The Poems of the T'ang Dynasty-- Introduction

The Poems of the T'ang Dynasty Introduction

"The classical poems were usually composed of lines of four characters, or words, with every other line rhymed. Lines were allowed, however, of more or fewer words. Under the reign of the Emperor Wu (140-87B.C.) of the Western Han Dynasty new types of poetry were introduced; and the five-character and seven-character poems became popular and have dominated ever since. The Emperor himself invented the latter: While Li Ling and Su Wu, two of his statesmen-generals, wrote their verses in the former type. The number of characters of each lines was uniform; no irregular line might occur. These two types were afterwards named the "ancient" or "unruled" poems. Nearly all poems before the T'ang Dynasty were in this form. The Emperor Wu introduced also the Po Liang style, which is a seven-character poem with every line rhyming in the last word. Po Liang was the name of a pavilion in the Emperor's garden where, while he banqueted his literary attendants, each wrote one line to complete a long poem. This has been a favorite game among Chinese poets.

The Poems of the T'ang Dynasty

As many a dynasty in Chinese history is marked by some phase of success representing the thought and life of that period, the T'ang Dynasty is commonly recognized as the golden age of poetry. Beginning with the founder of the dynasty, down to the last ruler, almost every one of the emperors was a great lover and patron of poetry, and many were poets themselves. A special tribute should be paid to the Empress Wu Chao or the "Woman Emperor" (684-704), through whose influence poetry became a requisite in examinations for degrees and an important course leading to official promotion. This made every official as well as every scholar a poet. The poems required in the examination, after long years of gradual development, followed a formula, and many regulations were established. Not only must the length of a line be limited to a certain number of the characters, usually five or seven, but also the length of a poem was limited to a certain number of lines, usually four or eight or twelve. The maintenance of rhymes, the parallelism of characters, and the balance of tones were other rules considered essential. This is called the "modern" or "ruled" poetry. In the Ch'ing or Manchu Dynasty the examination poem was standardized as a five-character-line poem of sixteen lines with every other line rhymed. This "eight-rhyme" poem was accompanied by the famous "eight-legged" literature ( a form of literature divided into eight sections ) as a guiding light for entrance into mandarin life.

The above-mentioned rules of poetry applied first only to examination poems. But afterwards they became a common exercise with "modern" or "ruled" poems in general. Chinese poetry since the T'ang Dynasty has followed practically only two forms, the "modern" or "ruled" form and the "ancient" or "unruled" form. A poet usually writes both. The "eight-rhyme" poem, however, was practised for official examinations only.

Extracted from "Three hundred poems of the T'ang Dynasty 618-906"

introduced by Dr. Kiang Kang-hu

T'ang and Five Dynasties: 618-960.

During the T'ang dynasty (618-907), Chinese literature reached its golden age.

Poetry.

In poetry, the greatest glory of the period, all the verse forms of the past were freely adopted and refined, and new forms were crystallized. One new form was perfected early in the dynasty and given the definitive name lü-shih ("regulated verse"). A poem of this kind consists of eight lines of five or seven syllables--each line set down in accordance with strict tonal patterns--calling for parallel structure in the middle, or second and third, couplets.

Of the more than 2,200 T'ang poets whose works--totaling more than 48,900 pieces--have been preserved, only a few can be mentioned. Wang Wei, a musician and the traditional father of monochrome landscape painting, was also a great poet. Influenced by Buddhism, he wrote exquisite meditative verse of man's relation to nature that exemplified his own dictum that poetry should have the beauty of painting and vice versa. Li Po, one of the two major poets of the T'ang dynasty, a lover of detachment and freedom, deliberately avoided the lü-shih and chose the less formal verse forms to sing of friendship or wine. An example is the poem "To Tan-Ch'iu," translated by Arthur Waley.

My friend is lodging high in the Eastern Range,

Dearly loving the beauty of valleys and hills.

At green Spring he lies in the empty woods,

And is still asleep when the sun shines on high.

A pine-tree wind dusts his sleeves and coat;

A pebbly stream cleans his heart and ears.

I envy you, who far from strife and talk

Are high-propped on a pillow of blue cloud.

At the end of the T'ang and during the Five Dynasties, another new verse form developed. Composed normally of lines of irregular length and written as lyrics to musical tunes, this form came to be known as tz'u, in contrast with shih, which includes all the verse forms mentioned above. Since the lines in a tz'u might vary from one to nine or even 11 syllables, they were comparable to the natural rhythm of speech and therefore easily understood when sung.

Li Bo Eighth-century Chinese writer Li Bo is one of the most important poets in Chinese literature. During his prolific career, Li Bo traveled throughout China, earning money by selling his poems to dignitaries and rich citizens. He composed sensuous, musical poetry that celebrates the joys of nature, beauty, love, and wine. This selection, titled The Summit Temple, is recited by an actor.