sage
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode provides a close reading of Du Fu’s “Jiang and Han Rivers” and shows how the poet makes a masterful use of topic+comment constructi...
Recent-Style Poetry: Pentasyllabic Regulated Verse - Dancing with Shackled Feet: Art of Recent-Style Poetry
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode explains the lexical, syntactic, and structural rules of regulated verse and shows how high Tang masters turn these formal rules into a n...
Pentasyllabic Shi Poetry: Landscape Poetry - Xie Tiao: The Integration of Landscape
18 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode concludes our exploration of Six Dynasties landscape poetry by considering the verse of Xie Tiao (464–499). By Xie Tiao's time, landsca...
Pentasyllabic Shi Poetry: Landscape Poetry - Xie Lingyun's "Mountains and Waters"
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Xie Lingyun (385–433) is generally recognized as the progenitor and paradigm of poetry on "mountains and waters" (shanshui 山水). Where Tao Qian h...
Pentasyllabic Shi Poetry: Landscape Poetry - Tao Qian's "Fields and Gardens"
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Tao Qian (365–427) is premodern China's most famous recluse. After relinquishing his official career at around age 40, Tao returned to his rustic ho...
Pentasyllabic Shi Poetry: Landscape Poetry - Landscapes of the Mind
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses the prehistory of Chinese landscape poetry. In the centuries before poets began to write consistently of their concrete, person...
Han Ancient-style Poetry: The “Nineteen Old Poems” - Reflection through a Female Persona: a Mosaic of Emotions
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The first of the “Nineteen Old Poems”, the best known poem of an abandoned woman in the collection, features a mosaic combination of time, space, ...
Han Ancient-style Poetry: The “Nineteen Old Poems” - Interplay of Images and Emotions: Binary Structure and Multilateral Texture
13 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Two distinct formal features, binary structure and multilateral texture, are developed in the “Nineteen Old Poems,” the definitive collection of H...
Han Ancient-style Poetry: The “Nineteen Old Poems” - The Magic of One Additional Character and the Rise of Reflective Poetry
06 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After nearly one millennium since its birth, Chinese poetry achieved an optimal convergence of sound and sense in its pentasyllabic poems developed du...
Yuefu Poetry - Political Satire or Coquetry? An Ambiguous Song
30 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses the two opposing interpretations of the poem entitled, “Mulberry Along the Lane,” one of the best-known yuefu songs in clas...
Yuefu Poetry - A Bad Breakup in the Han Yuefu
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode analyzes this yuefu piece from different perspectives. As many of the popular songs of the Han, this poem contains dialogue and monologue...
Yuefu Poetry - War as a Theme in Early Popular Chinese Poetry
16 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode first discusses the functions of the Han Music Bureau and the yuefu poetry as a poetic genre. It points out the fact that we still don’...
Lisao: The Poem and Its Author As a Composite Text - The Lisao as a Composite Intertext
09 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode offers a detailed discussion of the structure and diction of the Lisao and describes the text not as a single poem but as a composite tex...
Lisao: The Poem and Its Author As a Composite Text - The Fusion of Poetry and Biography
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses how Qu Yuan’s poetry and biography flow seamlessly into each other, and how the figures of poetic hero and heroic poet repeat...
Lisao: The Poem and Its Author As a Composite Text - The Meaning of Qu Yuan in the Western Han
25 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses what the Qu Yuan persona meant to Han dynasty intellectuals. Why was Qu Yuan important to Han thinkers in literary, political, ...
The Lyrics of Chu: Qu Yuan and His Poetic Allegories - Spiritual and Imaginary Journeys in Lisao or “On Encountering Trouble”
18 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode continues our previous discussion of the Li sao or On Encountering Trouble. It focuses on two failed spiritual/supernatural trips or flig...
The Lyrics of Chu: Qu Yuan and His Poetic Allegories - The Poetic Persona in Lisao or “On Encountering Trouble”
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses Li sao or On Encountring Trouble,” the crowning achievement in the Chu ci repertoire. This poem evolves around the life of Qu...
The Lyrics of Chu: Qu Yuan and His Poetic Allegories - A General Introduction to Chuci
04 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode provides a brief general introduction to Chuci; it also discusses a poem in this repertoire, Xian jun(“The Lord of the Xiang River), an...
The Book of Poetry: The Han Canonization - Dead Deer Meat as a Gift
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode looks at the concerted effort by three prominent Han commentators to allegorize a poem made up of disjointed or rather conflicting parts....
The Book of Poetry: The Han Canonization - Romeo and Juliet-like Rendezvous
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode features a poem that enacts, through incremental repetition, the unfolding drama of a young woman being torn by longing, hesitancy, love,...
The Book of Poetry: The Han Canonization - A Love Song and A Moral Exemplum
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses how the anonymous author of “Prefaces to the Book of Poetry” turned “Osprey,” the first of the 305 Shijing poems, from ...
The Book of Poetry and Diplomacy - What Does it Mean to Say, "I love you"?
07 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses how the language of love and kinship is used in diplomatic negotiations through the recitation of odes. For example, a Lu minis...
The Book of Poetry and Diplomacy - Who is the Boss?
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode uses two scenes of reciting odes to explore the struggle for hegemony. The first shows how a fugitive Jin Prince declare his ambition des...
The Book of Poetry and Diplomacy - Who is the Barbarian?
21 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses how a “barbarian” chief gains diplomatic advantages by reciting an ode now included in Shijing. The recitation both asserts...
The Book of Poetry - Zhou Dynastic Building
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“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 ...
The Book of Poetry - Courtship Poems
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The three courtship forms, “I Beg of you, Zhong Zi,” “The Banks of the Ru,” and “The Retiring Girl,” present contrasting depictions of the...
The Book of Poetry - Marriage Poems
25 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A brief introduction to The Book of Poetry (Shijing), the earliest Chinese poetical collection. While providing close reading of two poems, it informs...