Midnight Songs poetry also Tzu-yeh Songs, refers both to a genre of poetry as well as to specifically collected poems under the same name, during the Fourth Century CE. This is of major significance within the Classical Chinese poetry

Classical Chinese poetry

thumb|right|300px|Attributed to [[Han Gan]], Huiyebai , about 750CE .Classical Chinese poetry is that type of poetry that is the traditional Chinese poetry written in Classical Chinese. It is typified by certain traditional forms, or modes, and certain traditional genres...

 tradition, finding such practitioners of the genre as Li Bai

Li Bai

Li Bai , also known in the West by various other transliterations, especially Li Po, was a major Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period. He has been regarded as one of the greatest poets in China's Tang period, which is often called China's "golden age" of poetry. Around a thousand existing...

 (also known as Li Bo or Li Po); as well as importantly influencing world poetry through translations, such as by David Hinton

David Hinton

-Life:He studied Chinese at Cornell University, and in Taiwan. He lives in East Calais, Vermont.-Awards:* 1997 Academy of American Poets Harold Morton Landon Translation Award* fellowship from the Witter Bynner Foundation...

. The Midnight Songs have been much used as inspiration for later poetry.

Poet(s)

Although, traditionally the original set of poems was considered to be an eponymously named woman ("Lady Midnight") living during the Jin Dynasty

Jin Dynasty

Jin Dynasty may refer to:* Jin Dynasty , Chinese dynasty, subdivided into the Western and Eastern Jin periods* Later Jin Dynasty , one of the Five Dynasties during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in China.* Jin Dynasty , a Jurchen kingdom in northern China* Later Jīn Dynasty, or...

, in modern Jiangnan

Jiangnan

Jiangnan or Jiang Nan is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of the Yangtze Delta...

, it is more likely that the Midnight Songs are actually a collection of poems by various poets, or from the folk tradition.

Poems

The poems are arranged into four sections for the four seasons: spring, summer, winter, and autumn. Thematically, they thus represent four views of the seasons. According to one count, there are 117 of the poems in the traditional collection. They are all considered to be in the yuefu form; however, they are also all five-character per line quatrains, similar to the jueju

Jueju

Jueju is a style of jintishi, or "Modern form poetry", that grew popular among Chinese poets in the Tang Dynasty , although traceable to earlier origins...

 form of later popularity.

See also

• Six dynasties poetry
  Six Dynasties poetry
  Six dynasties poetry refers to those types or styles of poetry particularly associated with the Six dynasties era of China . This poetry reflects one of the poetry world's more important flowerings, as well as being a unique period in Classical Chinese poetry' which, over this time period,...
  
  
• Classical Chinese poetry
  Classical Chinese poetry
  thumb|right|300px|Attributed to [[Han Gan]], Huiyebai , about 750CE .Classical Chinese poetry is that type of poetry that is the traditional Chinese poetry written in Classical Chinese. It is typified by certain traditional forms, or modes, and certain traditional genres...
  
  
• Classical Chinese poetry genres
  Classical Chinese poetry genres
  thumb|right|350px|"Reading in Autumn Scenery", Palace Museum, Beijing by [[Shen Zhou]], about 1500 CE .Classical Chinese poetry forms are those genres which typify the traditional Chinese poems written in Classical Chinese...
  
  

External links

• John Thompson Website on an adaptation of one of Li Bai's Midnight Songs poetry style poems to the guqin
  Guqin
  The guqin is the modern name for a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family...
  
  music.