Selected Poems of Gao Qi

Selected Poems of Gao Qi is one of the Classical Poetry Masters series from Zhonghua Book Company, selected and annotated by Li Shenghua and first published in 2005. It contains 338 poems by Gao Qi and was one of the earlier comprehensive anthologies of his poetry to appear in mainland China. Gao Qi (1336–1373), courtesy name Jidi, was a native of Changzhou (present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu). In the late Yuan dynasty he lived in seclusion at Qingqiu in Wusong and called himself Qingqiuzi; together with Yang Ji, Zhang Yu, and Xu Fen he was known as one of the "Four Talents of Wuzhong." In the early Hongwu reign of the Ming he was summoned to court, appointed to the Hanlin Academy as a compiler, took part in compiling the History of Yuan and taught the imperial princes; he later firmly declined the post of Right Vice Minister of Revenue, was sent home with gifts of gold, and was ultimately implicated in the case of Suzhou prefect Wei Guan's renovation of the prefectural offices and was executed by being cut in two at the waist, aged only thirty-nine. The anthology is based on the Gao Qingqiu Collection edited and annotated by Jin Tan, with reference to the editorial work of Qian Bocheng and other scholars. The poems are arranged roughly in chronological order of composition, with those that cannot be dated appended at the end, allowing the reader to see his style shift from the delicate and graceful manner of the late Yuan to the crisp and vigorous manner of the early Ming. Each poem is provided with a "topic explanation" and "annotations": the explanation gives the background, theme, method, and artistic features, along with names of people, places, and reign years; the annotations focus on allusions, names of things, institutions, and difficult words, with phonetic glosses for rare characters and paraphrases of difficult lines. A preface systematically introduces Gao Qi's life, poetic principles, and achievements. The selection includes famous pieces such as "Song of Qingqiuzi," "Climbing the Rain Flower Terrace and Gazing at the Great River at Jinling," "The Herding Boy's Song," "Seeking Hermit Hu," and "Presented to the Gentlemen of the Academy on Qingming," as well as works reflecting farm labor, natural disasters, warfare, and the hardships of the people, balancing popularity with thought and artistry. It is a reliable reader for understanding the poetry of the early Ming.