What drives literary change? Does literature merely follow shifts in a culture, or does it play a distinctive role in shaping emergent trends? Michael Fuller explores these questions while examining the changes in Chinese "shi" poetry from the late Northern Song dynasty (960 1127) to the end of the Southern Song (1127 1279), a period of profound social and cultural transformation.

"Shi" poetry written in response to events was the dominant literary genre in Song dynasty China, serving as a central form through which literati explored meaning in their encounters with the world. By the...