RAS-1964 — Page 163

RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 All AI Reviewed

138

BOOK REVIEWS

between man and woman. True, there are many Chinese poems by men professing affection for other men in terms which would bring serious embarrassment if not public prosecution to an English poet; true also that in old China, where marriages were arranged by the parents, a man's need for sympathy, understanding, and affection often found their answer in another man

One of the things that often lead to a misunderstanding of Chinese poetry is the insistence, to the point of excess, on the associative power of Chinese characters. One often hears that the genius of China is in its written language, in the curves and squares and dashes of its mystic signs. However, to the Chinese there is much less mysticism attached to their ideograms. They are taken for granted. No doubt association is important in Chinese poetry but it is allusion which provides the chief difficulty to readers, foreign and native alike. It is often impossible for people who have no classical Chinese background to go beyond the first line of some Chinese poems.

Perhaps Mr. Liu's chief contribution to an understanding of this art is his application of Western methods to the criticism of Chinese poetry and his attempt at a synthesis between the traditional Chinese views of poetry and the verbal analytical approach of the West. This is contained in Part III of the book which begins with a criticism of the four schools of critics, namely, The Moralists, the Individualists, the Technicians and the Intuitionalists, and continues with a description of how these views might be reconciled. Imagery, symbolism, allusion, antithesis and other poetical devices are then described, contrasting Western and Chinese uses of them.

There will always be two types of readers: the man in the street and the academician. To whichever category one may belong, to those who are looking for something peculiarly Chinese or to those who look upon poetry as an exploration of different worlds (world as "emotion and scene")—there will be much to enjoy in Mr. Liu's well-conceived volume The Art of Chinese Poetry.

T. C. LAI.

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138 BOOK REVIEWS between man and woman. True, there are many Chinese poems by men professing affection for other men in terms which would bring serious embarrassment if not public prosecution to an English poet; true also that in old China, where marriages were arranged by the parents, a man's need for sympathy, understanding, and affection often found their answer in another man 15 One of the things that often lead to a misunderstanding of Chinese poetry is the insistence, to the point of excess, on the associative power of Chinese characters. One often hears that the genius of China is in its written language, in the curves and squares and dashes of its mystic signs. However, to the Chinese there is much less mysticism attached to their ideograms. They are taken for granted. No doubt association is important in Chinese poetry but it is allusion which provides the chief difficulty to readers, foreign and native alike. It is often impossible for people who have no classical Chinese background to go beyond the first line of some Chinese poems. Perhaps Mr. Liu's chief contribution to an understanding of this art is his application of Western methods to the criticism of Chinese poetry and his attempt at a synthesis between the traditional Chinese views of poetry and the verbal analytical approach of the West. This is contained in Part III of the book which begins with a criticism of the four schools of critics, namely, The Moralists, the Individualists, the Technicians and the Intuitionalists, and continues with a description of how these views might be reconciled. Imagery, symbolism, allusion, antithesis and other poetical devices are then described, contrasting Western and Chinese uses of them. There will always be two types of readers: the man in the street and the academician. To whichever category one may belong, to those who are looking for something peculiarly Chinese or to those who look upon poetry as an exploration of different worlds (world as "emotion and scene")—there will be much to enjoy in Mr. Liu's well-conceived volume The Art of Chinese Poetry. T. C. LAI.

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138 BOOK REVIEWS between man and woman. True, there are many Chinese poems by men professing affection for other men in terms which would bring serious embarrassment if not public prosecution to an English poet; true also that in old China, where marriages were arranged by the parents, a man's need for sympathy, under- standing, and affection often found their answer in another man 15 One of the things that often lead to a misunderstanding of Chinese poetry is the insistance, to the point of excess, on the associative power of Chinese characters. One often hears that the genius of China is in its written language, in the curves and squares and dashes of its mystic signs. However, to the Chinese there is much less mysticism attached to their ideograms. They are taken for granted. No doubt association is important in Chinese poetry but it is allusion which provides the chief difficulty to readers, foreign and native alike. It is often impossible for people who have no classical Chinese background to go beyond the first line of some Chinese poems. Perhaps Mr. Liu's chief contribution to an understanding of this art is his application of Western methods to the criticism of Chinese poetry and his attempt at a synthesis between the traditional Chinese views of poetry and the verbal analytical approach of the West. This is contained in Part III of the book which begins with a criticism of the four schools of critics, namely, The Moralists, the Individualists, the Technicians and the Intuitionalists, and continues with a description of how these views might be reconciled. Imagery, symbolism, allusion. antithesis and other poetical devices are then described, contrasting Western and Chinese uses of them. There will always be two types of readers: the man in the street and the academician. To whichever category one may belong to those who are looking for something peculiarly Chinese or to those who look upon poetry as an exploration of different worlds (world as "emotion and scene")- there will be much to enjoy in Mr. Liu's well-conceived volume The Art of Chinese Poetry. T. C. LAI.

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138

BOOK REVIEWS

between man and woman. True, there are many Chinese poems by men professing affection for other men in terms which would bring serious embarrassment if not public prosecution to an English poet; true also that in old China, where marriages were arranged by the parents, a man's need for sympathy, under- standing, and affection often found their answer in another

man

One of the things that often lead to a misunderstanding of Chinese poetry is the insistance, to the point of excess, on the associative power of Chinese characters. One often hears that the genius of China is in its written language, in the curves and squares and dashes of its mystic signs. However, to the Chinese there is much less mysticism attached to their ideograms. They are taken for granted. No doubt association is important in Chinese poetry but it is allusion which provides the chief difficulty to readers, foreign and native alike. It is often impossible for people who have no classical Chinese background to go beyond the first line of some Chinese poems.

Perhaps Mr. Liu's chief contribution to an understanding of this art is his application of Western methods to the criticism of Chinese poetry and his attempt at a synthesis between the traditional Chinese views of poetry and the verbal analytical approach of the West. This is contained in Part III of the book which begins with a criticism of the four schools of critics, namely, The Moralists, the Individualists, the Technicians and the Intuitionalists, and continues with a description of how these views might be reconciled. Imagery, symbolism, allusion. antithesis and other poetical devices are then described, contrasting Western and Chinese uses of them.

There will always be two types of readers: the man in the street and the academician. To whichever category one may belong to those who are looking for something peculiarly Chinese or to those who look upon poetry as an exploration of different worlds (world as "emotion and scene")- there will be much to enjoy in Mr. Liu's well-conceived volume The Art of Chinese Poetry.

RAS-1964 — Page 163

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