In the narratives examined in Words Well Put—texts drawn from Zuo zhuan, Han shu, Shi shuo xin yu, and the Tang collection Ben shi shi—people use poems to do many things: to display talent, express frustration, or clinch an argument, even to make jokes, hurl accusations, or hurt others. Those who wield poems demonstrate their “poetic competence,” defined as the ability “to deploy poetic discourse as a means of affecting the attitude and behavior of another person in order to achieve a desired end” (p. 6). Using the tools of literary theory, literary history, and close reading, Graham Sanders demonstrates the value of poetic competence in literati culture through the late Tang. His focus on narrative dynamics, specifically on power negotiations, leads him to insights about the impact of poetry within individual stories and the role of narratives in stabilizing poetic meaning. Although some passages seem to require more historical or bibliographical context, successive chapters persuade the reader of the broadening vision of poetic competence in medieval China, without overstating the case for historical evolution. The final two-chapter study of the Ben shi shi reads as the satisfying culmination of a book that should be read by scholars of both Chinese literature and intellectual history.

The first chapters introduce foundational notions of poetic competence that were sometimes in tension—poetry used for suasion and poetry produced as authentic utterance, an individual's response to experience. Sanders begins with Zuo zhuan uses of the Shi jing as a “rhetorical resource” for the “Traditionalists,” Rujia, of the Spring and Autumn era states. The discussion of the remonstration of Duke Ling of Jin by Shi Ji (pp. 55–68), a “failed” example of poetic competence (Shi Ji fails to alter the duke's behavior with his poetic citations), is a good example of the rewards of this chapter. Sanders argues that even displays of failed poetic competence ultimately succeed by affirming the Traditionalists' cultural mastery in Zuo zhuan and thereafter in the tradition.

In chapter 2, Sanders complicates his definition by examining narratives of song performance in the Han shu. Arguing that many songs in Chu meter are depicted as outpourings of frustration, he links this depiction to the canonical model of the “Great Preface” to the Shi, invoked by Sima Qian in his “Letter in Response to Ren An” (pp. 78–81). The examples reveal the variety of Han uses of original poetry while also raising questions about authorship and historiography. Why does Ban Gu include outburst songs both for victims of usurpers (e.g., Lady Qi, pp. 87–88) and would-be traitors? (Prince Dan, p. 102; Prince Xu, pp. 104–5). Did the historian intend consistent political lessons in all of these cases, and if so, are the immediate frame narratives sufficient to reveal them? The selected passages suggest that the ability to compose moving poetry could be uncoupled from moral efficacy without consequence; but to assess that more fully, it seems that readers would need to consider the larger frames of the biographies and Ban Gu's historiographical interests.

The next three chapters amply demonstrate Sanders's own competence as a reader and scholar, as he explains the political and literary implications of narratives from Shi shuo xin yu (Topical Tales) and Ben shi shi (Storied Poems). For Topical Tales, Sanders argues persuasively that its narratives “are constantly attempting to show that the symbolic power derived from cultural competence can compete with, and even be victorious over, the crude forms of power derived from violence” (p. 132). Throughout, Sanders carefully notes the probable distance between depiction and historical event, emphasizing that Topical Tales presents ideal rather than typical displays of cultural competence. The diverse uses of poetry found in Topical Tales prepare the reader for the lengthier narratives of Meng Qi's Storied Poems. Sanders traces Meng's self-conscious reliance on canonical definitions of poetic efficacy and a tradition of narratives about poetry. Meng wished not only to record the impact of poems in specific contexts but also to affect his own readers by retelling stories.

In the final chapter, Sanders explores this creative potential of Storied Poems by examining more than two dozen narratives on literature, politics, and love. Here, we see poetry used to assert cultural and political sophistication, bind friendships, regain lost loves—sometimes failing to achieve anything. The narratives' length and complexity suggest that a much broader conception of poetic efficacy had developed by the late Tang, even as the culture that had sustained poetry's importance was about to change dramatically. Sanders's use of reading strategies introduced in earlier chapters allows him to analyze individual narratives in detail and makes the chapter a strong conclusion for the book. Along with his insightful discussions on Chinese narratives, readers will also enjoy the sprezzatura of the author's prose, a welcome find in a scholarly book.