1. FOUNDATIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS
Divinations and Inscriptions
1. A Late Shang Divination Record
2. A Bronze Inscription of the Western Chou
3. The Book of Changes of the Chou People
4. An Early Commentary on the Classic of Changes
Philosophy Thought and Religion
5. Attributed to Kuan Chung, Kuan Tzu Duties of the Student
6. Anonymous, Confucian Analects, Book 2
7. Meng K'o, Mencius, Bull Mountain and Fish and Bear's Paws
8. Chuang Chou, Chuang Tzu, Chapter 17 and other passages
9. Attributed to Lao Tzu, The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way: Tao te ching
10. Attributed to Lieh Yü -k'ou, Lieh Tzu, The Stupid Old Man Who Moved a Mountain
11. Translated by Hsüan-tsang, Abhidharma-mahavibhasa-sastra, Chapter 99: The Sins of Mahadeva
Criticism and Theory
12. Hsiao T'ung, Preface to Literary Selections
13. Hsieh Ho, Preface to Record of the Classification of Old Painters
14. Yen Yü, Ts'ang-lang's Discussions of Poetry, An Analysis of Poetry
15. Yüan Hao-wen, Poems on Poetry, No. 30
2. VERSE
Classical Poetry
16. Anonymous, Classic of Odes
17. Liu Chen, Cockfight
18. Juan Chi, Songs of My Soul
19. Kuo P'u, Poem on the Wandering Immortal
20. T'ao Ch'ien Poems After Drinking Wine (No. 5) On Reading the Mountains and Seas Classic
21. Hsieh Ling-yün, On My Way from South Mountain to North Mountain, I Glance at the Scenery from the Lake
22. Shen Yüeh, Harmonizing with a Poem by Left Assistant Yü Kao-chih Requesting Sick Leave Listening to Gibbons at Rock-Pool Creek
23. Wang Seng-ju, Describing a Dream for Someone
24. Yü Chien-wu, Spring Day
25. Hsiao Kang, A Pheasant on His Morning Flight
26. Brahmacarin Wang, [Untitled]
27. Lo Pin-wang, On the Cicada: In Prison
28. Ho Chih-chang, Written Impromptu upon Returning to My Hometown
29. Ch'en Tzu-ang, Poems of Reflection on the Vicissitudes of Life
30. Chang Chiu-ling, Poems of Reflection on the Vicissitudes of Life
31. Wang Chih-huan, Climbing the Stork Pavilion
32. Meng Hao-jan, Seeking Out Master Chan on Incense Mountain Spring Dawn Passing Seven-League Rapids
33. Wang Ch'ang-ling, Silent at Her Window
34. Wang Wei, Climbing Pien-chüeh Temple Second Song for the Worship of the Goddess at Yü Mountain: 'Bidding the Goddess Farewell' Deer Enclosure
35. Li Po, To Meng Hao-jan / Late Bloomer at the Front of My Garden / To Send to Tu Fu as a Joke / Drinking Alone in the Moonlight (No. 1) / Still Night Thoughts / Poems in an Old Style
36. Ch'u Kuang-hsi, The Streets of Ch'ang-an
37. Tu Fu, Spring View A Guest Arrives Recruiting Officer of Shih-hao At the Sky's End, Thinking of Li Po
38. Chang Chi, Maple Bridge Night Mooring
39. Ts'en Shen, A Song of the Running Horse River: Presented on Saying Farewell to the Army Going on Campaign to the West
40. Ssu-k'ung Shu, In Illness, Dismissing My Singing Girl
41. Meng Chiao, On Failing the Examination
42. Han Yü, The Girl of Mount Hua
43. Hsüeh T'ao, Listening to a Monk Play the Reed Pipes Lotus-Gathering Boat
44. Liu Tsung-yüan, River Snow
45. Cold Mountain, [Untitled Poems]
46. Chia Tao, Looking for a Recluse but Failing to Find Him
47. Li Shen, Pitying the Farmer
48. Li Te-yü, To Patriarch Sun at Hua-yang Grotto
49. Li Ho, At Ch'ang-ku, Reading: To Show to My Man Pa My Man Pa Replies Ravine on a Cold Evening
50. Autumn Maid Tu, The Robe of Golden Thread
51. Li Shang-yin, Master Chia
52. P'i Jih-hsiu, Impromptu on a Hangover
53. Yü Hsüan-chi, On a Visit to Ch'ung-chen Taoist Temple I See in the South Hall the List of Successful Candidates in the Imperial Examinations
54. Mei Yao-ch'en, Sharing Lodging with Hsieh Shih-hou in the Library of the Hsü Family and Being Much Bothered by the Noise of Rats Shih-hou Pointed Out to Me That from Ancient Times There Had Never Been a Poem on the Subject of Lice, and Urged Me to Try Writing One
55. Wang An-shih, Bald Mountain
56. Su Shih, When Yü-k'o Painted Bamboo Reading the Poetry of Meng Chiao Lament of the Farm Wife of Wu
57. Huang T'ing-chien, To Go with Shih K'o's Painting of an Old Man Tasting Vinegar
58. Yang Wan-li, Watching a Village Festival Songs of Depression (two selections)
59. Lu Yu, The Merchant's Joy Written in a Carefree Mood To Show to My Sons
60. Wen T'ien-hsiang, Chin-ling Post Station
61. Chao Meng-fu, To a Pyrotechnist
62. Yang Wei-chen, Mating
63. Ni Tsan, Inscribed on a Painting by Myself
64. Hsü Pen, Saying Goodbye to a Monk from Japan
65. Kao Ch'i, Written on Seeing the Flowers, and Remembering My Daughter Silkworm Song of Torchlit Fields
66. Yang Shih-ch'i, Night Rain: A Wall Collapses
67. Shen Chou, The Taoist Huang Has Died of Alcoholism
68. Yang Hsün-chi, Inscribed on the Doors of My Bookshelves
69. Chu Yün-ming, A Fan from Korea
70. Wang Chiu-ssu, Ballad of Selling a Child
71. Ho Ching-ming, Ballad of the Government Granary Clerk
72. Huang E, [Title Lost]
73. Li K'ai-hsien, A Parable Earthquake
74. Hsü Wei, A Buddhist Monk Cut and Burned His Own Flesh to Make the Rains Stop-a Man from His Native Place Asked Me to Write a Poem to Send to Him A Kite
75. Tsung Ch'en, Song of Selling Flowers
76. Mo Shih-lung, Saying Good-bye to a Singing Girl Who Has Decided to Become a Nun
77. T'ang Hsien-tsu, Twenty-Two Quatrains on Receiving the Obituary Notice for My Son Shih-ch'ü
78. Yüan Hung-tao, The 'Slowly, Slowly' Poem On Receiving My Letter of Termination
79. Wu Chia-chi, The Grain-Barge Wife
80. Wu Li, Singing of the Source of Holy Church
81. Wang Shih-chen, Medicine
82. K'ang-hsi, Lines in Praise of a Self-Chiming Clock
83. Cheng Hsieh, Song of Surfing on the Bore
84. Yüan Mei, On the Way to Pa-ling
Lyrics and Arias
85. Attributed to Li Po, A Suite in the Ch'ing-p'ing Mode
86. Anonymous, Tune: Magpie on the Branch; a Lyric from Tun-huang
87. Liu Yü-hsi, Tune: Memories of the South; a Spring Lyric After Po Chü -yi
88. Wen T'ing-yün, Tune: Deva-Like Barbarian
89. Wei Chuang, Tune: The Bodhisattva Foreigner
90. Ou-yang Chiung, Tune: Offering Congratulations to the Enlightened Reign
91. Li Yü, Tune: The Crow's Nocturnal Cry / Tune: New Bounty of Royalty / Tune: Pure Serene Music / Tune: Memories of the South; A Reminiscence
92. Liu Yung, Tune: Bells Ringing in the Rain; Sadness of Parting
93. Fan Chung-yen, Tune: Sumuche Dancers
94. Yen Shu, Tune: Spring in the Jade House
95. Ou-yang Hsiu, Tune: Drunk in Fairyland
96. Su Shih, Tune: Partridge Sky; Written While Banished to Huang-chou / Tune: Fragrance Fills the Courtyard / Tune: Immortal by the River
97. Huang T'ing-chien, Tune: The Courtyard Full of Fragrance; Tea / Tune: A Thousand Autumns
98. Ch'in Kuan, Tune: Sand of Silk-Washing Brook; A Spring Morning / Tune: Perfumed Garden; Bidding Adieu
99. Li Chih-yi, Tune: The Diviner
100. Chu Tun-ju, Tune: Nien-nu Is Charming
101. Li Ch'ing-chao, Tune: Rouged Lips; Naïveté / Tune: Magnolia Flowers (short version) / Tune: Fisherman's Pride; A Dream / A Long Melancholy Tune (Autumn Sorrow); Despair / Tune: Spring at Wu Ling; Spring Ends
102. Hsin Ch'i-chi, Tune: Spring in the Ch'in Garden (About to swear off drinking, he warns the wine cup to go away) / Tune: Pure Serene Music; Rural Life
103. Wu Wen-ying, Tune: Rouged Lips; Rain Just Over on the Night of the Lantern Preview
104. Chang Yen, Tune: Pure Serene Music
105. Kuan Han-ch'ing, In the Southern Mode, to the Tune of A Sprig of Flowers; The Refusal to Get Old
106. Tu Shan-fu, Tune, Shua Hai-erh; Country Cousin at the Theater
107. Ma Chih-yüan, Tune: Heaven-Cleansed Sands; Autumn Thoughts
108. Chang Yang-hao, [Untitled]
109. Kuan Yün-shih, Tune: Rapt with Wine, Loudly Singing-Joy in Spring's Coming; My Love
110. Wang Ho-ch'ing, Tune: Tsui-chung T'ien; To the Giant Butterfly / Tune: Po Pu-tuan; Long-Haired Little Dog / Tune: Po Pu-tuan; Fat Couple
111. Anonymous, Tune: San-fan Yü-lou Jen
112. Yang Na, Tune: Hung Hsiu-hsieh; To a Flea
113. Anonymous, Tune: Wu Yeh-erh; Twitting the Teller of Tall Tales
114. Anonymous, In the Chung Mode, to the Tune of P'u T'ien Lo
115. Yün-k'an Tzu, [Untitled]
116. Ali Hsiying, Lazy Cloud's Nest 1 and 2
117. Yang Shen, Tune: Moon Over West River
118. Liu Shih, Tune: Dreaming of Southland; Thinking of Someone
119. Wu Li, Tune: Happily Flitting Oriole; From Music of Harmonious Heaven in Reverent Thanks to the Lord of Heaven
120. Nara Singde, Tune: As If in a Dream
121. Wang Kuo-wei, Tune: Sand of Silk-Washing Brook
Elegies and Rhapsodies
122. Attributed to Ch'üYüan, Heavenly Questions
123. Chia Yi, The Owl
124. Mei Ch'eng, Seven Stimuli
125. Ch'eng-kung Sui, Rhapsody on Whistling
126. T'ao Ch'ien, The Return
127. Su Shih, Red Cliff Rhapsody
Folk and Folklike Songs Ballads and Narrative Verse
128. Liu Pang, Song of the Great Wind
129. Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju, Cock-Phoenix, Hen-Phoenix
130. Anonymous, Ground-Thumping Song
131. Li Yen-nien, A Song
132. Attributed to Hsi-chün, Lost Horizon
133. Anonymous, Song of the Viet Boatman
134. Anonymous, Mulberry Up the Lane
135. Anonymous, From the Nineteen Old Poems Green, Green Riverside Grass
136. Anonymous, They Fought South of the Wall
137. Anonymous, Crows on City Walls; a Children's Ditty from the Early Years of the Reign of the Later Han Emperor Huan
138. Anonymous or attributed to Ts'ai Yung, Watering Horses at a Long Wall Hole
139. Ts'ao Ts'ao, Song on Enduring the Cold
140. Fu Hsüan, Pity Me!
141. Anonymous, Midnight Songs
142. Anonymous, A Peacock Southeast Flew
143. Pao Chao, Magic Cinnabar
144. Pao Ling-hui, Added to a Letter Sent to a Traveler
145. Anonymous, The Ballad of Mulan
146. Hulü Chin, Song of the Tölös
147. Anonymous, Song of the Breaking of the Willow
148. Wang Wei, Army Ballad
149. Po Chü-yi, The Song of Lasting Regret
150. Po Chü-yi and Yüan Chen, Iranian Whirling Girls
151. Anonymous, Poem of Medicine Puns
152. Yao Chen, Ballad on the Investigation of a Disaster
153. Li Mi-an, The Half-and-Half Song
154. Feng Meng-lung, Mountain Songs
155. Chiu Tsz-yung, A Lament for Fortune's Frailty
156. Chin Ho, Ballad of the Maiden of Lan-ling
3. PROSE
Documents
157. Anonymous, The Great Announcement, from the Classic of Documents
158. Wang Pao, The Contract for a Youth
History
159. Attributed to Tso Ch'iu-ming, Two Brothers of Cheng and the Mother Who Doted on the Younger, from The Commentary of Mr. Tso
160. Pan Ku, The Passing of Kung Sheng, from History of the Han
Moral Lessons
161. Yang Hsiung, Exemplary Sayings, Chapter 2
162. Pan Chao, Lessons for Women
Parallel Prose
163. Jen Fang, Memorial of Indictment Against Liu Cheng
164. Wang Po, Preface to Ascending the Pavilion of King T'eng in Hung-chou on an Autumn Day for a Parting Feast
Letters
165. Li Po, Letter to Han Ching-chou
166. Tsung Ch'en, Letter in Reply to Liu Yi-chang
Prefaces and Postfaces
167. Hsü Shen, Postface to Explanation of Simple and Compound Graphs
168. Wang Hsi-chih, Preface to Collected Poems from the Orchid Pavilion
169. Liu Tsung-yüan, Preface to the Foolish Brook Poems
170. Li Ch'ing-chao, Postface to a Catalog on a Collection of Bronze and Stone Inscriptions
Discourses Essays and Sketches
171. Hsi K'ang, Discourse on Nourishing Life
172. T'ao Ch'ien, The Peach Blossom Spring
173. Han Yü, An Explication of Progress in Learning
174. Ou-yang Hsiu, The Three Zithers A Record of the Pavilion of an Intoxicated Old Man
175. Shen Kua, [On a UFO], from Brush Talks from Dream Brook
176. Chang Tai, Liu Ching-t'ing the Storyteller Professional Matchmakers, from Dream Memories of West Lake
177. Wei Hsüeh-yi, Account of a Peach-Stone Boat
178. Lin Ssu-huan, The Vocal Mimic
179. Li Yü, The Arts of Sleeping, Walking, Sitting, and Standing, from The Arts of Living
180. Yüan Mei, Thoughts upon Student Huang's Borrowing of Books
Travelogues and Scenic Descriptions
181. Laymen of Mount Lu Associated with Hui-yüan, A Poem on Wandering at the Stone Gate, with Introduction
182. Yang Hsüan-chih, The Establishment of the White Horse Temple, from The Record of the Monasteries of Loyang
183. Fan Ch'eng-ta, A Climb Up Mount Omei, from Diary of a Boat Trip to Wu
184. Chou Mi, Observing the Tidal Bore, from Reminiscences of Wu-lin
Miscellanea
185. Fan Sheng-chih, Fan Sheng-chih's Book, Chapter 1: Basic Principles of Farming
186. Anonymous, Miscellanies, Secret H, A Fragment
187. Li Shang-yin, Li Shang-yin's Miscellany
188. Anonymous, Lay Student Notations from Tun-huang
189. Ch'ü Ching-ch'un, That Which Is Mandated by Heaven Is Called Nature
190. Jokes
Biographies Autobiographies and Memoirs
191. Ch'en Shou, The Biography of Hua-t'o, from History of the Three Kingdoms
192. Yeh Meng-te, Physicians Cannot Raise the Dead
193. Lu Yü, The Autobiography of Instructor Lu
194. Liu Tsung-yüan, Biography of the Child Ou Chi
195. P'i Jih-hsiu, Biography of a Girl Surnamed Chao
196. Lu Jung, The Biography of A-liu
197. Hou Fang-Yü, The Biography of Actor Ma
Fictional and Fictionalized Biographies and Autobiographies
198. Han Yü, The Biography of Fur Point
199. Lu Kuei-meng, Biography of the Vagrant of Rivers and Lakes
4. FICTION
Rhetorical Persuasions and Allegories
200. Compiled by Liu Hsiang, Intrigues of the Warring States
201. Liu Tsung-yüan, The Donkey of Ch'ien
Anecdotal Fiction
202. Liu Yi-ch'ing, A New Account of Tales of the World
Tales of the Strange
203. Attributed to Liu Hsiang, Biographies of Transcendents
204. Kan Pao, Preface to and Tales from Search for the Supernatural
205. P'u Sung-ling, Strange Tales from Make-Do Studio
206. Chi Yün, Sketches from the Cottage for the Contemplation of Subtleties
Classical-Language Short Stories
207. Yüan Chen, The Story of Ying-ying
208. Li Kung-tso, An Account of the Governor of the Southern Branch
Vernacular Short Stories
209. Anonymous, The Shrew: Sharp-Tongued Ts'ui-lien
210. Feng Meng-lung, The Canary Murders
Novels
211. Attributed to Wu Ch'eng-en, The Journey to the West Chapter 7
212. Anonymous, Wu Sung Beats the Tiger, from Water Margin, with Commentary by Chin Sheng-t'an
213. Ts'ao Hsüeh-ch'in, A Burial Mound for Flowers, from Dream of Red Towers
5. ORAL AND PERFORMING ARTS
Prosimetric Narratives
214. Anonymous, Transformation Text on Mahamaudgalyayana Rescuing His Mother from the Underworld with Pictures, One Scroll, with Preface
215. Tung Chieh-yuan, Master Tung's Western Chamber Romance Chapter 2
Drama
216. Kuan Han-ch'ing, Injustice to Tou O
217. T'ang Hsien-tsu, The Peony Pavilion Scene 7
218. Anonymous, The Mortal Thoughts of a Nun, from a Popular Drama
Principal Chinese Dynasties and Periods
Romanization Schemes for Modern Standard Mandarin

With its fresh translations by newer voices in the field, its broad scope, and its flowing style, this anthology places the immense riches of Chinese literature within easy reach. Ranging from the beginnings to 1919, this abridged version of The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature retains all the characteristics of the original. In putting together these selections Victor H. Mair interprets "literature" very broadly to include not just literary fiction, poetry, and drama, but folk and popular literature, lyrics and arias, elegies and rhapsodies, biographies, autobiographies and memoirs, letters, criticism and theory, and travelogues and jokes.