Seven-character poetry is a genre of China's traditional poetry, which belongs to the category of modern poetry. Shen Yue's new-style poems originated from Qi Yongming in the Southern Dynasties, paying attention to rhythm and duality. They were further developed and stereotyped by Shen Quanqi and Song in the early Tang Dynasty and matured by Du Fu in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Seven-character verse is strict, which requires the unity of words in the poem. It consists of eight sentences, and each sentence has seven words. Every two sentences are a couplet, and * * * is a quadruple, which is divided into first couplet, parallel couplet, neck couplet and tail couplet. The two couplets in the middle demand antithesis. Representative works include the Yellow Crane Tower in Cui Hao, Du Fu's Ascending, and Li Shangyin's Stabilizing Tower.
Seven-character metrical poetry refers to seven-character and eight-sentence poetry, which conforms to the norms of metrical poetry. Referred to as "Seven Rhymes", it is a kind of metrical poem. Metric poetry belongs to the category of modern poetry, which is named because of its rigorous meter. The rise of seven-character poems is later than that of five-character poems. It originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, sprouted in the new style poems of Qi and Liang Dynasties, and was shaped between the early Tang Dynasty and the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
In the early Tang Dynasty, Shen Quanqi, Song, Du, Li Qiao and others began to write articles. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei, Li Qi, Cen Can and Jia Zhi all made efforts to master the system, while Cui Hao and Li Bai still had mixed, semi-ancient and semi-French works.
Genre evolution
From Du Fu to the Middle Tang Dynasty, the seven-character law system failed to innovate. Seven-character rhythmic poems in the late Tang Dynasty opened up a new situation. Wen, Li Shangyin, Du Mu and other Seven-Rhythm Masters not only trimmed the form of Seven-Rhythm Poems, but also reformed the rhythm of Seven-Rhythm Poems, pushing the art of Seven-Rhythm Poems to a new stage.
Hu Yinglin, an Amin poet, summed up the development of seven-character poems in the Tang Dynasty in Biography of Poems: Du and Shen Quanqi were the sources of seven-character poems in the Tang Dynasty. To Cui Hao, Li Bai's poems have changed since ancient times. Gao, Cen, Wang and Li, their styles are all ready and changed again. Du is deep and mighty, transcending vertical and horizontal, and changeable.