Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2022
Abstract
The article presents and example of "poems on things" (yong wu), a genre popular in early medieval China. It first characterizes the gaenre cobentions and then deals with a group of poems composed at the Cao Cao court in celebration of a precious jasper bowl donated to Cao.
Close reading of the poems contextualized in earlier tradition of the genre the symbolism of precious stones in early literature offers interpretation of the philosophical meaning of the poems and their historical significance.