The Late Tang brings to conclusion Stephen Owen’s overview of the major changes, vicissitudes, and codification that poetry underwent during the Tang dynasty (618–907). Along with his two proceeding titles The Poetry of the Early T’ang and The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T’ang (1977 and 1981 respectively) the trilogy serves as a literary history to what is commonly regarded as the golden age of Chinese poetry. The re-unification and expansion of China during the Tang dynasty, along with the revival of the civil service examination that established a massive bureaucratic system, and the development of distinct Chinese…