Though collections of Chinese fiction, poetry, and drama abound, there have been no English-language anthologies of Chinese essays on the market. Now, veteran sinologist David Pollard has selected and translated the best and most representative examples of Chinese prose writing from the third century to the contemporary period. Succinctly tracing the history of the genre in China in his introduction, Pollard then wittily and informatively introduces each writer chosen. The selections themselves include Ye Shengtao's ruminations of making a boat trip to visit his ancestors' graves, Fan Bao on life in prison, Gui Yougang's reminiscence of his mother, Yuan Mei's essay on borrowing books, and more. These writings not only give us marvelous little sketches of everyday life, lifting the curtain to a past world, they reveal still more about the minds of the writers and how they saw the world they lived in. Though the compositions span the past 1,800 years, the bulk of the selections are from the twentieth century and range from early masters of the form, such as Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren, to the major writers of the middle generation, such as Ye Chengtao, Zhu Ziqing, Feng Zikai, Liang Shiqiu, and Liang Yuchun, and conclude with living writers who publish in both Taiwan and the mainland. Pollard's aim has been to translate examples that are both good in and of themselves and also contribute something to the essay form. The classical selections represent the native tradition that the modern essayists either imitated or reacted against. Taken together, these writings illuminate Chinese attitudes and reactions to the world they inhabit and provide a vast amount of information about the details of everyday life, social intercourse, and man's reaction to his environment.

In keeping with its venerable tradition of publishing scholarship on China, Columbia has produced a groundbreaking work edited by a respected Sinologist and translator. In his lengthy and useful introduction to this collection of essays by 36 Chinese authors, Pollard discusses the important differences between the Western notion of 'essay' and its Chinese version--orsanwen (everything that is not a poem)--which is steeped in the classical school curriculum...Pollard's up-to-date, lucid translations of this specialized form of prose can be read effectively as a companion piece to Elizabeth Buckley Ebrey's sourcebookChinese Civilization and Society (CH, Jul'81) by anyone interested in serious study of Chinese history and culture. -- B.M. McNeal, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvnia Choice

David Pollard is a veteran scholar of sinology and one of the most respected interpreters and translators of the Chinese essay. He was previously professor of Chinese at the University of London and professor of translation at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he coedited Renditions, the Chinese-English translation journal, with his wife, Eva Hung.