PRESENTATION OUTLINE
-A collection of poems chosen by Confucius, but with unknown authors.
T’ao Ch’ien
-Left political office to live on a farm and write poetry about common matters like farming and family.
Li Po
-Considered a supreme master of Chinese poetry; focuses on being free-spirited and harmony with nature.
Tu Fu
-Crafted Shih poetry; deals with social issues (nobility’s extravagance in face of extreme poverty.
Shih poems
-Poems that have an even number of lines with an even number of words per line (can be any length).
Songs
-Poems originally set to music and have strong regular rhythms. Songs may also include refrains.
Ballads
-Songs that tell stories.
-Bashful: (adj) shy. Ex: bashful child, beginning to grow.
-Eddies: (noun) waters moving in circles against the main current. Ex: we gain insight into the complex behaviour of ocean eddies.
-Scurry: (verb) to run hastily, to scamper. Ex: scurry for shelter.
-Pathos: (noun) quality in something that evokes sorrow or compassion. Ex: Pathos of old things passing away and no new things coming.
-Impeccability: (adv) without being noticed. Ex: She had an impeccable reputation.
Beg of You, Chung Tzu
-The poem talks about a girl who is in love with Chung Tzu but there are many obstacles to their being together. The girl is afraid of his family and society in addition to the many obstacles planted in her father’s homestead.
In China It was particularly concerned with the nature of the relationships especially the morality. It emphasized on the need to obey and respect the people in authority such as the head of households.
This is the reason why the Chinese girl in this poem is afraid of what her father, mother, brother and other people would say about her relationship with Chung Tzu. And the fears the girl has that her boyfriend could climb the homestead and breaks the willows, climb over the wall, break the mulberry trees, and climb into the garden and break the hard wood is because of Taoism belief that nature must be nurtured.
Thick Grow The Rush Leaves
-This poem uses natural imagery and the river as a metaphor for taoism. The man that the lady loves is not trying to avoid her; the poet uses the man upstream in the river to symbolize her search for romantic love and contentment. When she fights the current, the "way was difficult and long;" it is like she struggles against the tao, the natural flow of energy and life. Later, she goes downstream, traveling with the flow of the river, she finds her lover easily, going with natural flow of energy and life.
Form, Shadow and Spirit
-Is a conversation between entities and it changes in each section:
1)Form: Physical Body
2)Shadow: Physical Shadow
3)Spirit: Soul
1) Form’s Argument:
The human body comes to an end. People only live a short time, then they die and are rarely actually remembered. Therefore, there is no reason to deny the physical body of worldly pleasures: drink, party, food.
2)Shadow’s Reply:
You, the physical body may die, but the soul (representing light and love) is immortal. As such, how can you spare any effort to leave good memories? Wine and other pleasures may sate the physical body, but they are injurious to the soul.
3)Spirit’s Answer to both:
If you, body and shadow, rank at all in the grand scheme of things, is it not because of me since all that matters is one’s place in the universe/afterlife? •Death is the great equalizer – all die the same regardless of physical health, wealth, good works, etc.
We are all connected. Physical body, soul, and spirit. Therefore what happens to one impacts us all.
I Built My house Near Where Others Dwell
-Though the author built his home near other people, he is in solitude in nature. He finds eternal truths in nature and is so in awe of it that he cannot express his emotions in words.
Made by Ana Gabriela Rubín and Militza Rodríguez
