Resources for understanding classical poetry

[RadioSilence]

Hi, as we know Chinese poetry has several styles depending on the dynasty. Given that they are hundreds or thousands of years apart, the meanings of the words and the grammar must have undergone lots of variations. 

 

The Shijing, for example, comes from the early Zhou Dynasty and uses super archaic constructions and characters, while poetry from the Tang is more familiar to someone like myself with a more...rudimentary knowledge of Mandarin and classical Chinese. Neither are easy to understand on a semantic level, and translations, being necessarily imbued with interpretation, are usually not too much help in this regard.

 

So I'm looking for resources (could be in English or Chinese) that explain classical poetry word-by-word, or at least help one understand the deeper context so as to glean a more accurate understanding of the characters. I'm not too attached to any particular era, though figuring out the Shijing would be kind of epic. Thanks! 

 

 

[Zeppa]

I'm not an expert, but do you know the book How to Read Chinese Poetry - a Guided Anthology, by Zong-Qi Cai?

 

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/how-to-read-chinese-poetry/9780231139403

 

 

There's also a workbook.

[Guest realmayo]

Those books aren't bad, also:

Chinese Through Poetry: An introduction to the language and imagery of traditional verse

https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Through-Poetry-introduction-traditional/dp/1904623514

The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High Tang

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Age-Chinese-Poetry-High/dp/1922169064

[Angelina]

 I'm not too attached to any particular era, though figuring out the Shijing would be kind of epic.

 

 

 

​try this book for the 《诗经》