{"product_id":"the-poetic-way-of-xie-ping-wang-9780295753737","title":"The Poetic Way of XIE Lingyun: Literary Expression and the Natural World","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe father of Chinese landscape poetry in time and place\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eDuring the dark centuries between the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 CE and the golden age of reunified China under the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279), the \u003ci\u003eshi\u003c\/i\u003e poetic form embraced new themes and structure. In this meticulously constructed study, Ping Wang traces the social conditions that sparked innovation and marked a significant turn in intellectual history. Using biography, social history, and literary analysis, she demonstrates how the \u003ci\u003eshi\u003c\/i\u003e form came to dominate classical Chinese poetry, making possible the works of the great poets of later dynasties and influencing literary development in Korea and Japan.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFocusing on the life of poet Xie Lingyun (385-433), she traces the exile of aristocratic families in the wild south, which led to their thematic use of \"mountains and water\" (\u003ci\u003eshanshui\u003c\/i\u003e) landscapes over the pastoral ones of earlier writers and artists. Changes in poetic form moved away from genres associated with aggrandizement of the imperial court and, through innovative use of meter and syntax, created a new style of varied, fluid cadence. In Xie's redesigned five-syllable-line poetry, couplets balanced contradictions that the poet used to capture principles of the natural world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWang shows how this literary form enabled exiled scholars to make meaning of their tentative existence in the southland, in which the mountains and water imaged the yin-yang principle underlying existence. The post-Han intelligentsia thus used the dilemma of southern exile to craft literature that was revolutionary in both content and form.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ping Wang\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0295753730\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780295753737\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Washington Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/16\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"Ping Wang","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46927739453695,"sku":"9780295753737","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_ebc2b53c-e37c-4e60-b89c-5903205e769e.jpg?v=1749372813","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-poetic-way-of-xie-ping-wang-9780295753737","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}