The How to Read Chinese Literature series

I bought some new books recently and don't think most of them have been mentioned here. They make up what's now called the 'How to Read Chinese Literature' series, either written or edited by Zong-qi Cai.

How to Read Chinese Poetry (2008): Goes through each poetry era/style with lots of translated poems. A decent survey of Chinese classical poetry, whether you can read Chinese or not. Mentioned previously on these forums.

How to Read Chinese Poetry Workbook (2012) A companion to the first book but for people who are learning to read Chinese poetry, so pinyin, vocabulary and modern Chinese translations accompany a new set of 100 Classical poems and their English translations.

How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context (2018) Essays, all in English, on poetry from antiquity to the Tang. If you study western literature in the west you'd expect to read stuff like this.

How to Read Chinese Prose (2022) Lots of classical Chinese prose pieces translated into English and then discussed, for what they mean, why they're so good etc. Don't need to be able to read Chinese.

How to Read Chinese Prose in Chinese (2022) This is a kind of companion, for people studying Classical Chinese: more texts (and some that overlap), but this time the original Chinese text is the focus, with vocab and grammar notes as well as translations into modern Chinese and English.

How to Read Chinese Drama (2022) Don't have this but seems to be an introduction/appreciation and anthology to Chinese drama, no Chinese required.

Of these six books, three are subtitled "A Guided Anthology": How to Read Chinese Poetry, How to Read Chinese Prose, and How to Read Chinese Drama.

I would say that How to Read Chinese Poetry Workbook and How to Read Chinese Prose in Chinese are the companions to the anthologies, for people who know some of, or are studying, the Classical language.

That leaves How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context, which seems to be more designed to give you a thorough and almost more academic grounding in Chinese poetry and poetics.

Early days cos I only bought most of these recently but I'm really happy to find so much material in English that's designed to give a real understanding of Chinese literature (rather than simply saying this is a famous poem and this is what it means). The two prose books in particular are a revelation!

More details here: http://cup.columbia.edu/series/how-to-read-chinese-literature. And amazon lets you 'look inside' so see a preview.

Related, I recently found this book: 唐诗百话, although I haven’t read much of it yet. It’s a selection of 100 Tang poems, with explanations in plain (Chinese) language.

On 5/18/2022 at 1:53 PM, realmayo said:

How to Read Chinese Poetry Workbook (2012) A companion to the first book but for people who are learning to read Chinese poetry, so pinyin, vocabulary and modern Chinese translations accompany a new set of 100 Classical poems and their English translations.

Is this workbook a good standalone resource, or does it rely heavily on How to Read Chinese Poetry?

It's a decent standalone resource: lots of poems, no in-depth context but still some brief comments on each.

A good book series indeed!

You might be interested to know Prof. Zong-qi Cai has organised a free podcast on How to Read Chinese poetry based on the poetry set. It's in English and the poems are recited in English and Mandarin. It started in February and is now on episode 16 (War as a Theme in Early Popular Chinese Poetry). there is a dedicated website with the details and downloadable pdfs here  :

How to Read Chinese Poetry  

and there's even a Chinese Poetry Podcast Facebook group  

The podcasts can be found on Spotify, Ximalaya, Apple, Google and don't know how many more platforms.

I'm already behind with the schedule but the podcasts I listened to were very helpful to internalize what I had read in the book. 

... 3 years later ... Another revived thread.

Remember Prof.Zong-qi Cai's "How to Read Chinese Poetry" (part of the How to Read Chinese Literature series) and  the 2022-23 podcast series that followed? Professor Cai has now just started a video series on How to Read Chinese Poetry with material extracted from the original podcast now in video format.

I thought it would be old stuff that I already knew from listening the audios, but out of curiosity started to watch these videos and was shocked to notice how much easier it is to follow and remember the contents from the videos. Maybe it's just me, but at least the first 2 videos (on the 诗经) are well done and pleasant to follow (they have subtitles and transcripts).

Ep.2 The Book of Poetry: Courtship poems, William H. NIENHAUSER (Part1) - YouTube (I can't find an Episode 1, maybe there never was any)

If you feel adventurous, browse around the You Tube site for Lingnan University's Advanced Institute for Global Chinese Studies - YouTube, you'll get a deluge of Chinese culture, including lots of poetry. Unfortunately, navigation is kind of chaotic and one finds stuff almost by chance, but worth a browse. Somewhere in that chaos there is a whole page of videos on Chinese poetry, but can I find it again?

the videos look great, on the list they go! I just tried a few of the Lingnan advanced institute videos, unfortunately the recording leaves a little to be desired - can't see the slides at all, at least on the videos I watched; that coupled with the heavy subject matter (and heavier accents) certainly does make for an "adventurous" experience 

Episode 3 is now online. I can't remember much of this part in the original podcast, even less from the book itself, but I will remember these videos. Besides, the illustrations are stunning!

On 11/28/2025 at 12:44 AM, Tomsima said:

tried a few of the Lingnan advanced institute videos, unfortunately the recording leaves a little to be desired

Yes, it is a mixed batch, most of it quite unintelligible. However, Prof Cai has been adding many videos on poetry that I think are worth watching. 

【古詩篇】Ep.1 李白《月下獨酌》組詩，倒著念更美！  

They are hard to follow, most in accented Mandarin, though with 汉字 subtitles, but AI can be quite helpful here (providing translations, summaries, references, comments, etc.

Among the additions there is a set from the final part of the original podcast. It explains the metrics of regulated Tang poetry, it's very simple and clear, in English with English subtitles. The last 2 are by someone else, too technical and rather hard to understand for me.

The Sounds of the Tang Poetry (1) | Mastering Tones in Modern and Middle Chinese
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxp6Au7JKHE&list=PLXhhvZMr6NJmcG0bKszaLAFh0zV8sucf_&index=10

The Sounds of the Tang Poetry (2) | Constructing Regulated Quatrains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSoktjvrYok&list=PLXhhvZMr6NJmcG0bKszaLAFh0zV8sucf_&index=9

The Sounds of the Tang Poetry (3) | Constructing Pentasyllabic Regulated Verse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWXosSaZFpU&list=PLXhhvZMr6NJmcG0bKszaLAFh0zV8sucf_&index=8

The Sounds of the Tang Poetry (4) | Constructing Heptasyllabic Regulated Verse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipeCVtad9pI&list=PLXhhvZMr6NJmcG0bKszaLAFh0zV8sucf_&index=8&t=7s

The Sounds of the Tang Poetry (5) | Regulated Poetic Forms & Modes of Thinking: Sonnet and Lüshi
https://youtu.be/UFrUhv_w3Rk?list=PLXhhvZMr6NJmcG0bKszaLAFh0zV8sucf_

The Sounds of the Tang Poetry (6) | From Zhiyin to Yunxue: The Rise of Chinese Rhyme Studies 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqyPMJ3fYaQ&list=PLXhhvZMr6NJmcG0bKszaLAFh0zV8sucf_&index=5

From Kuyin to Yinsong: Constructing and Reciting Regulated Verse | The Sounds of the Tang Poetry (7)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fyXujV5mwE&list=PLXhhvZMr6NJmcG0bKszaLAFh0zV8sucf_&index=4