Description: Though collections of fiction, poetry, and drama abound, there have been no English-language anthologies of Chinese essays on the market -- until now. Here, veteran sinologist David Pollard has selected and translated the best and most representative examples of Chinese prose writing from the third century to the contemporary period.

Succinctly tracing the history of the genre in China in his introduction, Pollard then wittily and informatively introduces each writer chosen. The selections themselves include Ye Shengtao's ruminations of making a boat trip to visit his ancestors' graves, Fan Bao on life in prison, Gui Yougang's reminiscence of his mother, Yuan Mei's essay on borrowing books, and more. These writings not only give us marvelous little sketches of everyday life, lifting the curtain from the past world, but also tell us still more about the minds of the writers and how they saw the world they lived in. Though the compositions span the last 1800 years, the bulk of the selections are from the twentieth century and range from early masters of the form, such as Lu Xun, to living writers who publish in Taiwan and the mainland.

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