Translator’s Note

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“Waves of Sand” by Liu Yuxi, and “Seeking the Hidden One” by Jia Dao, are both poems from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), an era generally considered to one of the world’s greatest periods of poetic achievement. These poems were taken from “Elementary School Chinese (Jiangsu Edition)”, an anthology of 70 poems given to Chinese school children as a text to aid their instruction in Mandarin, and to introduce them to China’s rich literary history. The study of these poems is also meant to subtly guide students toward an appreciation of traditional Chinese virtues, culture, historical events, and social etiquette. The poems are memorized by every student, and by the end of their course of study, Chinese children will have absorbed a storehouse of Chinese characters and been steeped in a cultural tradition that spans more than two thousand years.