Exploring Chinese Poetry with Digital Assistance: Examples from Linguistic, Literary, and Historical Viewpoints

Abstract

Digital tools provide instrumental services to the study of Chinese poetry in an era of big, open data. The authors employed nine representative collections of Chinese poetry, covering the years 1046 BCE to 1644 CE, in their demonstrations. They demonstrate sophisticated software that allows researchers to extract source material that meets multiple search criteria, which may consider words, poets, collections, and time of authoring, paving the way for new explorations of Chinese poetry from linguistic, literary, artistic, and historical viewpoints. Analytic tools help researchers uncover information concealed in poetic works that are related to aesthetic expressions, personal styles, social networks, societal influences, and temporal changes in Chinese poetry. The increasing accessibility of digitized texts, along with sophisticated digital tools, such as the ones these authors developed and demonstrate here, can thereby enhance the efficiency and effectiveness for exploring and studying classical Chinese poetry.