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larryhammerA Chinese translation that's not a poem:
If a child attending school is taught Poems of a Thousand Masters, he will likely succeed at reading it aloud, so it continues to spread. But its editor picked up poems in passing, including clumsy works without distinction—and moreover in only the two forms of regulated verse and regulated quatrains in five and seven characters, while people of the Tang and Song Dynasties also wrote in various forms left out by his perverse organization. Focusing on the most popular Tang poems, I have selected the most important in each of ten types, altogether 300-plus poems, copied complete into one collection to use as a textbook in homes and private schools—so enabling a child in his studies that as an old man he will not be able to forget them. Compared to Poems of a Thousand Masters, isn’t this far superior? The proverb says, “Learn 300 Tang poems by heart, then even if you cannot write poetry, you can still recite it.” Please use my collection to test this.
蘅塘退士原序
世俗儿童就学，即授《千家诗》，取其易于成诵，故流传不废。但其诗随手掇拾，工拙莫辨，且止五七律绝二体，而唐宋人又杂出其间，殊乖体制。因专就唐诗中脍灸人口之作，择其尤要者，每体得数十首，共三百馀首，录成一篇，为家塾课本，俾童而习之，白首亦莫能废，较《千家诗》不远胜耶？ 谚云：“熟读唐诗三百首，不会作诗也会吟”。请以是编验之。
To my surprise, the preface to this collection of classical verse I’ve been working through is in vernacular Chinese, which makes it sooo much easier to read than the technically shorter poem prefaces.* One thing to note: when Sun Zhu talks about a child’s “studies,” this implicitly includes cultivating his** character—in other words, inculcation in Confucian values. Thus the omission of genres and styles*** that Qing-Dynasty Confucians disapproved of.
Despite his claim of ten forms, the original edition categorized poems into six sections by form. Most modern editions, FWIW, organize it into either eight or seven forms, with disagreements between six, seven, eight, and ten being over how to handle various folk-song-style poems. I am personally inclined ATM to go with eight, but sliced differently from my eight-part base text, but I’m staying with its organization for now because its numbering makes traceability easier.
* I’m getting decent at reading classical poetry, but remain ass at classical prose with its elaborated clauses.
** Schooling for girls in the early Qing Dynasty was, ah, limited.
*** Such as anything even vaguely erotic, or anything by women.
---L.
Index of Chinese translations
If a child attending school is taught Poems of a Thousand Masters, he will likely succeed at reading it aloud, so it continues to spread. But its editor picked up poems in passing, including clumsy works without distinction—and moreover in only the two forms of regulated verse and regulated quatrains in five and seven characters, while people of the Tang and Song Dynasties also wrote in various forms left out by his perverse organization. Focusing on the most popular Tang poems, I have selected the most important in each of ten types, altogether 300-plus poems, copied complete into one collection to use as a textbook in homes and private schools—so enabling a child in his studies that as an old man he will not be able to forget them. Compared to Poems of a Thousand Masters, isn’t this far superior? The proverb says, “Learn 300 Tang poems by heart, then even if you cannot write poetry, you can still recite it.” Please use my collection to test this.
蘅塘退士原序
世俗儿童就学，即授《千家诗》，取其易于成诵，故流传不废。但其诗随手掇拾，工拙莫辨，且止五七律绝二体，而唐宋人又杂出其间，殊乖体制。因专就唐诗中脍灸人口之作，择其尤要者，每体得数十首，共三百馀首，录成一篇，为家塾课本，俾童而习之，白首亦莫能废，较《千家诗》不远胜耶？ 谚云：“熟读唐诗三百首，不会作诗也会吟”。请以是编验之。
To my surprise, the preface to this collection of classical verse I’ve been working through is in vernacular Chinese, which makes it sooo much easier to read than the technically shorter poem prefaces.* One thing to note: when Sun Zhu talks about a child’s “studies,” this implicitly includes cultivating his** character—in other words, inculcation in Confucian values. Thus the omission of genres and styles*** that Qing-Dynasty Confucians disapproved of.
Despite his claim of ten forms, the original edition categorized poems into six sections by form. Most modern editions, FWIW, organize it into either eight or seven forms, with disagreements between six, seven, eight, and ten being over how to handle various folk-song-style poems. I am personally inclined ATM to go with eight, but sliced differently from my eight-part base text, but I’m staying with its organization for now because its numbering makes traceability easier.
* I’m getting decent at reading classical poetry, but remain ass at classical prose with its elaborated clauses.
** Schooling for girls in the early Qing Dynasty was, ah, limited.
*** Such as anything even vaguely erotic, or anything by women.
---L.
Index of Chinese translations
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Date: 16 June 2020 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 17 June 2020 04:10 am (UTC)