Although is well known throughout the world, few outside Japan are familiar with its precursor, (comic linked verse). Fewer still are aware of the role played by the Chinese Daoist classics in turning into a respected literary art form. examines the poets’ adaptation of Daoist classics, particularly the in the seventeenth century and the eventual transformation of from frivolous verse to high poetry. The author analyzes ’s encounter with the through its intertextual relations with the works of Bashō and other major poets, and also the nature and characteristics of that sustained the ’s relevance to poetic construction. She demonstrates how the poets’ interest in this Daoist work was rooted in the intersection of deconstructing and reconstructing the classical Japanese poetic tradition. Well versed in both Chinese and Japanese scholarship, Qiu explores the significance of Daoist ideas in Bashō’s and others’ conceptions of Her method involves an extensive hermeneutic reading of texts, an in-depth analysis of the connection between Chinese and Japanese poetic terminology, and a comparison of Daoist traits in both traditions. The result is a penetrating study of key ideas that have been instrumental in defining and rediscovering the poetic essence of verse. adds to an increasingly vibrant area of academic inquiry—the complex literary and cultural relations between Japan and China in the early modern era. Researchers and students of East Asian literature, philosophy, and cultural criticism will find this book a valuable contribution to cross-cultural literary studies and comparative aesthetics.