The advantages of the broad span and excellent selections of this anthology are only surpassed by the fascinating historical context given for each poet or time period. I have to admit to feeling something of a stereotype for classic Chinese poetry. I expected tranquil poems with natural metaphors and deep, mindful insights. Naturally, a number of the poems and poets collected here do follow that vein, but there are also poems protesting wars, calling for social change, waxing lyrical about wine instead of the moon, and some fairly purple stuff about women losing their robes.

I found something of a favorite in Meng Chiao (751-814 C.E.) for his unexpectedly passionate--almost violent--work.

Young clear-voiced dragons in these
gorges howl. Fresh scales born of rock,

they spew froth of fetid rain, breath
heaving, churning up black sinkholes.

Strange new lights glint, and hungry
swords await. This venerable old maw

still hasn't eaten its fill. Ageless teeth
cry a fury of cliffs, cascades gnawing

through these three gorges, gorges
full of jostling and snarling, snarling.

Writing during a century long civil war--a war that lasted longer than his own life--Chiao's poetry is not the intellectual scribblings of a hermit on a mountain or a scholar in a garden. It retains the natural metaphor and measured form of much Chinese poetry, but it is really something quite different. This book is complete enough to give someone like me--not well versed in poetry to say the least--a real appreciation for artists like Chiao and the other men and women whose work has traveled down through thousands of years and multiple languages to find a modern audience.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in history, poetry, Tao, Buddhism, or China.