NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Chinese poetry

Poetry is the most highly regarded literary genre in ancient China. Traditionally, Chinese poetry are divided into shi (詩), ci (詞) and qu (曲). There is also a kind of prose-poem called fu (賦). During the modern period, there also has developed free verse in Western style. All the traditional forms of Chinese poetry are rhymed, but not all rhymed texts in ancient China are classified as poetry - for instance, lines from I Ching are often rhymed, but is not considered poetry. (Compare the Pre-Socratic philosophical works in ancient Greece which are in the form of poetry.) Image File history File links Quatrain_on_Heavenly_Mountain. ... Image File history File links Quatrain_on_Heavenly_Mountain. ... Emperor Gaozong (June 12, 1107 - November 9, 1187), born Zhao Gou, was the tenth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the first emperor of the Southern Song. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1800x1167, 299 KB) Description: Hand-painted Chinese New Years poetry pasted on the sides of doors leading to peoples homes, Old Town, Lijiang, Yunnan, China File links The following pages link to this file: Chinese poetry Metadata This file... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1800x1167, 299 KB) Description: Hand-painted Chinese New Years poetry pasted on the sides of doors leading to peoples homes, Old Town, Lijiang, Yunnan, China File links The following pages link to this file: Chinese poetry Metadata This file... Chinese New Year (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), or Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. ... Lijiang City (Chinese: ä¸½æ±Ÿå¸‚; Hanyu Pinyin: ) refers to an administrative division comprising of urban and rural areas in northwestern Yunnan Province, China. ... (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; literally south of the clouds) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the far southwestern corner of the country. ... The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poiesis, making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ... Look up genre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Shi (è©©) is the Chinese word for poem; it can also be used to mean Chinese poetry other than lyrics, or (most commonly) the classical form of poetry developed in the late Han dynasty and which reached its zenith in the Tang dynasty. ... Ci poetry (è©ž, interchangeable with è¾ pinyin cÃ) is a kind of lyric Chinese poetry. ... Qu (æ›²) is a kind of lyric Chinese poetry. ... Fu (Chinese: è³¦ Descriptive poem) is a kind of prose-poem popular in ancient China, especially during the Han Dynasty. ... Free verse (also at times referred to as vers libre) is a term describing various styles of poetry that are not written using strict meter or rhyme, but that still are recognizable as poetry by virtue of complex patterns of one sort or another that readers will perceive to be... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar terminal sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ... Alternative meaning: I Ching (monk) The I Ching (Traditional Chinese: 易經, pinyin y jīng; Cantonese IPA: jɪk6gɪŋ1; Cantonese Jyutping: jik6ging1; alternative romanizations include I Jing, Yi Ching, Yi King) is the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. ... The Pre-Socratic philosophers were active before Socrates or contemporaneously, but expounding knowledge developed earlier. ... The Temple to Athena, the Parthenon Ancient Greece is a period in Greek history that lasted for around three thousand years. ...

Early poetry

There could have been a number of important anthologies of early poetry in ancient China, but since the burning of books by Qin Shihuang, the earliest extant anthologies are the Shi Jing and Chu Ci, dating to the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States respectively. Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇) (November or December 260 BC - September 10, 210 BC), personal name Zheng, was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 247 BC to 221 BC, and then the first emperor of a unified China from 221 BC to 210 BC, ruling under the... ShÄ« JÄ«ng (Chinese: è©©ç¶“), translated variously as the Classic of Poetry, the Book of Songs or the Book of Odes, is the first major collection of Chinese poems. ... Portrait of Qu Yuan, the central figure of Chu Ci, by Australian Chinese artist Zhang Cuiying Chu Ci (Traditional Chinese: æ¥šè¾; Simplified Chinese: æ¥šè¾ž; pinyin: chÇ” cÃ), also known as Songs of the South or Songs of Chu, is an anthology of Chinese poems by Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the... The Spring and Autumn Period (ch. ... Alternative meaning: Warring States Period (Japan) The Warring States Period (traditional Chinese: 戰國時代, simplified Chinese: 战国时代 pinyin Zhànguó Shídài) takes place from sometime in the 5th century BC to the unification of China by Qin in 221 BC. It is nominally...

Shi Jing (詩經 "Classic of Poetry") was the first major surviving collection of Chinese poems, collecting both aristocratic poems (Odes) and more rustic poetry, probably derived from folksongs (Songs). They are mostly composed of four-character (四言) lines. ShÄ« JÄ«ng (Chinese: è©©ç¶“), translated variously as the Classic of Poetry, the Book of Songs or the Book of Odes, is the first major collection of Chinese poems. ...

A second, more lyrical and romantic anthology was Chu Ci (楚辭 "Songs of Chu"), made up primarily of poems ascribed to Qu Yuan and his follower Song Yu. These poems are composed of lines of irregular lengths, in the style prevalent in the state of Chu. Portrait of Qu Yuan, the central figure of Chu Ci, by Australian Chinese artist Zhang Cuiying Chu Ci (Traditional Chinese: æ¥šè¾; Simplified Chinese: æ¥šè¾ž; pinyin: chÇ” cÃ), also known as Songs of the South or Songs of Chu, is an anthology of Chinese poems by Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the... Qu Yuan Qu Yuan (Simplified Chinese: å±ˆåŽŸ; Traditional Chinese: å±ˆåŽŸ; Pinyin: qÅ« yÃºan) (c. ... Song Yu (Simplified Chinese: å®‹çŽ‰) was a well-known Chinese poet in the State of Chu during the third century BCE. He is commonly said to be a nephew of Qu Yuan, but no reliable biographical information is available (He is also said to be a student of Qu Yuan). ... Chu could refer to: The Chu river valley in modern Kyrgyzstan. ...

Classical poetry

During the Han Dynasty, the Chu Ci-type of lyrics evolved into fu. During the Six Dynasties, fu remained a major poetic genre, and together with shi formed the twin generic pillars of Chinese poetry until shi began to dominate during the Tang dynasty. Later Han redirects here. ... Six Dynasties (å…æœ) is a collective noun for the six Chinese dynasties, namely the Kingdom of Wu, Eastern Jin Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Qi Dynasty, Liang Dynasty and Chen Dynasty. ... For the band, see Tang Dynasty (band). ...

From the Han Dynasty onwards, a process similar to the origins of Shi Jing produced the yue fu (樂府 "Music Bureau") poems. Many of them are composed of lines of five-character (五言) or seven-character (七言). These two forms of shi were to dominate Chinese poetry until the modern era. They are divided into the original gushi and jintishi. The latter is a stricter form developed in the early Tang dynasty with rules governing the structure of a poem. The greatest writers of gushi and jintishi are often held to be Li Bai and Du Fu respectively. Yue fu (Chinese 乐府) are Chinese poems composed in a folk song style. ... Shi (è©©) is the Chinese word for poem; it can also be used to mean Chinese poetry other than lyrics, or (most commonly) the classical form of poetry developed in the late Han dynasty and which reached its zenith in the Tang dynasty. ... Shi (è©©) is the Chinese word for poem; it can also be used to mean Chinese poetry other than lyrics, or (most commonly) the classical form of poetry developed in the late Han dynasty and which reached its zenith in the Tang dynasty. ... Li Po redirects here. ... Du Fu or Tu Fu (February 12, 712â€“770) was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. ...

Towards the end of the Tang dynasty, the ci lyric became more popular. Ci are literally new lyrics made up to fit to pre-existing tunes. Each of the tunes had music that was often lost, but retained a metre unique to the tune. Thus, each ci written is labelled "To the tune of [Tune Name]" (調寄[詞牌]), fits the metre and rhyme of the tune, and may or may not have been sung. Most closely associated with the Song Dynasty, ci most often expressed feelings of desire, often in an adopted persona, but the greatest exponents of the form (such as Li Houzhu and Su Shi) used it to address a wide range of topics. Northern Song in 1111 AD Capital Kaifeng (960â€“1127) Linan (1127â€“1279) Language(s) Middle Chinese Religion Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism Government Monarchy History - Zhao Kuangyin taking over the throne of the Later Zhou Dynasty 960 - Battle of Yamen; the end of Song rule 1279 Population - Peak est. ... Li Houzhu (æŽå¾Œä¸»; pinyin: lÇ hÃ²u zhÇ”) (936 or 937 - 978) was a Chinese poet and the last ruler of the Southern Tang Kingdom from 961 to 975 during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period; he has been called the first true master of the ci form (Indiana Companion... Su Shi (è˜‡è»¾) (1037-1101) was a writer, poet, artist, calligrapher and statesman of the Song Dynasty, one of the major poets of the Song era. ...

As the ci gradually became more literary and artificial after Song times, sanqu (散曲), a freer form, based on new popular songs, developed.

Later classical poetry

After the Song Dynasty, both shi' and ci continued to be composed until the end of the imperial period, and to a lesser extent to this day. However, for a number of reasons, these works have always been less highly regarded than those of the Tang dynasty in particular. China is the worlds oldest continuous major civilization, with written records dating back about 3,500 years and with 5,000 years being commonly used by Chinese as the age of their civilization. ...

Firstly, Chinese literary culture remained in awe of its predecessors: in a self-fulfilling prophecy, writers and readers both expected that new works would not bear comparison with the earlier masters. Secondly, the most common response of these later poets to the tradition which they had inherited was to produce work which was ever more refined and allusive; the resulting poems tend to seem precious or just obscure to modern readers. Thirdly, the increase in population, expansion of literacy, wider dissemination of works through printing and more complete archiving vastly increased the volume of work to consider and made it difficult to identify and properly evaluate those good pieces which were produced. Finally, this period saw the rise of vernacular literature, particularly opera and novels, which increasingly became the main means of cultural expression. For other articles which might have the same name, see Print (disambiguation). ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ...

Modern poetry

Modern Chinese poems (新詩 "new poetry") usually do not follow any prescribed pattern. Poetry was revolutionized after the May Fourth Movement when writers try to use vernacular styles closer to what was being spoken (baihua) rather than previously prescribed forms. Early twentieth-century poets like Xu Zhimo, Guo Moruo and Wen Yiduo sought to break Chinese poetry from past conventions by adopting Western models; for example Xu consciously follows the style of the Romantic poets with end-rhymes. This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Vernacular Chinese (白话 [白話]; in pinyin: báihuà, literal meaning: Plain Language) is a style of written Chinese which is based on Standard Mandarin. ... Hsu Chih-mo (å¾å¿—æ‘©, pinyin: XÃº ZhÃ¬mÃ³) (January 15, 1897-November 19, 1931) was a twentieth-century Chinese poet. ... Guo Moruo (Chinese: éƒæ²«è‹¥; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kuo Mo-jo, courtesy name DÇng TÃ¡ng é¼Žå ‚) (November 16, 1892 - June 12, 1978) was a Chinese author, poet, historian, archaeologist, and government official. ... Wen Yiduo (real name: Wen Jiahua) (1899-1946) was a Chinese poet and scholar. ... Romantic poetry was part of the Romantic movement of European literature during the 18th-19th centuries. ...

In the post-revolutionary Communist era, poets like Ai Qing used more liberal running lines and direct diction, which were vastly popular and widely imitated. This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Ai Qing (艾青, 1910-1996), also written Ai Ching, was a Chinese poet and political prisoner, often regarded as one of the finest modern poets in China. ...

In the contemporary poetic scene, the most important and influential poets are in the group known as Misty Poets, who use oblique allusions and hermetic references. The most important Misty Poets include Bei Dao, Gu Cheng, Duo Duo, and Yang Lian, all of whom were exiled after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The Misty Poets are a group of Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution. ... Allusion is a stylistic device or trope, in which one refers covertly or indirectly to an object or circumstance that has occurred or existed in an external context. ... Bei Dao (Northern Island) is another name for Zhifu Island. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Yang Lian (æ¨ç‚¼) is a Chinese poet associated with the Misty Poets (æœ¦èƒ§è¯—) and also with the Searching for Roots school. ... The Unknown Rebel - This famous photo, taken on 5 June 1989 by photographer Jeff Widener, depicts a lone protester who tried to stop four advancing tanks until he was pulled into the crowd by several onlookers. ...

See also

300 Tang Poems is a compilation of poems from the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-907) made around 1763 by Sun Zhu (å«èª…) of the Qing Dynasty. ... Poets who wrote or write much of their poetry in the Chinese language. ... // [edit] Classical texts Main article: Chinese classic texts China has a wealth of classical literature, both poetry and prose, dating from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 BCE) and including the Classics attributed to Confucius. ... Chinese classic texts or Chinese canonical texts are the classical literature in Chinese culture that are considered to be the best or the most valuable. ... This is a list of articles about poetry in a single language or produced by a single nation. ... Example gin with vocal annotation to the right of each character Shigin (è©©åŸ) is a form of Japanese poetry, which is usually chanted, either individually or within a group. ...

References

External links

Poetry of Different Cultures and Languages

American poetry | Anglo-Welsh poetry | Arabic poetry | Australian Poetry | Bengali poetry | Biblical poetry | British poetry | Byzantine poetry | Canadian poetry | Chinese poetry | Cornish poetry | English poetry | Old English poetry | Finnish poetry | French poetry | Greek poetry | Guernésiais | Hebrew poetry | Indian poetry | Indian epic poetry | Irish poetry | Italian poetry | Japanese poetry | Javanese poetry | Jèrriais poetry | Kannada (Indian) poetry | Korean poetry | Latino poetry | Manx poetry | Old Norse poetry | Ottoman poetry| Pakistani poetry | Pashto poetry | Persian poetry | Scottish poetry | Serbian epic poetry | Slovak poetry | Spanish poetry | Spanish American poetry | Turkish poetry Urdu poetry | Welsh poetry This is a list of articles about poetry in a single language or produced by a single nation. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Anglo-Welsh poetry is a subset of Anglo-Welsh literature. ... Arabic poetry is poetry composed and written down in the Arabic language either by Arab people or non-Arabs. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Like the Bengali language, Bengali poetry traces its lineage to PÄli and other Prakrit socio-cultural traditions. ... This article is concerned with Biblical poetry, specifically poetry in the Hebrew Bible. ... British poetry is poetry written by British poets. ... Byzantine literature refers to literature written in the Greek language during the Middle Ages, although certain works written in Latin, like the Corpus Juris Civilis may also be included. ... Canadian poetry is poetry written in Canada, by Canadians. ... The opening verses of Origo Mundi, the first play of the Ordinalia (the magnum opus of mediaeval Cornish literature), written by an unknown monk in the late 14th century Cornish literature refers to written works in the Cornish language. ... Many regard William Shakespeare as the greatest English poet. ... Old English poetry is based upon one system of verse construction which was used for all poems. ... Finnish poetry is the poetry of the Finnish language. ... French poetry is a category of French literature. ... // Ancient Greek literature (before AD 300) Main article: Ancient Greek literature Classical Greek Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in Ancient Greek from the oldest surviving written works in the Greek language until the 4th century and the rise of the Byzantine Empire. ... GuernÃ©siais, also known as DgÃ¨rnÃ©siais, Guernsey French, Guernsey Norman French, is the variety of Norman language spoken in Guernsey. ... Hebrew poetry is poetry written in the Hebrew language. ... Indian poetry, and Indian literature in general, has a long history dating back to Vedic times. ... The ancient Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, laid the cornerstone for much of Hindu religion. ... A 1907 engraving of William Butler Yeats, one of Irelands best-known poets. ... // A Dante Alighieri B Angelo Barile Bruno Barilli Luigi Bartolini C Dino Campana Vincenzo Cardarelli Dario Chioli Girolamo Comi F Franco Fortini G Margherita Guidacci Luca Ghiselli J Piero Jahier L Mario Luzi M Alda Merini Grazyna Miller Eugenio Montale O Arturo Onofri P Cesare Pavese Q Salvatore Quasimodo U... Grave of the Japanese poet Yosa Buson The best-known forms of Japanese poetry (outside Japan) are haiku and senryu. ... Javanese poetry (poetry in the Javanese or especially the Kawi language; Low Javanese: tembang; High Javanese: sekar) is traditionally recited in song form. ... JÃ¨rriais literature is literature in JÃ¨rriais. ... Kannada poetry is poetry written in the Kannada language spoken in Karnataka state of India. ... Korean poetry is oral or written poetry, given in performance or written down, in the Korean language, or by Koreans overseas. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Manx literature is literature in the Manx language. ... Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in a number of Nordic languages, embraced by the term Old Norse, during the period from the 8th century to as late as the far end of the 13th century. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Pakistani poetry as a tradition partakes of Urdu poetry, which see. ... Pashto literature and poetry refers to literature and poetry in Pashto language. ... Persian literature is literature written in Persian, or by Persians in other languages. ... Scottish literature is literature written in Scotland or by Scottish writers. ... Songs of Serbian epic poetry rarely, if ever, rhyme, but they are easy to remember as each line has exactly ten syllables and caesura after fourth syllable. ... The following is a list of the most important poets of Slovak literature, for a list of Slovak authors of prose and drama see Slovak prose: Middle Ages (800 – 1500) Constantine (827-869) – born in Thessaloniki Maurus (?-1070) Leonard z Uničova (15th century) Renaissance (1500-1650... Spanish poetry is the poetic tradition of Spain. ... Dear User, this is severely unedited. ... A page from the DÃ®vÃ¢n-Ä± FuzÃ»lÃ®, the collected poems of the 16th-century Ottoman poet FuzÃ»lÃ® Turkish literature is the collection of written and oral texts composed in the Turkish language, either in its Ottoman form or in less exclusively literary forms, such as that spoken... Like other languages, the history of Urdu poetry does not have a firm starting point and shares origins and influences with other linguistic traditions within the Urdu-Hindi-Hindustani mix. ... Welsh poetry may refer to poetry in the Welsh language, Anglo-Welsh poetry, or other poetry written in Wales or by Welsh poets. ...