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Chinese classical poetry usually refers to the poems that were written in classical Chinese language in accordance with specific rules and forms of classical poetic composition (with respect to tonal pattern, rhyme scheme, etc.).
The generalized Chinese classical poetry includes all literary compositions written in rhyme. In its narrow sense, classical poetry refers to the poems written in classical Chinese language and modern style poetry, refers to the innovations in classical poetry made during the Tang Dynasty (618 -- 907) and characterized by the strict tonal patterns and rhyme schemes of these poems.
Poetry in primitive society :
The Chinese nation has a written history of more than 4000 years, but Chinese poetry was produced before the characters were invented.
The earliest poems in primitive society were ballads. This is was an oral tradition of primitive people who sung them while working to keep their spirits up and to synchronize their actions.
At that time, the poetry was combined with dancing and laboring, and it was passed on orally thus there is no written record.
The Poetry in the Xia Dynasty (about 2070 B.C. 1600 B.C ) and the Shang Dynasty (about 1600 B.C. 1556 B.C.)
The history of the Xia Dynasty is mainly legends. But not many poems that have been recorded are credible today.
The first Chinese characters dated from the middle of the Shang Dynasty, and from this time we have the beginning of written historical documents, written on tortoise shells and animal bones. These are called Jia Gu Wen" or "Inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty. However, there were hardly any poems written down at this time.
The Zhou Dynasty Poetry, Shi Jing and Chu Ci
The Zhou Dynasty (1046 B.C.256 B.C.), including the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 B.C. - 771 B.C.) and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 B.C. -256 B.C.)
In the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 B.C. - 771 B.C.) there were already a few written records of ancient ballads.
In the first period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 B.C. -256 B.C.) -- The Spring and Autumn Period鐚770B.C.-476 B.C.鐚, the first collection of poems in Chinese history appeared: Shi Jing ( at first it was called Shi or 300 Shi, but renamed Shi Jing during the Han Dynasty) -- the Book of Songs (it is also known as: the Classic of Poetry, Book of Odes or Odes of Book.
Shi Jing included 305 poems that were collected by the officers who were sent to the folk by the court. And it has three sections:
Feng -- folk songs / ballads ( 160 poems).
Ya -- festal songs sung at court during banquets and the entertainment of guests (105 poems).
Song -- songs in praise of the imperial ancestors and sung on sacrificial occasions (40 poems).
In the 305 poems /songs, the folk songs/ballads are considered most valuable because they express a wide social life with a realistic style.
Shi Jing -- the Book of Songs marked the beginning of ancient Chinese realistic poetry, and has influenced Chinese literature and poetry down the ages.
In terms of language and poetic form, the poems in Shi Jing -- the Book of Songsare Si Yan Shi -- Chinese classical poems with four characters per line.
During the second period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 B.C. -256 B.C.) -- the Warring States Period 鐚476-221 B.C.), the first poet in Chinese history appeared-- Qu Yan(340 B.C.-278 B.C.) and he created an emerging poetic style: Chu Ci - The Songs of the South( the other version: Songs of Chu or Verses of Chu).
Before Qu Yuan (340 B.C.-278 B.C.), most Chinese poems were folk songs or ballads, they were created by many people together and passed on mouth by mouth. There was not anyone who devoted their whole life and their energy to write poetry.
Qu Yuan, was the first named poet in the history of Chinese literature and poetry.
Chu Ci has two meanings: Chu Ci -- The Songs of the South鐚the other version: Songs of Chu or Verses of Chu), was the name of a book that was edited by Liu Xian during the Western Han Dynasty 鐚206 B.C.- 8鐚, and was re-edited by Wang Yi during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220). The main content in this book was the poetry of Qu Yuan, but also included the works of other poets that were written in the style of Qu Yuan.
Chu was a state in the Zhou Dynasty; it was in the south of China, in today's Hubei Province and the northern part of Hunan Province.
The works in the book Chu Ci -- The Songs of the South are mainly in the Chu dialect to write the songs of Chu, to record the customs of Chu and to expresse the local people's thoughts and feelings,thus there is strong local color.
Therefore, Chu Ci was also the name of a literary style that was created by Qu Yuan and be passed down.
As the first great poet in the history of Chinese poetry and literature, Qu Yuan is regarded as the first author of verse, his main contribution was that he created a new style of poetry -- Chu Ci, and made some meaningful innovations.
For example:
In the length of his poetry, in his representative work Li Sao, there are 370 lines and more than 2400 Chinese characters.
In the language, based on the classical poems in Shi Jing which have four characters per line, he extended the line of poetry to five and six characters each line and added a xi (auxiliary word, there is no meaning, just helps to express a feeling, similar with Ah, or Oh ) style, and together with the folk songs of the Han Dynasty. This laid a good foundation for the new poetic styles of the Tang Dynasty with 5 characters and 7 characters per line.
Chu Ci was the transition between Chinese poems with four characters per line and Chinese poems with five or seven characters per line.
In content and writing style, Qu Yuan's Chu Ci, expressed the strong patriotic thoughts and feelings of the poet, with the totally new style of poetry, created a positive romantic poetic style, produced great affection for the development of Chinese poetry.
The Qin Dynasty (221 B.C. - 207 B.C.) ,the Han Dynasty (202 B.C. - 220 A.D.) Poetry and Yuefu
During the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C. - 207 B.C.) there were hardly any poems written because of the political and cultural tyranny.
The Han Dynasty (202 B.C. - 220 A.D.) was the third important phase in the development of Chinese poetry. The main poetry of these times was the Yuefu Song.
There were two meanings of the word Yuefu. One was the name of a music organization in the Han Dynasty; the other was the name of the folk songs that the organization collected.
The music office in the Han Dynasty had three duties:
-- To create the music for the poems of the literati.
-- To play the music to accompany the poems.
-- To collect the folk songs and ballads from around the country.
These collected folk songs and ballads were called Yuefu Shi -- Yufu Poems or Han Yuefu in the the Han Dynasty. One hundred and thirty six poems that were collected by the officers of the Western Han Dynasty are still extant. They were the highest achievement of Han Dynasty poetry.
The Yuefu Poems in the Han Dynasty followed the tradition of Shi Jing and expressed thoughts and feelings of civilians in its own time; they mainly reflected the poor life of ordinary people, the pain of war and corv辿e, love and labor.
The difference was that Shi Jing mainly expressed people's emotions while Yuefu was mainly narrative.
The linguistic form of the Yuefu poetry mainly uses five characters per line and is based on the poems of Shi Jing which have four characters per line, its sentences are sometimes long and sometimes short and its language is natural and unaffected.
The Poetry in the three Kingdoms (220-280) 鐚mainly Wei鐚220-265), the Jin Dynasty (265-420) and the Northern and Southern Dynasties 鐚420-589):
The poetry of these times was developed along two lines.
The first line was called the Jian'an Road or Jian'an Feng Gu, to express the style of this poetry was vigorous and its content was concerned with society and political affairs. The main representative poets of this kind of poetry were the Three Caos -- Cao Cao, Cao Zhi and Cao Pi and the poetic style of Cao's family and group of poets around of them, collectively known as Jian'an Qi Zi -- seven excellent litterateurs. They learned from Yuefu, and sang about their own dreams and expressed the poor life of the people.
The other line was called Taikang Road. There was no meaningful content in the poems, and they just pursued beauty of form and characters.
This was the prosperous times of poetry with five characters to a line; and it was also the time when poems with seven characters to a line started to be established.
In the later period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties鐚420-589), poems of a new style appeared and these became the foundation of the Tang Dynasty's modern style poetry, marked by strict tonal patterns and rhyme schemes.
About 60 Northern folk songs and about 500 Southern folk songs still exist now.
The Southern folk songs had 4 lines with 5 characters to a line; this was a good preparation for the Jue Ju.
Also, at this time, mountain and water poetry, and also idyll poetry began. Xie Lingyun and Tao Yuanming were the representative poets of this style.
The Tang Dynasty (618-907) Poetry
The Sui Dynasty had only 37 years of history and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms had 79 years of history, the focal point in these times was the poetry of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
Poetry in the Tang Dynasty was flourished and created a new era in the history of Chinese poetry.
The boom of the Tang Dynasty poetry firstly was its quantity. In the Quan Tang Shi -- the Complete ( Collection) of Tang Dynasty Poetry (the other version: The Complete of Tang Poems), which was edited in the Qing Dyansty (1636-1912), there are more than 2,600 poets represented, more than 48,900 poems, making up 900 volumes.
In quality, not only were there the great poets Li Bi, Du Fu, but there were also Wang Wei, Bai Juyi, Li He, Li Shangyin, Du Mu and groups of the excellent poets. The level of the Tang Dynasty poetry surpassed that of any other dynasty in Chinese history. This was the meridian period of Chinese poetry.
The main reasons for the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty :
-- In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), China had a highly developed economy and was the strongest society in the world. This gave its people much national self-confidence and a sense of national pride. Their creative ability was at an unprecedented level.
-- Poetry was free from the monopoly of the court and noblemen and shifted to the intellectuals in the middle and lower classes.
-- The culture and circles of thought were free, religions other than Confucianism, Buddhism Taoism could be spread and cultural exchanges were active.
-- The rulers and the government paid more attention to develop literature and poetry. Poetry was one of the most suitable for exams for any person that wanted to be enrolled as an officer by the court.
-- Chinese poetry had already developed for about 2,000 years before the Tang Dynasty and was ready for the new developments in the Tang Dynasty.
The 4 development phases of Tang Dynasty poetry
Usually, people divide the development of Tang Dynasty poetry into 4 phases:
The Poetry in the Early Tang Dynasty (618 - 713):
In this phase, Chinese poetry critically inherited the forepassed poetry styles, emerged a new fresh progress, mainly it was developed on three hands.
-- Broke through the narrow subject matters of the later Northern and Southern Dynasties 鐚420-589) to express the wider social life and more important events in that times.
-- Gave up the flippant and soft style and created a new, more vigorous and lively style.
-- Established the rules and forms of classical poetic composition (with respect to tonal pattern, rhyme scheme, etc.)
The representative poets of this phase were Chu Tang Si Jie - The Four Outstanding Poets (Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Lu Zhaoling and Luo Binwang), Chen Zi'ang, Shen Quanqi and Song Zhiwen.
The Poetry in the Prosperous Period of the Tang Dynasty(713 - 766):
This was the flourishing peak of Tang Dynasty poetry, within a space of about 53 years, there were more than 10 great poets, with different styles, and they involved themselves with the creative process of Tang Dynasty poems.
Concerning content, the positive romanticism of pursuing positive political ambitions and dreams, the heroism and patriotism that found great achievement for the country, and the spirit of being against the dignitaries were the mainstream of the poetry.
Li Bai (701-762) was the greatest representative.
Apart from the traditional mountain and water (landscape poetry), pastoral (idyll) poetry, complaints from the palace, farewell and so on, it is the political poetry and frontier poetry (frontier - style poetry) that most clearly Reflects the characteristics of the poetry in the glorious age of Tang Dynasty.
The Rebellion of An and Shi from 755 to 763 was the turning point for the Tang Dynasty (618- 907) and marked the transition from prosperity to decline.
The poet at the center of this enormous change and who expressed the change in society was Du Fu (712 - 770).
With a Prosperous Tang poet's eyes and courage, he observed and reflected the social reality. He not only revealed social contradictions, but was also full of the spirit of optimism.
Du Fu was the last poet of the Glorious Age of Tang Dynasty and opened the way for the realistic poetry of the Middle Part of Tang Dynasty. He was an epoch-making poet.
The Poetry in the Middle Part of the Tang Dynasty (766 - 835):
There were about 570 poets during this period, and they produced the most (about 19,000) poems. There were also most poetry schools (sects) .
During this phase, the positive romantic passion and dreams disappeared, severe and grim reality caused the poets to observe and think calmly and poetry reverted to realism.
The New Yuefu Movement represented by Bai Juyi was just like a big river flowing through whole of the Middle Part of Tang Dynasty poetry.
The content of the realistic poetry of this time mainly expressed people's livelihoods; the language was easy to read and understand and the poetic form was mainly folk song style.
The main poetry schools (sects) were:
-- Han (Han Yu) and Meng (Meng Jiao) Poetry School (sect): reflected reality with their bad experiences and enjoyed pursuing an unusual, unique and surprised style.
-- The Romantic Poetry School (sect) represented by Li He: used plenty of imagination to express a strong sorrowful sentiment.
-- The Seclusion School (sect) represented by Wei Yingwu, Liu Zhangqing: with their disappointment and dissatisfaction with society, they retreated into the mountains.
-- With a quiet, delicate and graceful style, Liu Zongyuan and Liu Yuxi created their own school (sect).
The Poetry in the Late Tang Dynasty (836 - 906 ):
The worsening social environment and poorer life of the people triggered new peasant uprisings. The poetic style represented by Li Shangyin and Du Mu is full of nostalgia for a flourishing age that would not come again.
At that time, love became a popular topic. Poetry was more emotional and had more feelings of civilians.
Ci - Lyric poetry appeared at this time, founded by Wun Wei (according to another version: Lyric originated in the Sui Dynasty).
The main poetry during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907鐔960) was Ci - Lyric.
The Poetry in the Song Dynasty (960-1279)
In the Song Dynasty, traditional poetry and Ci -lyric poetry (poetry written to certain tunes with strict tonal patterns and rhyme schemes, in fixed numbers of lines and words, originating in the Tang Dynasty and fully developed in Song Dynasty) developed shoulder to shoulder.
In the matter of traditional poetry, Wang Yucheng鐚9541001鐚succeeded the tradition of realism from the New Yuefu of Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty(618-907), the Four Great Masters of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) Ou Yangxiu, Wang Anshi, Su Shi and Huang Tingjian enlarged the topics of poetry, their tendency of "writing poetry by means of prose, " "writing poetry by means of scholarship," and "writing poetry by means of comments " created some unique styles of the Song Dynasty poetry until the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). And then Lu You, Yang Wanli and Fan Chengdi, with their patriotic poems, pushed Song poetry to a new level.
Generally speaking, the Tang Dynasty poetry expressed life with more passion but the Song Dynasty poetry observed society with more reason; Tang Dynasty poetry had more fantastic elegance and charm, but Song Dynasty poetry had more wisdom; the Tang Dynasty poetry was broader, but Song Dynasty poetry was more profound.
At the same time, Ci -- Lyric entered its most prosperous times.
Ci - Lyric is a form of poetry written to certain tune with strict tonal patterns and rhyme schemes, in fixed number of lines and words.
Depending on the length, Ci - lyric can be divided into three sorts:
--Xiao Ling 鐚 (a Short Meter for Ci): poem that contains relatively few syllables (62 words or fewer, for example as 58).
-- Zhong Diao鐚Ci /lyric poems composed of 65 or 59 words to 90 words).
-- Chang Diao( Ci /lyric poems composed of more than 91 words).
There were two big Ci- lyric poetry schools:
-- Wan Yue Ci School (a Subtle and Concise School of Ci): This school wrote lyrics with a subtle and concise style, suitable for the portrayal of picturesque descriptions of delicate feelings and tender thoughts, a style of writing opposite to the vigorous and sprightly school of Ci.
Based on the tradition of the latter period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-979), this school mainly wrote content related to the personal feelings and love.
The representative poets of this school were Liu Yong, Zhou Bangyan, Li Qingzhao etc.
-- Hao Fang Ci School (Powerful and Free School of Ci): This school wrote lyrics with a vigorous and sprightly style of Ci, a writing style opposite to that of the traditional subtle and concise school.
Su Shi(1037鐚1101) founded the powerful and free school of Ci (lyric )during the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). He enlarged the subject matter of the lyrics, transformed lyric poetry into a new style that could express manifold topics.
Xin Qiji 鐚1140鐚1207鐚is a Southern Song Dynasty poet, who with a group of patriotic poets pushed lyric poetry to its highest point with their patriotic lyrics.
Song Ci lyrics of the Song Dynasty and Tang Poetry are considered to be the two peaks of Chinese poetry.
The Poetry in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the Qing Dynasty (1636-1912):
Apart from a new poetic style -- San Qu - non dramatic songs - a verse form which evolved during the Yuan Dynasty and somewhat akin to but freer than Ci (Lyric), used for lyric songs written to express the poet's own feelings and observations, in contrast to the dramatic songs (Qu) introduced between parts of the prose dialogue of Yuan drama to utter the sentiments of a certain character, the achievements in poetry during these three Dynasties cant be compared with the Tang Dynasty or Song Dynasty.
Anyway, drama in the Yuan Dynasty, and the novel in the Ming and Qing Dynasties marked new eras in Chinese literature
So, I would like to omit the introduction of poetry from these dynasties.
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