The end of the Chinese 'Middle ages' : essays in Mid-Tang literary culture /

Owen (Harvard Univ.) presents readers with a collection of essays when the ink has barely dried his 1,200-page Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911 (CH, Nov'96). The new work is more modest in physical size but huge in richness of content and stimulating in its effect on the reader. The seven essays focus on attitudinal and stylistic qualities shared by several of the greatest Chinese writers of the late 8th and early 9th centuries, commonly referred to as the "Middle Tang" period in Chinese literary history. The first five essays are thematic, covering changes in articulation of the self and questions of ownership; landscape representation and the underlying order of nature; innovative explanations challenging conventional acceptance; wit in the discourse of private meanings; and poetry as art form rather than medium of expression. The last two essays are extended explications, in light of the above trends, of two of the best-known short stories written during the period. This is not a systematic intellectual or literary history of the period, but it is a significant, useful, and often inspiring guide to understanding historic changes in mindsets and styles. All academic collections. J. W. Walls Simon Fraser University