A true revelation that changed my view on classical Chinese literature. The Qing saw a revival of the lyric; reinvented by the literati with immense poetic ambition, the form found a new mode of expression. No longer a medium for occasional poetry favored by court socialites, the lyric gained a level of immediacy and privacy unprecedented in the Song—save for perhaps the highly allusive works of the last few masters writing after the Mongol conquest. The later half of the dynasty in particular led to a paradigm shift that really affected all kinds of literature: the conflict and agony of political turmoil, the expansion of the poetic psyche, the thirst for new aesthetic frontiers, and above all, the anxiety of imminent modernity. This book should be savored by those who wish to reconcile an old form with contemporary content.