After the publication of Ten Thousand Scrolls in 2011, Professor Yugen Wang has contributed another important monograph on the studies of Song dynasty poetry. While the previous book centres on the poetics of Huang Tingjian 黃庭堅 (1045–1105) as a medium to examine the inclusive publishing culture of that time, the approach of this book is internalized, discussing the techniques, aesthetics, and interpretation of Chen Yuyi's 陳與義 (1090–1139) poetry.

In modern scholarship, Chen Yuyi is ranked as a vital figure in the history of Song dynasty literature, a model of the “Song style poetry” (Song ti shi 宋體詩) which is to be distinguished from his Tang predecessors. Moreover, he experienced a momentous historical event in twelfth-century China, the Jingkang catastrophe, and carefully poetized his reflections. Therefore, his poetry is promoted as a mixture of both historical and literary significance, although it is limited to 565 poems and incomparable to other major figures of the Song dynasty – Chen Yuyi is a committed poet and he is self-conscious about how many poems shall be left for his audience (p. xxiii).

Chen Yuyi's poetry is not easy to understand, as one might casually miss its sophistication and subtlety, let alone the techniques and references, which mark the specialism of Song-style poetry. Through a careful translation and detailed textual analysis, the author mainly explains: 1) what the uniqueness of Chen's poetry was in comparison with other Tang and Song poets; 2) how his poetry changed through his life; and 3) why Chen Yuyi enjoyed a high reputation in Song poetry. Although these questions seem to be “narrow” issues solely centring on Chen Yuyi himself, the ultimate orientation behind these questions is rather “challenging” and yet “common”: there is a Song-style aesthetics in traditional Chinese poetry, and we should probably be more patient and sensitive in appreciating it, while leaving aside the over-emphasized aesthetics of the Tang style. This book is a direct and solid response to the debate over Tang–Song poetic styles, which has been a perpetual topic in academia ever since Yoshikawa Kōjirō laid down its foundation.

The structure of this book is chronological, in accordance with the arrangement of Chen Yuyi's collection. The first three chapters are about Chen's official career in the last years of the Northern Song dynasty, depicting a general background for his poetic endeavour and emphasizing the social function of his poetry. Chapters 4 to 7 concentrate on his “five-and-a-half-year journey” from the north to the south, and the focus is on “how the disaster and displacement helped reactivate the moral and emotional potency of his poems without mitigating the collective Song poetic pursuit for sophistication and technical precision” (p. xxiv). The last two chapters are about his final years after rejoining the bureaucracy of the Southern Song. The advantage of this structure is that the major turns in Chen's life are clearly presented, so that we can see the links between these turns and those changes in his poetry. Meanwhile, inevitably, the disadvantage is that Chen's poems regarding one particular topic have to be scattered to different chapters. For instance, as the author insightfully suggests that those “on-the-road” poems are probably Chen's most fascinating contribution, a reader might have difficulty in recalling Chen's earlier works mentioned in chapter 3, where the author “lays out the basic parameters for later discussion” (p. 69), while reading a relevant piece in chapter 7.

Reading Song dynasty poetry requires patience. Although Chen Yuyi is not the most laborious writer, background knowledge and the aesthetic pursuits of that time are still required to better understand his poetry. The author puts great effort into translating and interpreting Chen's poetry, as he constantly compares Chen with other Tang and Song poets, primarily Du Fu 杜甫 (712–770), explains comments by earlier critics, and provides his own arguments against some preconceived ideas. Most insights the author provides are “hidden” in the detailed discussions and less conspicuous to an unprofessional reader, such as “Chen's view of and engagement with the reality were launched from a more pragmatic and materially grounded position…” (p. 134), or “water becomes the most important force defining his road experience and his engagement with nature…” (p. 186). Therefore, this book is perhaps aimed towards advanced students instead of beginners in traditional Chinese literature.

Because of the nature of Chen Yuyi's poetry, and probably also due to the underdeveloped situation of Song poetry studies in general, the author takes an “essentially retrospective” approach (p. xiii) in order to emphasize the uniqueness of his poetry. However, as a challenger against the existing framework of Chinese literary history, I was expecting to appreciate a more “audience-guided” perspective, which might lead to the “undermining” of Chen's high reputation. For instance, since Chen Yuyi was a self-conscious poet, who were the targeted readers of his post-Jingkang composition? Or what was he trying to achieve through the careful poetization of his journey experience? However, these questions shall be left for a future study with a deconstructive attitude. As the first book-length study of Chen Yuyi's poetry in English, the author has successfully taken us through Chen's journey while making us empathize with his mentality – placing the quatrain entitled “Peonies” at the end of the last chapter is a very moving choice (p. 293).