04/17/2020
If today is National Haiku day, let tomorrow be National Jueju Day!
The jueju lies at the heart of Classical Chinese poetry, and yet comparatively few have written jueju in English. The first English jueju (following the form described below) was published by June Jordan in 1997. Since then, thousands have gone on to learn how to balance the meaning and sound of the English language so that it conforms to the patterns handed down by Chinese poets over millennia. To learn how to write the form, watch my jueju class (a series of six 12 minute mini-lectures) on youtube, and learn more about this poetic form’s astonishing history and its still resonant cosmological poetics.
Here’s the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgpc7RuuQqg
Then, if you would like, send share your finished jueju here, or send it to me (at [email protected]), and I will add it to the other Newman Prize Jueju Competition entries (to be judged next March, 2021). Please do make sure to add your name and level of difficulty you are attempting. For more information about the competition and other learning/teaching resources (including a detail list of rules and gamified tools for learning the form) go to: http://www.ou.edu/cis/sponsored_programs/institute-for-us-china-issues/newman-prize-for-chinese-literature/young-writers-awards/english-jueju-teaching-and-learning-resources
Untitled Jueju
Tall pines/ moss hangs/ soft breeze blows
White blooms/ duck w**d/ clear stream flows
Raise head/ clouds pass/ am I here
Hang head/ mind clears/ no one knows
In this full-length lecture, Professor Jonathan Stalling introduces the core concepts that have made Classical Chinese poetry a cultural treasure and human r...
