The first step in learning ancient poetry is to master the level.
Don’t believe the lazy excuse that “the meter of flat and oblique is the shackles of poetry creation”. The oblique and oblique rhythm is the pronunciation system of Chinese characters, which we use in our daily speech. Rhythm is a set of standards for modern poetry. You may not learn it, or you may learn it but not use it. But if you don’t know rhythm or modern poetry, you will automatically give up the appreciation of the most high-end literary genres in the Chinese poetry cultural tradition, and automatically give up the creative source of the vast number of modern poetry poets in the past thousand years. Those who master modern poetry look down on the world from the top of the mountain, while those who don't understand meter linger at the bottom of the mountain and ridicule the people on the top of the mountain for not being free.
You think what you have lost is just shackles, just a word game, but you don’t know that there is no entry at all.
Archaic poetry does not pay attention to rhythm or rhythm, but roughly rhymes, which is equivalent to the classical Chinese version of modern poetry. However, the deepest thing in ancient poetry is the simplicity and clumsiness of the time. We cannot restore that kind of ancient meaning today, even if we use a large number of ancient words to pile them up, because of the irreversibility of time and space, the refinement of social culture, today's so-called ancient style strips away those dazzling ancient words, and the core is just some virtual It’s just the setting for a flashy, self-righteous costume TV series.
But it’s difficult to be mediocre, as many friends will say. In fact, it is not difficult at all, but in this era when modern poetry is no longer popular, no one is willing to spend time studying it. The oblique meter is far simpler than English and Mathematical Olympiads. It's just that in an era where pragmatism is paramount, saying it is difficult is easier than saying you are lazy. It’s all about the phonetic system of Chinese characters. We all talk about it today and abide by it unconsciously. How difficult can it be?
How can I learn to write ancient poetry?
Rhythm
Regarding the study of Ping and Ze and the derivation of Ping and Cli meter in modern poetry, there are many previous articles that have detailed explanations, including introductions to quatrains, rhymed poems, and rhythm. If you are interested, take it seriously. Take a look, you can basically get started. Not much to say here.
The second step is to read a lot to improve your appreciation of ancient poetry.
Good appreciation is a combination of skill and artistic conception. Appreciation ability comes from a lot of reading and from understanding the development and changes of ancient poetry. You know "Book of Songs" and "Chu Ci", but do you know Bailiang style, Yongming style, Qiliang style, Late Tang style, Xikun style, and Siling style of poetry? Why do these schools of poetry produce no good poems? Because these poems are related to the social atmosphere at that time, they are all decadent and coquettish works that emerged when a dynasty was in decline. Although the words are gorgeous and the allusions are difficult, they do not have the spirit of the times that is high-spirited and positive, nor do they have the effect of Documenting the role of social development and change.
"Articles are written according to the time", and the same is true for poetry. When you have a correct understanding of the development history of poetry, you will fundamentally understand the rise and fall and evolution of ancient poetry, figure out which poet from which era you can learn from in your writing style, and find your own position.
Another way to improve your appreciation is to improve your ancient poetry writing skills. That is to say, the knowledge of level, rhyme, and antitheses mentioned earlier, as well as the study and improvement of all aspects of rhyme changes in ancient poetry, coordination of writing, and ingenious conception. Only when you master these techniques and methods can you suddenly realize when reading ancient poems that they are so exquisitely written.