Seven-character verse is a genre of China's traditional poetry, which belongs to the category of modern poetry. It originated from a new poem focusing on rhythm and antithesis in Qi Yongming's period of the Southern Dynasties, and was further shaped in Shen and Song Dynasties in the early Tang Dynasty, and matured in Du Fu's hands in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Its meter is rigorous, 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 * * * 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.
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.
Amin Hu Yinglin summed up the development of seven-character poems in the Tang Dynasty in Biography of Poems: "Seven-character poems in the Tang Dynasty originated from Du and Shenyang. 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 Fu is deep and mighty, transcending the vertical and horizontal, and changing. "