Best 唐詩三百首?

[jannesan]

Hi everyone, I would like to get a book with very comprehensive annotations for Tang poetry. There are tons of options for the classic compilation of 300 Tang poems, but I am not sure which one would be best for a foreigner like me without the typical Chinese education background. 
 

I am looking for something written for natives but with as much hand holding as possible, maybe targetting school kids in 初中 or so. Appreciate any tips!

[PerpetualChange]

https://www.chinesebookonline.com/store/product/77245/唐詩宋詞_首.html

 

This looks like it might be what you're asking for!

[Luxi]

@jannesan as you say, there are tons of 300 Tang Poems books, not surprisingly all very similar. All the ones I've seen seem to derive their commentaries from the original Qing Dynasty ones. I think you won't find an ideal foreigner-friendly book on the 300 poems, I would recommend looking at non-Chinese commentaries and translations in addition to the Chinese texts. You can go a long way further by using the web and friendly LLMs (I think Claude 3.5 and Tsinghua's ChatGLM are good at handling Chinese content and using both English and Chinese in their replies). This site is worth keeping handy: 古诗文网-古诗文经典传承 (gushiwen.cn) Searching for individual poems in Baidu/Baike also brings up loads of commentaries and glosses. 

 

I have Hu Kexian's ebook 唐诗三百首 , it has enough explanations and is quite clear. Paper-books Douban has this one by the same author, and the readers mention plenty of comments, I don't know how it compares with the ebook, but it must have some similarities. Professor Hu from Zhejiang University teaches one of my favourite moocs 唐诗经典_浙江大学_中国大学MOOC(慕课) (icourse163.org) I think it is still free to follow the teachings without a certificate and registration for the platform is open to people outside China.

 

Don't expect much from children's material, they just memorise and recite, the smart kids you see sometimes on Chinese TV are an exception rather than the norm.

 

[jannesan]

Thank you both for the recommendations, I will report back here once I made a choice and have something to say about how it works for me

[PerpetualChange]

I wound up ordering the books I linked to, so I'll also post a short review when I get them and have time to work through them!

[Luxi]

On 8/15/2024 at 3:15 PM, PerpetualChange said:

I'll also post a short review

 

That'll be interesting, TIA.

 

Meanwhile, I looked back into my ebook by Prof. Hu and decided it is much too literary. It seemed OK and not very difficult to read the poems and commentary while following the mooc, but that was only 20 poems at most. Qing Dynasty Chinese for 300 poems is too much for me. It has plenty of word meanings but no foreigner-friendly explanations. 

 

I'm checking my ebook apps (they have samples) for alternatives. 

[Luxi]

Original post edited for brevity

 

Getting back to @jannesan's question, which edition of 烫手三百首 would be best for people without a traditional Chinese education background? 

 

I checked several versions in Douban ebooks and Weixin dushu  (comparing the first 4 poems), and readers' reviews in Douban and Weixin dushu, and questions posted by Chinese readers in Zhihu.

 

Most of the books follow the format of the original Qing Dynasty book by Sun Zhu and his wife. The poems are organised according to style (old style 5 syllables, regular verse 5 syllables, etc.), and each poem (with or without pinyin) is followed by annotations (commonly just a list of unusual words and expressions with their meaning) and interpretation (commonly, in the form of a short , variably elaborated, story)   Some better editions also include an 'appreciation' section and sometimes a 'translation' of the poem in modern Mandarin (which I find very helpful to resolve ambiguities)  Language and writing style vary from very literary to colloquial, but otherwise most versions are quite  similar.

 

Here are my choice ones listed by the name of the commentator /editor, in my order of preference 

1. ZHAO CHANGPING (赵昌平) (Fudan University) 
《唐诗三百首全解》"300 Tang Poems. Complete Interpretation"
334 pages
出版社: 复旦大学出版社 / Fudan University Press
出版年: 2006-7-1, also 2010 and probably later ones
ISBN: 7309050754
https://book.douban.com/subject/1857104/
https://weread.qq.com/web/bookDetail/4e2329f0811e3930dg015e99 (book listed but unavailable}

 

This also comes up top in many reviews. According to Zhao Changping, the Chinese version was published after an Overseas edition was well received. The annotations are good and there's more than sufficient vocabulary help, the commentary is in clear standard Chinese, and each poem also includes a translation into modern Chinese, which I find very helpful. In the few bits I read (book on order) I noticed some short explanations that seemed to be for the benefit of non-China-educated readers.

 

There doesn't seem to be an ebook, but a Zhihu question has a very good sample (paste the name of the answer on Zhihu's search window):
 解读书如许多, 这版最是入心
The book extract is half-way down the page. There may still be a pdf in Scribd.

 

I don't have any source of Chinese paper books in mainland China (JD no longer ships) but  it may be available here:
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Hundred-Tang-Poems-Chinese/dp/7309050754  (at a price)
and here:
https://cypressbooks.com/tangshi-sanbai-shou-quanjie-9787309050752.html

 

2. JIN XINGYAO, JIN WENNAN ( 金性尧 注释 , 金文男 he-he-he, Xingyao's daughter 文男 )
《唐诗三百首新注：典藏版》（全二册）
New Notes on Tang Poems: Collector's Edition (2 volumes) [several editions, most only 1 volume]
作者（清）蘅塘退士 编选金性尧 注释金文男 辑评
出版社上海古籍出版社 / 2016-11
Publisher: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House / 2016-11
提供方上海古籍出版社
字数约 297,000 字
ISBN9787532580934

 

It tops many Chinese lists. Thorough vocabulary and Interpretation, makes reference to other classics.  Individual poems commentaries are not very long but just right,  may quote from other studies of the same poem. A pleasure to read  but the language is not always easy. It's excellent as reference. 

 

https://read.douban.com/ebook/422029493/?dcs=search
https://weread.qq.com/web/bookDetail/c3432500813ab6d43g016364
https://read.douban.com/ebook/422029493/?dcs=search

Paper book: 
https://cypressbooks.com/tangshi-sanbai-shou-xinzhu-2-vol-9787532580934.html

3. HU KEXIAN
唐诗三百首 / 300 Tang Poems
国家统编语文教科书·名著阅读力养成丛书
作者: [清]孙洙 编选: 胡可先 
出版社: 浙江文艺出版社 / 2018-08
Publisher: Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House / 2018-08
字数约 228,000 字
ISBN9787533953638

 

It's a bit difficult to read, the ebook uses different fonts to distinguish different sources but I'm not clear which is which (haven't read the long introduction), but generally has good background information and insightful notes. Includes old commentaries in rather literary language, but those can be skipped. Hu Laoshi's own text is clear.  In all, a good book and currently very cheap in Douban ebooks. 
https://read.douban.com/ebook/58357569/?dcs=search

 

Also listed by JD, the link below is ebook sample but JD may have a paper version.
https://cread.jd.com/read/startRead.action?bookId=30434845&readType=1

Other interesting references:

 

XU YUANCHONG
许渊冲译唐诗三百首（2 册）：汉英对照
Xu Yuanchong's translation of 300 Tang poems
作者: 许渊冲 译注
类别文学经典/诗歌及赏析
提供方中译出版社
字数约 107,000 字

https://read.douban.com/bundle/331276099/?dcs=search
https://read.douban.com/ebook/328945990/  + https://read.douban.com/ebook/328923082/?dcs=search
also in Weixin dushu
https://weread.qq.com/web/bookDetail/4c332fd0726fc9ac4c387fd

Xu Yuanchong's translations are considered to be the best available English translations in mainland China. There is only the poem and its English translation, I couldn't see any commentary,  notes or analysis but the translation itself covers all of those. 

Correction: The 2 volumes edition on Douban ebook now has vocabulary annotations and a brief commentary (in English) on the poem. It sure makes a difference, I must have checked a different edition because I looked for something like that and there was nothing there  

 

YU SHOUZHEN 
 守真《唐诗三百首详析》[ 300 Tang Poems. Detailed Analysis 
1st edition: 1948, countless reeditions]

Some readers give this top place in their preferences. It may be older generations' favourite, as it's probably what most people studied from before the 1980s. A rather unique feature is that it analyses the poems' rhyme /  structure, not part of the original 300. Notes are in simpler language than I expected.  The style seems clear but the text is hard to read even from an AI enhanced pdf. 

pdf is in Scribd:
https://www.scribd.com/document/360622724/唐诗三百首详析-喻守真-中华书局1985年

-------------------------------------------

Websites

There are lots of them and more appear every time one searches, Most are very similar, and generally contain as much or more information than the 300 poems books. Here are some I found (I starred those I like best)

 

*** https://www.gushiji.cc/tangshisanbaishou/  
https://www.gushiwen.cn/  [https://www.gushiwen.cn/gushi/tangshi.aspx]
https://www.gushici.net/shici/
https://www.gushicimingju.com/       
*** https://shicizhi.com/
https://www.gushixuexi.com/
https://www.guwenxue.cc/
https://www.kekeshici.com/
 

[jannesan]

Wow, thank you so much @Luxi for all your research and reporting back here. I followed your first suggestion and found a scan of 赵昌平’s book and it looks absolutely great indeed. Very detailed annotations and the translation to modern Mandarin is greatly appreciated too. I think I will stop my search right here and try to get a hold of a paper version to go through!

[Luxi]

Glad you like 赵昌平’s book @jannesan . I liked it too, also stopped searching, and ordered a copy via Amazon.com It's being sent from China. Later I saw it listed much cheaper in Cypress Books (London) though their page may be out of date - and the US Amazon price went up a lot just days after I ordered my copy. 

I also found this audio in Ximalaya:

https://www.ximalaya.com/sound/135790630

This recording is open to all. There's text for each episode.

[Luxi]

An addition. This is not  another version of 300 唐诗, but it seems to have some good answers to @jannesan's opening request. It sure offers hand-holding a-plenty. The book is 《昨夜星辰：高盛元的唐诗课》by 高盛元  (Gao Shengyuan), a teacher at a high school in Shengzhen whose elective course became so popular that it became a Bilibili video that received >1 million views (obviously not everyone in China has learnt classical poetry from the cradle), and eventually became this book. 

 

The book explains selected Tang poems organised into 12 basic themes, using a refreshingly clear direct language (though no child-speak!) and appears to break a few established conventions along the way. I'm not far into the reading, but I'm enjoying it and already found several gems. I find it quite inspiring and mind-opening, even if a little bit repetitive at times.

Incidentally, this book came 4th in Douban's non-fiction Book of the Year 2023, and 高老师 received over half a million votes as the "dream Chinese language and literature teacher" (can't find a reference for this, but he would get my vote too).

 

I've seen ebook versions in several places, including Weixin Dushu and Douban Cloud eBooks .  

I don't know about paper versions, the title is listed in Taobao and several book sellers including some from Taiwan. It should be easy to find, being a high school book. Amazon UK has 昨夜星辰 by Gao Shengyuan but IT IS NOT THE SAME BOOK! It is a book about 红楼梦 by the same author.

[NH]

I enjoyed the book titled “how to read a Chinese poem” by Edward C. Chang, PhD.

 

This book introduces the poem in traditional Chinese, and then has an English translation of the poem, as well as a detailed description of what the poem means. It is a bilingual anthology of

Tang poetry

 

https://www.amazon.ca/How-Read-Chinese-Poem-Bilingual/dp/1419670131

[jannesan]

On 10/15/2024 at 4:38 PM, Luxi said:

The book is 《昨夜星辰：高盛元的唐诗课》by 高盛元  (Gao Shengyuan), a teacher at a high school in Shengzhen whose elective course became so popular that it became a Bilibili video that received >1 million views (obviously not everyone in China has learnt classical poetry from the cradle), and eventually became this book. 

 

As I am still waiting for the paperback of 赵昌平’s 唐诗三百首全解 to arrive, I got a digital version of this and am reading it now. I got it on the Kobo ebook store, it’s in traditional script and has the different title: 《讀一遍就記得的唐詩課》. It is for sure the same book, same exact content.

 

It is really written in a very digestible style and totally the right level for me. Thanks again for an excellent tip @Luxi!