The book includes around 1,000 poems, 88 pages of notes, and a bibliography. The notes are about the backgrounds of collections and poets and they vary in length. The book includes author indexes, tunetitle indexes, and a table of dynasties. The time periods of the poems have a range of 3,000 years, with poems ranging from the
Classic of Poetry (
Shijing) to the poetry of
Mao Zedong. The collection sometimes chose lesser known works from famous Chinese poets instead of more well-known, typical poems featured in Chinese poetry collections. The lesser known poets chronicled in this work originated from several sources, including the 5th century, the 6th century, the early and late poetry of the
Tang dynasty, many
Shi poems from the
Song dynasty, and
Qu poems from periods after the Song dynasty. Upton wrote that "The sources cited tend also to be well-known and easily available editions as well". Holzman argued that the translations of the earliest poems "are straightforward enough and are generally in agreement with the standard translations of
[Bernhard Karlgren] and
David Hawkes]." However Holzman believed many translations of poems in other periods were difficult to understand and that he had to consult Chinese texts in order to understand the poems. He believed that some translators did not understand the original poems in Chinese and that
Edward H. Schafer was the "worst offender". According to Holzman, in some cases "translators constantly allow themselves word for word renderings that they must realize will be incomprehensible to the reader who knows no Chinese, and I suppose they do so because they think they are being terribly "poetic", in an
Ezra Poundian way." Holzman stated that the "deliberate disregard for what the Chinese text is saying" in some translations is what "disfigures this collection most." Holzman wrote that little of the poetry "gives pleasure simply as poetry" and that "too much of it seems more interested in being "poetry in its own right" than conveying the meaning of the original. He also stated that there were hackneyed participles and vague structures, both
syntax errors. In addition he stated there were errors in
rhythm, stating that "many" of the translators "tolerate gross awkwardness and the worse use an ugly telegram style which is less translating than glossing", and that "few" of the translators "seem to attempt control of their rhythms even informally". Schliepp stated that the "outstanding" exceptions to these issues were the translations of
Xie Lingyun,
Li He, Shen Yue, and Wen Tingyun. He added that the work of about twenty other translators, the majority of whom were under 40 years of age, was "sound" and that these translators "frequently achieve felicity". In regards to new translations of previous work, Schliepp stated that he is favorable to their inclusion because they improve over old versions or "for comparison's sake", but he argued that "the necessity to re-translate certain standard pieces—indispensable to anthologies of this scope—give them considerable difficulties both as regards representation of the periods and quality of translations." Upton stated that "predictably" there is a variation of quality in translation, and that "the only really annoying "mistakes" are those which appear to have been taken from earlier translators." ==Reception==