本书汇集了作者多年在重编全唐诗及其研究过程中的重大创获。所收篇章涉及唐代诗歌总集、别集、选集，对唐代诗人生平及创作的探索无不论出有据，无论是对唐代诗歌的个案研究，还是对一代文学史的考察，都有发覆启蒙之意义。

This study aims to engage the textual realities of medieval literature by shedding light on the material lives of poems during the Tang, from their initial oral or written instantiation through their often lengthy and twisted paths of circulation. Tang poems exist today in stable written forms assumed to reflect their creators' original intent. Yet Tang poetic culture was based on hand-copied manuscripts and oral performance. We have almost no access to this poetry as it was experienced by contemporaries. This is no trivial matter, the author argues. If we do not understand how Tang people composed, experienced, and transmitted this poetry, we miss something fundamental about the roles of memory and copying in the circulation of poetry as well as readers' dynamic participation in the creation of texts. We learn something different about poems when we examine them, not as literary works transcending any particular physical form, but as objects with distinct physical attributes, visual and sonic. The attitudes of the Tang audience toward the stability of texts matter as well. Understanding Tang poetry requires acknowledging that Tang literary culture accepted the conscious revision of these works by authors, readers, and transmitters.

本书以有唐一代的近体诗为论述对象，并且探源溯流，将各体的发展都追溯到唐前时代，对唐诗体制的渊源流变提出了一些新的看法。全书论述唐代五律、七律、五绝、七绝四种体裁在各时期的发展情况，所论及近体诗作家之众、风格之富、体类之丰、作品之夥，是迄今为止有关唐诗艺术研究的著作所鲜见的，而谈诗析艺之中肯、到位，亦颇为难得，可作为唐诗鉴赏读本读。