First, the poetic style
As for the types of poetry, the problem is quite complicated. Here is just a brief talk based on Mr. Wang Li's book Poetic Metrics.
According to the rules, ancient poetry is divided into classical poetry and modern poetry. Ancient poetry is also called ancient style or ancient poetry; Modern poetry is also called modern poetry, and classical poetry other than modern poetry is generally called ancient poetry. Rhyme can only rhyme, and ancient poems can also rhyme.
Ancient poems are divided into four-character poems, five-character poems and seven-character poems according to the number of words. After the Tang Dynasty, there were few four-character poems, so the general poetry collections were divided into five-character poems and seven-character poems. This is the basic structure of classical poetry. Why do you want to divide it like this? Because this is related to the "rhythm" of ancient poetry. As for the rhythm of ancient poetry, the following chapters will talk about it. Ancient prose is divided into five ancient prose and seven ancient prose according to the number of words. Rhyme can also be divided into five laws and seven laws. There are also long poems in the law, which are called the law of exclusion. In addition to five words and seven words, there are miscellaneous words in ancient poetry. Miscellaneous language refers to a mixture of long and short sentences, for example, Li Bai's Difficult Road to Shu is miscellaneous language. Miscellaneous poems generally do not have another category, only belong to the seven ancient. Even if there are no seven words in the article, as long as they are long and short sentences, they will be classified as seven ancient. This is a conventional division and has no theoretical basis.
There is also a quatrain in ancient poetry, which was previously considered to be a metrical poem. However, according to Professor Wang Li and Professor Jun Binjie of Beijing Normal University, quatrains, as a five-character and four-sentence style, should have an earlier origin than metrical poems, so quatrains are considered as a separate category, including both ancient quatrains and metrical quatrains. Why is it called quatrains? Wu Mingna quoted the origin of poetic method in "Article Argumentation" and said: "Those who make quatrains also cut sentences." In other words, quatrains are poems that cut off the beginning, end or middle part of a poem. But the essence of quatrains is the poetic style of five words or seven words and four sentences.
Second, legal poetry
Modern poetry, represented by regular poetry, originated in the early Tang Dynasty. It is generally believed that their founders were Shen Quanqi and Song in the early Tang Dynasty. Why are regular poems difficult to do, but they inevitably appear? This is because China's ancient poems, from The Book of Songs to Yuefu poems, are all harmonious and accompanied by music. But later, poetry gradually divorced from music, so that it can only rely on itself to solve the rhythm and cadence beauty in music, and this can only be solved by the tone sandhi of Chinese itself, which is the most fundamental reason for the emergence of rhythmic poetry. The development of metrical poetry has two sources, one is the prevalence of antithesis, and the other is the development of tone. Under normal circumstances, if you do well in metrical poems, you can certainly do well in ancient poems. Therefore, the writing of classical poetry begins with regular poetry.
Because of the rhyme, flatness and antithesis of the metrical poems, there are many stresses. Because the meter is very strict, it is called meter poem. According to the analysis of predecessors, the characteristics of metrical poetry have six elements:
1, whole: every sentence is neat, or five words, or seven words. 2. Couples: antithesis is required in poetry.
2.Leaf: it means that even and odd sentences are opposite in turn. 4, rhyme: refers to ancient poetry can only be flat rhyme.
5. Harmony: It means that there are strict rules for the leveling of the whole article. 6. Degree: It means that the full text is definite.
In fact, Mr. Wang Li and Mr. Qi Gong believe that the most important thing about metrical poetry is that there are only four tones:
1, each song is limited to eight sentences, with 40 words in five laws and 56 words in seven laws. Every two sentences of a metrical poem are called couplet, the first two sentences are called couplet, the middle two sentences are called parallel couplet, the last two sentences are called neck couplet, and the last sentence is also called tail couplet.
2. Only rhyming can make it even.
3. The level of each sentence has strict regulations, including the level of each sentence.
4. Every article must have antithesis, except the first and second couplets, and the couplets in the middle must be antithetical.