Studies in Chinese Literary Genres

Edited by Cyril Birch, Studies in Chinese Literary Genres is a landmark collection that foregrounds genre as the key to understanding the evolution of China’s literary tradition. Eleven leading scholars trace the histories, functions, and transformations of forms ranging from the earliest Shih-ching hymns to late imperial novels. Each essay isolates defining features—metrical, thematic, or rhetorical—that reveal how genres both guided writers and conditioned readers’ expectations, while als...