Features of the Poetics of the First Love Messages (Epistles) in Chinese Literature

Abstract

This article examines the poetics of Eastern Han epistles (second century AD), the first poetic love messages in the history of Chinese literature. The works discussed are Qin Jia’s poem “Sending to My Wife” (Zeng fu shi), his three-part poetic cycle “Remaining in My Native Region, I Send to My Wife” (Liu jun zeng fu shi), and an anonymous poem, “The Daughter of Shaofu Cui Bestows a Poem upon Lu Chun” (Cui shaofu nü zeng Lu Chong shi). These works had not previously been translated into Russian or studied in Russian sinology. The analysis considers poetic form, composition, themes and motifs and their connections, the genre features of the epistle, features of other genres, and means of artistic expression. As the works include poetic cycles as well as individual poems, the article also discusses the poetic cycle itself. It concludes by identifying general features of the poetic love epistle at the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages.