Introduction

Medieval China, as it has come to understood by most sinologists, refers to the approximately seven hundred years from the decline of the Han Dynasty in the late second and early third centuries CE to the end of the Tang dynasty in the early tenth century. Within this span, the Wei-Jin-Nanbeichao period up to 589, when China was ruled—except for a few decades from 280 to 317—by at least two and sometimes three or four competing dynasties, is normally considered the "early medieval" era, and the epoch of the Sui(589-618) and Tang(618-907) dynasties, when China was reunited in a single polity and reached its second great peak of imperial power, prosperity, and geographical breadth, is normally regarded as the "late Medieval" era. These centuries are the period of highest achievement in poetry, including the work of scores of poets traditionally regarded as the most outstanding of China's long literary history. For the purposes of this book, however, we extend the term "medieval" into the twelfth century, seeing the Northern Song period and the first generation of the Southern Song as important connected to the Tang in matters of poetry and literary heritage (though socially and politically of a vastly different character.)