A Short Book Review:the Tabulated Explanation of the Four Tones of Classical Chinese Prosody

The prosody of classceal Chinese poetry is an important sphere of research in classical Cheinese literature For long scholars have foeussed their attention on the prosody of lu shi, or the later more polished form of classical Chinese poetry, neglecting the earlier ancient forms The author of the present article has studied the Chinese edition of the Tabulated Explantion of the Four Tones of Classical Chinese Prosody by Deng Wenhuan,a nineteenth century most accomplished scholar in the field living towards the end of the Qing Dynasty. Four of his contributions and features are listed.with their values elucidated theoretically and their significance to Chinese versification,history of literature and Chinese language pointed out.