This unique collection of 370 English translations of 100 ancient Chinese poems from 11th century BC to 12th century AD, includes the earliest lyrical songs of the Chou dynasty (1112-249BC), the elegies of the Ch''u, ancient poems of the Han (206BC-221AD), pastoral poetry of the Ch''in, romantic and realistic poetry of the T''ang (618-954) and ci poetry written in blood and tears of the Sung (960-1278). The translations are done by 60 Chinese and foreign translators from the last hundred years of so. Giles'' translations were considered to be the best poetry that his generation had known, and Pound''s possessed abundant colour, freshness and poignancy, Waley translated as one might talk, and Bynner brought the true, the beautiful, the everlasting, into simple, easy touch with the human, the homely and the immediate. Payne translated line by line, but Turner made the translations of a poem read like a poem. Weng Xiang-liang identified himself so well with the poems he translated that his rhythmic prose became impassioned poetry.

The editors are both scholars of repute in their own right : Lu Shu-xiang is the director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Chinese Academy of Social Science and Xu Yuan-zhong is a professor at Peking University. Professor Xu holds that a translated verse should be as beautiful as theoriginal in sense, in sound and in form, and in this volume he put his theory into practice.