With Dr. Xiao Rao (University of California, Irvine) Dr. Rao’s talk explores the place of humor in Middle Period Chinese literary criticism, focusing on anecdotes in “remarks on poetry” that feature puns, twisted interpretations, or outright nonsensi- cal verses. The anecdotes are linked to an important concept in Chinese literary criticism known as “Poetic Defects” (shibing 詩病). First used to describe shortcomings in a set of prosodic rules, the notion of “defect” was extended during the Tang-Song period to encompass a broader range of poetic features. Probing the relation between humor and “poetic defects,” the talk shows how Song literati deployed humor to critique poetic values and practices considered problematic during a period of an expanding literati class and the vernacularization of elite culture.