Nineteen Ancient Poems (Guomai Classic)

Nineteen ancient poems were first included in "Selected Works" compiled by Xiao Tong, Prince Zhaoming of Liang Dynasty. They are a set of five-character poems. The author is unknown, and the date is also unknown. Scholars speculate that it was created around the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. These nineteen ancient poems are simple, natural, plain and simple. They can be said to be the oldest five-character poems and have a lofty status in the history of Chinese literature. Nineteen ancient poems can be passed down through the ages and are highly praised by future generations. The reason is that they can express the feelings shared by everyone. The sadness of parting between lovers, the frustration of scholars, the emotion of the impermanence of life and the passage of time, everyone has this emotion, and everyone has poetry in their heart. However, most people have feelings but cannot express them, or they can express them endlessly. Nineteen ancient poems express these emotions to the extreme. In 1941, Zhu Ziqing set up a poetry reading column in "Chinese Monthly". He chose "Nineteen Ancient Poems" as the object. He combined the annotation and textual research of poetry allusions with appreciation and criticism, integrating academic and popular aspects, and formed his own unique poetry appreciation style. Although only nine articles were serialized and nine poems were analyzed, it has still become a classic text in the history of research on nineteen ancient poems. The appreciation part of this book uses Zhu Ziqing's interpretation and explanation, and the other ten poems are accompanied by the original text and Li Shan's annotations in "Selected Works".