Sound and Sight Poetry and Courtier Culture in the Yongming Era (483-493) [Hardcover]

This is the first book to examine Chinese poetry and courtier culture using the concept ofshengsesound and sightwhich connotes sensual pleasure. Under the moral and political imperative to avoid or even eliminate representations of sense perception, premodern Chinese commentators treated overt displays of artistry with great suspicion, and their influence is still alive in modern and contemporary constructions of literary and cultural history.

The Yongming poets, who openly extolled sound and rhymes, have been deemed the main instigators of a poetic trend toward the sensual. Situating them within the court milieu of their day, Meow Hui Goh asks a simple question: What didshengsemean to the Yongming poets? By unraveling the aural and visual experiences encapsulated in their poems, she argues that their pursuit of sound and sight reveals a complex confluence of Buddhist influence, Confucian value, and new sociopolitical conditions. Her study challenges the old perception of the Yongming poets and the common practice of reading classical Chinese poems for semantic meaning only.

It is to the author's credit that in the short pages of the main body of the book, she presents a precise and clear picture of how the Yongming poets distinguished themselves and their poetry . . The author serves as a perceptive, reliable, and oftentimes inspiring guide leading us through the multifarious and emotionally charged landscape as it unfolds visually and acoustically before her poet protagonists . . . [H]eroic and laudable . . . [A] fresh and important contribution to our knowledge and understanding of this pivotal period in Chinese literary and cultural history. This carefully researched and finely written book provides a solid basis for further studies in the future. [A] highly readable study if Yongming poetry that explores its new modes, devices, and themes in a compelling way. Sound and Sighthelps us to understand a pivotal period in Clã-