Written at Imperial Command, livre ebook

Explores both the literary features and historical context of poetry written for imperial rulers during China's early medieval period.

Explores both the literary features and historical context of poetry written for imperial rulers during China's early medieval period.

This is the first book-length study of panegyric poetry-yingzhao shi or poetry presented to imperial rulers-in the Chinese tradition. Examining poems presented during the Wei-Jin Nanbeichao, or early medieval period (220–619), Fusheng Wu provides a thorough exploration of the sociopolitical background against which these poems were written and a close analysis of the formal conventions of the poems.

By reconstructing the human drama behind the composition of these poems, Wu shows that writing under imperial command could be a matter of grave consequence. The poets' work could determine the rise and fall of careers, or even cost lives. While panegyric poetry has been largely dismissed as perfunctory and insincere, such poems reveal much about the relations between monarchs and the intellectuals they patronized and also compels us to reexamine the canonical Chinese notion of poetic production as personal, spontaneous expression.

Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. Han Epideictic Rhapsody: The Prototype of Panegyric Poetry

2. Self-Foregrounding in the Panegyric Poetry of the Jian’an Era

3. Archaic Elegance in the Panegyric Poetry of the Jin Dynasty

4. Addressing the Best and Worst of Rulers: Panegyric Poetry of the Liu Song Dynasty

5. Praising Rulers throughout Calm and Conspiracy: The Southern Qi Dynasty

6. The Flourishing of Panegyric Poetry during the Liang Dynasty

7. Poetry’s Embarrassment: Panegyric Poetry of the Chen Dynasty

8. Becoming Chinese: Panegyric Poetry during the Northern Dynasties

9. Matching Poems with a Cruel but Talented Ruler: The Sui Dynasty

Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index