The Book of Songs is China's first collection of poems, which was produced in 544 BC and is the glorious starting point of China literature.
Chu Ci is the work of Qu Yuan, the first great poet in the history of China literature. He created a new literary genre-"Sao Style" in the form of folk songs. It broke the four fonts in The Book of Songs, with six fonts as the main font and relatively free form. Therefore, poets are also called "poets".
Yuefu is a music management institution established by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty for composing music and collecting folk songs.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, in addition to Yuefu folk songs, five-character poems rose and developed further in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Representative poets include Cao Cao and his son, Tao Yuanming and Xie Lingyun.
Poetry reached the golden age of ancient literature in the Tang Dynasty. The Complete Tang Poetry contains nearly 50,000 poems by more than 2,300 poets.
The development of Tang poetry can be divided into three stages: early Tang, prosperous Tang and late Tang.
Early Tang Dynasty: Poetry should praise virtue (for the imperial examination), so the poetic world is beautiful and the content is empty. Luyang, Wang Luo is known as the four outstanding figures in the early Tang Dynasty.
Prosperous Tang Dynasty: During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao periods, the development of poetry reached its peak. Forming the golden age of classical poetry. Famous poets include Li Bai, Du Fu, Meng Haoran and Wang Wei. In the mid-Tang Dynasty, the New Yuefu Movement headed by Bai Juyi advocated that poetry should be "written for things". Singing about people's sufferings has formed a new style. Besides Bai Juyi, other famous poets include Liu Yuxi, Li He, Du Mu, Li Shangyin, Meng Jiao and Jia Dao.
Late Tang Dynasty: Poetry declined due to years of war and economic recession.
With the decline of Tang poetry in the late Tang Dynasty, Song ci rose gradually and reached its peak in the Song Dynasty.
Early Song Dynasty: Ci followed the beautiful atmosphere in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. Liu Yong began to get rid of the beautiful atmosphere, and Su Shi began to enrich the content.
Song Ci: Divided into two schools, it inherited the tradition of realism. The representatives of graceful and restrained school are Yan Shu, Ouyang Xiu and Yan. The representatives of the uninhibited school are Su Shi and Xin Qiji. Other important writers of Song Ci are Wang Anshi, Zhang You, Fan Dacheng, Yang Wanli and Li Qingzhao.
Yuan Dynasty: Poetry was depressed, with neither outstanding works nor outstanding writers.
Ming Dynasty: It was a prosperous period for the development of folk poetry.
There was a new prosperity in poetry in Qing Dynasty, represented by Qian, Gu, Zhu (Kangxi period), Yongzheng and Yuan. Gong Zizhen, Shu Wei and Xiang Hongzuo are three outstanding poets in the late Qing Dynasty.
Characteristics of ancient poetry:
The Book of Songs: mostly four-character poems. There are different numbers of poems. Some have four sentences, six sentences and eight sentences.
Chu Ci: It is basically a six-character poem.
Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties: Five-character poems were the mainstay. There are still four or six or seven words. The ancient poems in Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties generally use rhyme as a cut-off sentence, that is, even sentences rhyme. It can rhyme or rhyme. Modern poetry in Tang dynasty: there are five-character quatrains and seven-character quatrains, each with four sentences; There are five-character poems and seven-character poems, each with eight sentences. Quatrains usually rhyme at the end of two or four sentences. Rhyme rhymes from the first sentence, the second sentence, the fourth sentence, the sixth sentence and the eighth sentence rhyme at the end, and rhymes to the end. A quatrain and the first sentence of a metrical poem may or may not rhyme.
Three elements of poetry:
(A) temperament-four tones
Four ancient tones: Ping, Shang, Qu and Jin;
There are four tones today: flat tone, flat tone, up and down.
(2) rhythm
The pronunciation of each Chinese character consists of initials and finals, with the initials in front and the finals behind; "Rhyme" is the vowel of each letter; Words with the same vowels are called homonyms.
(3) duality
Quatrains and common couplets among lawyers.
For example, Du Fu's poems
Two orioles sing green willows,
A line of egrets flew into the sky,
The window contains autumn snow in Xiling,
Wan Li Ship and Wu Dong are in Menbo.
The third, fourth, fifth and sixth sentences of general metrical poems must be dual. The first sentence has three or four rhymes; Five, six, one, two, seven and eight sentences are dual.