Seven-character verse is a genre of China's traditional poetry, which belongs to the category of modern poetry. It originated from Shen Yue and other new-style poems that emphasized meter and antithesis in the period of Qi Yongming in the Southern Dynasties, further developed and stereotyped in Shen Quan and Song in the early Tang Dynasty, and matured in Du Fu's hands in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Its meter is rigorous, which requires the unity of words in the poem. It consists of eight sentences with seven words each, and every two sentences are a couplet and a * * * quadruple.
An article with four or five rhymes generally rhymes with even sentences, that is, the last word of the second, fourth, sixth and eighth sentences rhymes. The first sentence can be played or played, usually in a flat voice, with rhyme at the end and no rhyme in the middle. It is also required to rhyme according to the words in the rhyme book.
In principle, only the original rhyme can be used, not the adjacent rhyme; Even if it is a little looser, the neighboring rhyme can only use the rhyme of the first sentence, which is called "borrowing rhyme". According to whether the first sentence rhymes or not, the seven-character rhyme can be divided into two formats: the first sentence rhymes and the first sentence does not rhyme, and the first sentence rhymes in a positive case, which is different from the five-character rhyme.
The rise of seven-character poems is later than that of five-character poems. It originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, sprouted in the new style poems of Qi and Liang Dynasties, and was shaped between the early Tang Dynasty and the prosperous Tang Dynasty. In the early Tang Dynasty, Shen Quanqi, Song, Du, Li Qiao and others began to write articles. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei, Li Qi, Cen Can and Jia Zhi all made efforts to master the system, while Cui Hao and Li Bai still had mixed, semi-ancient and semi-French works.
Although there are some masterpieces of Gao Hua Xiulang in the seven-character poems of this period, most of them belong to the content of giving and receiving, which is narrower than the five-character poems. At the same time, in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, most of the seven laws of poets such as Li Bai, Wang Wei and Gao Shi were wrong, sticky and emphasized. It was not until Du Fu that the seven-character rhythmic poem showed its poetic potential and opened up the artistic world.
Du Fu opened up the realm of metrical poetry in an all-round way, and current affairs, politics, life experiences, customs, cultural relics and historical sites were all integrated into strict metrical style, which raised the value of this poetic style to the level of being juxtaposed with ancient poems and quatrains.
From Du Fu to the Middle Tang Dynasty, the seven-character law system failed to innovate. Seven-character rhythmic poems in the late Tang Dynasty opened up a new situation. Wen, Li Shangyin, Du Mu and other Seven-Rhythm Masters not only trimmed the form of Seven-Rhythm Poems, but also reformed the rhythm of Seven-Rhythm Poems, pushing the art of Seven-Rhythm Poems to a new stage.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Seven-character Rhyme