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We Take School POs
A Hundred And Seventy Chinese Poems
Contributor(s): Arthur Waley (Translator), Various (Author)

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ISBN: 1717279546     ISBN-13: 9781717279545
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
OUR PRICE: $5.90  

Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: April 2018
* Out of Print *
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- History
- Poetry | Asian - Chinese
Physical Information: 0.22" H x 5.98" W x 9.02" L (0.34 lbs) 108 pages
Themes:
- Cultural Region - Chinese
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Those who wish to assure themselves that they will lose nothing by ignoring Chinese literature, often ask the question: "Have the Chinese a Homer, an Aeschylus, a Shakespeare or Tolstoy?" The answer must be that China has no epic and no dramatic literature of importance. The novel exists and has merits, but never became the instrument of great writers. Her philosophic literature knows no mean between the traditionalism of Confucius and the nihilism of Chuang-tzu. In mind, as in body, the Chinese were for the most part torpid mainlanders. Their thoughts set out on no strange quests and adventures, just as their ships discovered no new continents. To most Europeans the momentary flash of Athenian questioning will seem worth more than all the centuries of Chinese assent. Yet we must recognize that for thousands of years the Chinese maintained a level of rationality and tolerance that the West might well envy. They had no Index, no Inquisition, no Holy Wars. Superstition has indeed played its part among them; but it has never, as in Europe, been perpetually dominant. It follows from the limitations of Chinese thought that the literature of the country should excel in reflection rather than in speculation. That this is particularly true of its poetry will be gauged from the present volume. In the poems of Po Chu-i no close reasoning or philosophic subtlety will be discovered; but a power of candid reflection and self-analysis which has not been rivalled in the West.
 
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