Poetry is one of the great achievements of pre-Qin literature. Its development has gone through a long process from oral to written, from folk to court, from collective singing to literati creation. In the history of China literature, The Book of Songs compiled in the Spring and Autumn Period is the earliest collection of poems in China, with a total of 305 poems, which were called "Poems" or "Three Hundred Poems" in ancient times. Syntactically, language is basically four words and one sentence. From the perspective of music, it can be divided into three parts: wind, elegance and ode. There are three ways of expression: Fu, Bi and Xing. The appearance of The Book of Songs indicates that the earliest literary form of poetry in China has completed the transformation from oral to written, and from folk to court. In this sense, The Book of Songs is the glorious starting point of China literature.
Following the Book of Songs, in the 4th century BC, Qu Yuan, as the representative, wrote the poems in the Sao style of Chu Ci, which marked a higher development stage of China's poetry from folk collective singing to independent creation by poets. This new poem with distinctive Chu culture color, which was created by literati, pushed China's poetry forward a big step. Sao-style poems broke through the fixed format of four-character poems in The Book of Songs and developed into five-character poems and seven-character poems, which not only can better express thoughts and feelings, but also have more musical rhythm and rhythm. In the pre-Qin period, The Book of Songs and The Songs of the South tied for two peaks, which were the towering coordinates of realism and romanticism in the history of China's poetry, and their great influence was immeasurable.
The time of Qin Dynasty was short and the ideological rule was extremely harsh, so only folk songs were circulated. In the Han Dynasty, the literati poetry circle in the Western Han Dynasty was quite lonely. Basically, it simulates the creation of four characters and Sao style. It is also worth mentioning that Liu Bang, the great ancestor of the early Han Dynasty, wrote a Sao-style song "Song of the Wind", and Wei Meng's four-character "parody of poetry" and so on. However, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the situation changed. Although Zhang Heng's Poem of Four Sorrow has not got rid of the influence of Sao style, it has a new atmosphere. Under the advocacy of Ban Gu and Zhang Heng, scholars in the Eastern Han Dynasty attached importance to learning Yuefu folk songs. Yuefu poems sung to match the music directly inherited the realistic tradition of folk songs in The Book of Songs, and comprehensively and profoundly reflected the social life and people's thoughts and feelings at that time. Represents the highest achievement of poetry in Han Dynasty. Ban Gu, an early writer in the Eastern Han Dynasty, wrote a poem "Ode to History", a five-character poem. Later, Zhang Heng wrote "Simultaneous Song" and Qin Jia wrote "County Female Poetry", which improved the skills of five-character poetry. Nineteen ancient poems laid the foundation of five-character poems. In the Jian 'an era, due to the advocacy of three Cao and seven sons, the situation of "five words taking off" was finally formed. The creation of seven-character poems is also trying.
Before Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the rhythm and rhyme of poetry had not formed a rule that everyone followed, but the author wrote it according to his personal content needs and rhyme feeling. By the Wei and Jin Dynasties, influenced by the Sanskrit phonology of Tianzhu, China's phonology had developed. The creation of poetry has developed from natural melody to pursuit of melody, which has the nature of focusing on flatness and rhythm, forming the main content of metrical poetry.
In the Tang Dynasty, poetry entered a glorious heyday. Not only did famous artists come forth in large numbers, but their masterpieces exceeded the sum of all previous dynasties from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and they also reached an unprecedented level in the depth and breadth of reflecting reality, the expansion of subject areas, the diversification of creative methods, and the perfection and maturity of the system. On the basis of inheriting the poems of the previous generation, the poems of the Tang Dynasty formed a fixed classification. There are two kinds of classification, one is ancient poetry, also called ancient style; It refers to imitating the traditional poetic style before the Tang Dynasty, which has no certain meter, can be long or short, rhymes freely, and the number of words in the sentence is neat and irregular; Among them, there are mainly five-character ancient style and seven-character ancient style. Secondly, modern poetry (metrical poetry) is not as free as classical poetry. It has strict requirements in length, rhyme, parallelism and antithesis, and pays more attention to the pursuit of metrical poetry. Basically, it can be divided into two kinds: five-character seven-character poems (eight sentences) and five-character seven-character poems (four sentences). A metrical poem with more than eight sentences is called arrangement. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the development of poetry reached the peak of prosperity. Whether it is the ancient five dynasties, the ancient seven dynasties, Yuefu, Gexing, or modern poetry, it all presents a special brilliance. The real life of all aspects of society has been fully reflected in the works of poets in various systems and styles. In the highly developed environment of poetry, with the prosperity of urban economy and the popularity of Yan music, a new poetry genre & duet appeared in the Tang Dynasty. The earliest folk words in Tang Dynasty are Quzi words discovered in Dunhuang, which have a wide range of subjects and many authors, but they are still relatively rough in art.
Song ci developed from Tang poetry. On the basis of Tang and Five Dynasties' poems, Song Ci developed many moderate and slow words, which made the scenery blend closely in twists and turns, and some even surpassed Tang Poetry in detail, concreteness and implication. Secondly, Song Ci is good at metaphor, expressing complex and secluded feelings through scenery with subtle and meticulous metaphor, which is touching. Song ci has formed a variety of artistic styles. Although it has followed the tradition since the Five Dynasties, with lyrical expression as the main theme, it has formed the division of "poetic rhyme" and graceful as the Sect. However, due to the changes of times and life, the expansion of themes, artistic individuality has been valued and artistic techniques have become increasingly diverse, making the style of Song Ci not only graceful and unrestrained, but also elegant and lofty, elegant and precise, and clear and beautiful. Won the status of "a generation of literature" with Tang poetry. In a word, although Song Ci is called "poetry", it has hundreds of sounds and thousands of columns, which not only reflects a broader life, but also is a masterpiece of lyric literature, with great achievements and far-reaching influence. It can be said that Ci originated in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Five Dynasties and Song Dynasty.
In the Song Dynasty, the Khitans and Tangut people gradually accepted the feudal culture of the Han nationality in their long-term contact with the Song people, but they did not produce high-achieving poetry writers and the number of their works was very small. The gold created by Jurchen inherited the poetic achievements of the Northern Song Dynasty and was unique. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, a new genre appeared, called Qu, also called Sanqu. Qu can be said to be another word. The language is closer to spoken English except that the accompaniment instruments are different when singing. The most prominent feature is that interlining can be added. For example, Zhang's "One of the Three Leisure Songs" said, "Yesterday, the flowers are bright, but now it is raining, and the society is suffering. (No) Mud stinks, (How to) kill (this) sun and moon. " The words in brackets are called lines.