Mei Tsu-lin 梅祖麟 at work
Kao Yu-kung and Mei Tsu-lin, "Syntax, Diction and Imagery in T'ang Poetry" HJAS 31 (1971): 51-136.
Quite a Trip
I've just read once more this old warhorse of an essay by two old style Chinese-American scholars who embraced linguistics and new criticism for the study of their own tradition. It's an incredible tour through the function of syntax in Tang dynasty regulated poetry, with pretensions to a notion of syntax in poetry generally. "Syntax" is always clear and infused with a true love of verse; it is full of many beautiful moments of recitation (think of an awesome iTunes playlist of Tang poetic highlights) and exposition. The exposition, or close reading of poems combined with general and specialized knowledge, opens up the structure of poetic expression in such a beautiful way I can see no reason why not to call many parts of this work poetry itself.
Idea: write a feature essay on all of the Kao and Mei poetics essays for Poetry magazine.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
How to Read a Tang Poem
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Professor Mei is a true genius, not only in Chinese linguistics but also in Chinese philosophy. Those of us who studied Neo-Taoism and Neo-Confucianism with him at Harvard know what a creative and demanding teacher he is. I shall always be grateful to him for his expert scholarly guidance on my dissertation on the Yüan dynasty thinker Wu Ch'eng.
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