The Chinese Ballad Southeast Fly The Peacocks
The anonymous ballad "Southeast Fly the Peacocks", also titled "Chiao Chung-ch'ing's Wife," is one of the most remarkable poems in the Chinese language. It is the longest narrative poem prior to the Tun-huang ballads of the T'ang dynasty. It is unique among the early yue-fu poems in its elaborate narration, composed with great literary skill. The domestic tragedy it relates has moved readers through the ages and is of great interest from the viewpoints of literrary history, social history, and social psychology.