These translation from Classical into modern Chinese and English by Fu – Shiang Chia of the160”Arts of the States” from the Shi Jing represent the first new,complete version to appear in English in well over half a century. The collection is the oldest extant book of lyric poetry in world literature – parts dating back 3,000 years. It gathers the most ancient written lyric poems in the entire human patrimony, and stands as the headwaters, the fountainhead of all known literary culture.
Fu –Shiang Chia makes these poem once again contemporary, while preserving hints of their antiquity. His language is as lexically accurate as possible, and plain without being
Spare or un-poetic. The poems have been made companionable for a 21st century audience, without sacrificing either their exotic foreignness or their careful specificity.
Stephen H. Arnold
Professor Emeritus and former Chair, Comparative Literature, The University of Alberta
