A01=Nicholas Morrow Williams
annotated translation
Author_Nicholas Morrow Williams
Category=DC
Category=DS
Category=DSBB
Category=DSC
Chinese poetics
Chuci ??
Chuci 楚辭
Elegies of Chu
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_poetry
hermeneutics
kaoju xue ??? (evidential scholarship)
kaoju xue 考據學 (evidential scholarship)
literary translation
Liu Zongyuan ???
Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元
Qu Yuan ??
Qu Yuan 屈原
reception history
Wang Guowei ???
Wang Guowei 王國維
Wang Yi ??
Wang Yi 王逸
Xu Wenjing ???
Xu Wenjing 徐文靖
Yu Yue ??
Yu Yue 俞樾
Product details
- ISBN 9780674299993
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 26 Aug 2025
- Publisher: Harvard University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Dialogues in the Dark traces how Chinese readers and scholars since the Han dynasty have variously interpreted the ancient poem “Heavenly Questions” (Tianwen), an enigmatic work attributed to Qu Yuan (fl. ca. 300 BCE). The poem, composed entirely in the form of questions, is an extended inquiry into early Chinese cosmology and history. Over centuries, readers of the poem came to radically different understandings, each providing a unique perspective on its meaning. The poem’s reception history comprises three main stages: first, the commentary compiled by Han scholar Wang Yi (ca. 89–ca. 158); second, the response by Tang poet Liu Zongyuan (773–819); and third, the interpretations developed subsequently by late imperial and modern scholars. Nicholas Morrow Williams analyzes how the poem’s meaning evolved in different time periods and provides three new translations of “Heavenly Questions” to represent the three stages, respectively. The ultimate thesis of this study, inspired by the hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer, is that this poem is best understood in light of the different interpretations supplied by readers over time in lively dialogues that continue even now.
Nicholas Morrow Williams is Professor of Chinese at Arizona State University.
