Parrots and mynahs have played a unique role in Chinese literature for two millennia. These birds that can talk and interact intelligently with their owners were treasured as pets both in the palace and in private homes. The caged birds were pitied for their homesickness but praised for their eagerness to serve. Over time they developed into exemplars of Confucian values such as filial piety and loyalty, and they also featured prominently in tales of love and war. Closely associated with Buddhism from early on, the parrot proved itself an effective preacher of the Dharma and became the favorite bird of the bodhisattva Guanyin.

In this wide-ranging thematic study, Wilt L. Idema traces the development of the parrot and the mynah as characters in many forms of poetry and prose of Chinese elite literature, as well as in the long narrative ballads of traditional popular literature. The book provides complete renditions of Mi Heng’s (173–198) Rhapsody on the Parrot, the anonymous Tale of the Parrot’s Filial Piety of the fifteenth century, and the anonymous Precious Scroll of the Parrot of late-imperial times. An epilogue discusses the disappearance of the parrot in modern Chinese literature.

One of the most exciting recent developments in the study of Chinese literature has been the rediscovery of an extremely rich and diverse tradition of women's writing of the imperial period (221 BCE-1911 CE). Many of these writings are of considerable literary quality. Others provide us with moving insights into the lives and feelings of a surprisingly diverse group of women living in Confucian China, a society that perhaps more than any other is known for its patriarchal tradition.

Because of the burgeoning interest in the study of both premodern and modern women in China, several scholarly books, articles, and even anthologies of women's poetry have been published in the last two decades. This anthology differs from previous works by offering a glimpse of women's writings not only in poetry but in other genres as well, including essays and letters, drama, religious writing, and narrative fiction.

The authors have presented the selections within their respective biographical and historical contexts. This comprehensive approach helps to clarify traditional Chinese ideas on the nature and function of literature as well as on the role of the woman writer.

The collapse of the Ming dynasty and the Manchu conquest of China were traumatic experiences for Chinese intellectuals, not only because of the many decades of destructive warfare but also because of the adjustments necessary to life under a foreign regime. History became a defining subject in their writings, and it went on shaping literary production in succeeding generations as the Ming continued to be remembered, re-imagined, and refigured on new terms.

The twelve chapters in this volume and the introductory essays on early Qing poetry, prose, and drama understand the writings of this era wholly or in part as attempts to recover from or transcend the trauma of the transition years. By the end of the seventeenth century, the sense of trauma had diminished, and a mood of accommodation had taken hold. Varying shades of lament or reconciliation, critical or nostalgic retrospection on the Ming, and rejection or acceptance of the new order distinguish the many voices in these writings.