Pre-Modern Chinese Literature: Anthologies
History Focus
The Shorter Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9780231505628One of a number of anthologies of Chinese literature from Columbia edited by Victor H. Mair, this volume offers a chronological presentation of Chinese literature with a focus on contextualizing works in their historical times. Its contents extend from the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty through the early Republican period of the twentieth century. The translations in this volume are typically academic in flavor and come from a variety of contributors, helping to bolster the pedagogical function of the anthology.
See also: The Columbia Anthology of Chinese Folk and Popular Literature edited by Victor H. Mair and Mark Bender, The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature edited by Victor H. Mair (original, enlarged edition of the present text)
Citation:
Mair, V. H. (Ed.). (2001). The shorter Columbia anthology of traditional Chinese literature. Columbia University Press.
Comparative Focus
An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911 by Call Number: PL2658 .E1 A814 1996ISBN: 9780393038231Owen is one of the most eminent Western Sinologists working today and this anthology a standard text. Like Mair, Owen arranges his text chronologically with two key distinctions: the presentation of different forms within a given timeframe and the inclusion of comparative texts. These comparisons place two texts in dialogue, helping to highlight intertextual relationships across eras. Another distinction is that Owen himself translates nearly all of the entries, creating distinctions in tone and form easier to compare than in multi-translator volumes.
See also by Stephen Owen: The Poetry of the Early T'ang, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T'ang, and The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century
Citation:
Owen, S. (1996). An anthology of Chinese literature: Beginnings to 1911. W W Norton & Company.
Translation Focus
Classical Chinese Literature: an Anthology of Translations by Call Number: PL2658 .E1 C59 2000ISBN: 9780231096768The history of Chinese to English translation is fundamental to using and assessing Chinese literary texts for research. This anthology assembles translations from the nascent days of translation through to the contemporary. For a number of texts, multiple translations are presented to help give readers a sense of how standards in language and structure have changed as the field of Chinese to English translation developed. The contents of this anthology stretch from the beginnings of Chinese civilization through the Tang dynasty.
Citation:
Minford, J., & Lau, J. S. (Eds.). (2000). Classical Chinese literature: An anthology of translations. Chinese University Press.