Description: Tracing the evolution of poetry's role in Chinese society, Writing Empire and Self uncovers the profound cultural changes that took place in the early medieval era.
Review Quotes: Xiaofei Tian masterfully explicates the complex conventions, occasions, and social operations involved in early medieval poetic exchange by demonstrating how poetry served as the medium for both the self-fashioning of imperial courtiers and the imagining of empire. She marries an impressive command of literary historical knowledge with assured and brilliant textual readings. Simply put, Tian sets the bar for the field.--Jack Chen, coeditor of Literary History in and beyond China: Reading Text and World