The poetry of the Chinese. Poeseos sinicae commentarii 解詩文漢

 

By: John Francis Davis. Distributor: Lulu. $21.99. 144 pages. Paperback UT. 2017 (1870).

 

John Francis Davis, the second Governor of Hong Kong, delivered a seminal lecture on Chinese poetry to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1829. This lecture, the Poeseos Sinicae Commentarii or Poetry of the Chinese, published under the same title, was the most extensive discussion of Chinese poetry at the time, introducing the topic in the West. He presents formal features as rhymes and parallelism and had good judgement in the verses he translated.

Mr. Davis was probably the first scholar in the West to pint out the importance of parallelism in Chinese poetry and its “striking coincidence” with the Hebrew forms. He was also the first to mention the occurrence of parallelism in Chinese prose texts. His presentation should be read in parallel with that of Hervey de Saint Denis, Poésies de l'époque des Tang andLi sao, ou Tristesse de la séparation, de Chuci, Joseph Edkins, Essays on Chinese poetry, and Shigeyoshi Obata, The works of Li Bai.

His work is divided into two sections: (1) versifications or the “outward form” of Chinese poetry and (2) species of composition or “the spirit that animates” Chinese poetry.

About 100 Chinese poems are included in his essay.

This edition includes, when appropriate, the original Chinese columnar text and an added text rearranged in rows with pinyin transliterations for easy access to rhymes. To the original references we added 28 supplementary ones. These are now presented in the appendix, along with the list of author’s work. The original transliteration has been changed to adopt pinyin.  Terms that remain obscure are underlined. Additions are placed within brackets.

 

Contents

 

  • Forward by Eric Serejski
  • Introduction
  • [Arrangement]
  • Part I. Versification
    • Example of chorus (Qu 曲)
    • Trimeters
    • Tetrameters
    • Pentameters
    • Heptameters
    • Example 1 of “compound terms”
    • Example 2 of “compound terms”
    • Felicitous Rains
    • The composition called Ci 辭
    • Example of parallelism
    • Example of maxims
    • Antithetic parallel
    • The Fortunate Union (Parallelism)
    • Constructional parallelism
    • Antithecal couplet (duilian 對聯)
  • Part II. Species of composition
    • The robber-bird Que 鵲 in poetry
    • The Eastern Wind 谷風 Shijing Xiaoya
    • Example of Ge composition
    • Example of an anacreontic
    • The Inlet of Peach Blossoms
    • An Evening Shower in Spring
    • The South subdued (Dingchangshi 定場詩)
    • Fields that know no Years of Dearth
    • The Fortunate Union
    • Satirical Examples
    • The Dreams of the Red Chamber (Honglou Meng 紅樓夢)
    • The Fortunate Union
    • London, in ten stanzas
    • Tea-picking ballad 詞茶釆
  • Miscellaneous poetry
    • On ascending the Highest Peak of the Lushan [廬山]
    • On taking leave of a Friend
    • On giving liberty to a Butterfly
    • On a worthless Tree
    • Written at the Capital of the Island of Hainan
    • On a Sprig of Epidendrum, in a Porcelain Vase
    • Inscribed under the Drawing of a wax-coloured Calycanthus (Lamei 腊梅)
    • On the Drawing of a blush-coloured Plum Blossom (Meihua)
    • Midnight Thoughts (1)
    • Midnight Thoughts (2)
    • On getting tip to see the Moon rise
    • Written at the Commencement of Spring
    • At the New Year (February)
  • Appendixes
    • Bibliography
    • Work cited