Tao Qian and the Chinese Poetic Tradition: The Quest for Cultural Identity

Poetry is art embedded in history and culture. In the most thorough study of Tao Qian to appear in any Western language, Charles Kwong examines China's greatest nature poet within the literary and intellectual traditions of his time. Drawing upon the full ranges of Chinese literary criticism and intellectual history as well as Western literary perspectives and hermeneutics, Kwong reveals the essential unity of Tao's art with his existential quest. Moving from close textual readings to broader cultural and cross-cultural issues, Kwong highlights Tao Qian's distinctive place in the Chinese lyric tradition through a series of illuminating comparisons with Chinese and Western authors, genres, and literary movements.