1. Poetry can be divided into two genres: ancient poetry and modern poetry. Modern poetry originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and flourished in the Tang Dynasty. But poets in the Tang Dynasty also wrote ancient poems.
Ancient poems can be divided into four-character poems (such as The Book of Songs and Cao Cao's short songs), five-character poems (such as Nineteen Ancient Poems and Peacock Flying Southeast), seven-character poems (such as Cao Pi's Yan Ge Xing) and miscellaneous poems (such as Shang Yang in Han Yuefu folk songs).
Of course, it can also be divided into historical stages and poetic characteristics, such as Chu ci style, folk song style, literati five-character poems and so on. Classical poetry is characterized by flexible length, informal words, no fixed rhyme rules, and no conscious requirements for leveling.
Modern poetry is originally relative to ancient poetry. In terms of the number of clauses, modern poetry can be divided into metrical poems (quadruple eight sentences) and quatrains (quadruple four sentences). Rhyme can be divided into seven laws, five laws and excluded laws (also called long laws); Quatrains can be divided into seven quatrains and five quatrains Both metrical poems and quatrains pursue the harmony of sound and rhyme, and strictly stipulate leveling, rhyming and antithesis. For example, in terms of leveling, it can be divided into "flat and flat" and "flat and flat", which is very complicated.
2. Ci is a poetic genre that rose in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. The biggest difference from poetry is that words can be sung by music, so words are also called "tune words". Another difference from metrical poetry is that the number of words is uneven, so words are also called "long and short sentences", which is similar to metrical poetry, and it is also strict in leveling and rhyming.
There are also genre differences between words. This difference is actually the difference of music tunes. Every word has a epigraph, and it can be said that different epigraphs have different genres. The number of words and sentences written on the same epigraph is the same. So writing lyrics is also called lyrics.
Songs and words have many similarities. The most important similarity is that the score can sing. Songs come out later than words. It reached prosperity in the Yuan Dynasty. Yuanqu can be divided into divertimento and Sanqu. The so-called divertimento refers to a group of poems composed of a group of different tunes; Sanqu is of course a qupai tune. On the one hand, it is a qupai or epigraph to distinguish words from songs; On the other hand, the content of songs is more vulgar than words. In other words, there are many colloquial phenomena. Of course, there are also very quaint Yuanqu.