What are poems, words and songs?

Poetry, Ci and Qu are three important literary genres in ancient China literature. Among them, poetry originated the earliest. The Book of Songs in the pre-Qin period is the earliest collection of poems in China. Poetry reflects life and expresses emotions through rhythmic and rhythmic language. Poetry can be divided into classical poetry and modern poetry. Classical poetry refers to the poetry before the appearance of modern poetry in Tang Dynasty. Sentence patterns generally rhyme neatly, but there are no strict rules on the number of words, sentences, rhymes, parallelism and antithesis, which can be regarded as freestyle. Both Chu Ci and Han Yuefu can be regarded as ancient poems. Modern poetry refers to metrical poems formed in the Tang Dynasty, which can be divided into metrical poems, quatrains and lines, and has strict requirements on the number of words, rhyme and antithesis.

Ci appeared in the late Tang Dynasty and early Song Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. It was formed on the basis of inheriting and developing poetry. Like modern poetry, there are strict rules on rhyme, level tone, number of words and sentences. The rise of folk culture in the Song Dynasty prompted Ci to become singing literature, so Ci has a epigraph, and the lyrics should be written according to it. Words are generally divided into three categories according to the number of words: poetry, alto and long sound. There are two schools of Ci in Song Dynasty: the bold school and the graceful school.

Qu is a genre of classical poetry that rose after poetry and prevailed after Yuan Dynasty. Qu is the further development of ci. Qu, which is almost as famous as Ci, is also a kind of singing literature with strict format. The tune is called Qupai, but the rhyme and level tone are looser than words, and the language is colloquial. Yuanqu includes Sanqu and Zaju. Sanqu is a oratorio, including poems and sets; Zaju is a kind of opera that can be performed.