Shi (poetry)
Encyclopedia
Shi is the Chinese
word for "poetry
" or "poem", anciently associated with Chinese poetry
. In modern times, shi can and has been used as an umbrella term to mean poetry in any form or language, whether or not Chinese; but, it may imply or be used to refer certain classical forms of poetry, for example the folk song derived poetry of the Classic of Shi (Shijing, 詩經 / 诗经), the classic reference of shi. The poetry of China has tended to be especially associated in the Europe and America with the written word, the exposure to Europeans and Americans of what to them were and often are the novel implications expressed or latent in Chinese characters and the exquisite beauty displayed by some examples of Chinese calligraphy, including often the writing of poetry (shi). Often, the transmission of these aspects of Chinese was indirectly through Japanese adaptations of Chinese poetry forms, such as kanshi
, or writing, particularly kanji
: one example of this is Ernest Fenollosa
. The unfolding of this historical process has resulted in an undue association in the west of Chinese poetry and written literature, especially the Chinese character. This has not been the case in China. Although historically and culturally, in China literature and literacy has a close association with poetry and the ability to write and to chant poems was for long considered an essential part of being scholar, poetry in China has always had a close association with the spoken, or sung, or chanted word (詩歌/诗歌). Thus while shi can mean poetry, it can also mean song or ode. In fact, the folk poetry of the illiterate masses, often in the form of songs or ballads, have been an abiding influence upon the shi of the literati, who often reworked these poems or adapted their styles, as is the case, for example with the Shijing, the Songs of Chu (Chuci) and the whole Ci genre
. Indeed, shi can be divided into many categories, such as Biblical Psalms
(聖經), Classical Chinese poetry
(中國古典詩歌/中国古典诗歌), knight-errant poetry (詩俠); and so, in short, shi today basically overlaps with the term "poetry".
), and so on.
(詩經 "Classic of Poetry") was the first major collection of Chinese poems, collecting both aristocratic poems (the "Odes") and more rustic poems, probably derived from folksongs (the "Songs"). They are mostly composed of four-character (四言) lines.
A second, more lyrical and romantic anthology was Chu Ci
(楚辭 "Songs of Chu"), made up primarily of poems ascribed to Qu Yuan
and his follower Song Yu
. These poems are composed of lines of irregular lengths. However, note that the word shi does not appear in the title, but rather the character 辭 (ci, equivalent to the character 詞/词, also ci), referring to the ci genre of poetry
.
From the Han Dynasty
onwards, a process similar to the origins of Shi Jing produced the yue fu
(樂府 "Music Bureau") poems. Many of them are composed of lines of five-character (五言) or seven-character (七言) poems. These two forms were to dominate Chinese poetry until the modern era. They are divided into the original gushi (old poems) and jintishi. The latter is a stricter form developed in the early Tang Dynasty with rules governing the structure of a poem. The greatest writers of gushi and jintishi are often held to be Li Bai
and Du Fu
respectively.
(in every second line). The form was therefore favoured for narrative
works and by writers seeking a relaxed or imaginative style; Li Bai is the most prominent of these, but most major poets wrote significant gushi.
developed from the 5th century onwards. By the Tang Dynasty, a series of set tone pattern
s had been developed, which were intended to ensure a balance between the four tones
of Middle Chinese
in each couplet
: the level tone, and the three oblique tones (rising, departing and entering). The Tang Dynasty was the high point of the jintishi. Wang Wei
and Cui Hao
were notable pioneers of the form, while Du Fu
was its most accomplished exponent.
The basic form of jintishi is lüshi (律詩), with eight lines. In addition to the tonal constraints, this form required parallelism between the lines in the second and third couplets. The lines in these couplets had to contain contrasting content, with the characters in each line usually in the same part of speech.
Another form is the jueju
(絕句), or quatrain which followed the tonal pattern of the first four lines of the lüshi. This form does not require parallelism.
The last form is pailü
(排律), which extended lǜshi to unlimited length by repeating the tonal pattern and the required parallelism of the second and third couplets. Parallelism is not required for the first and the last couplets.
All forms of jintishi could be written in five- or seven- character lines. The six character-line form (六言) can be seen occasionally, but is not common. The rules on tones and parallelism are not strictly followed in all cases: when classifying poems as gushi or jintishi, commentators traditionally placed greater emphasis on following the tonal rules than on parallelism.
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
word for "poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
" or "poem", anciently associated with Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Yue Chinese, as well as many other historical and vernacular varieties of the Chinese language...
. In modern times, shi can and has been used as an umbrella term to mean poetry in any form or language, whether or not Chinese; but, it may imply or be used to refer certain classical forms of poetry, for example the folk song derived poetry of the Classic of Shi (Shijing, 詩經 / 诗经), the classic reference of shi. The poetry of China has tended to be especially associated in the Europe and America with the written word, the exposure to Europeans and Americans of what to them were and often are the novel implications expressed or latent in Chinese characters and the exquisite beauty displayed by some examples of Chinese calligraphy, including often the writing of poetry (shi). Often, the transmission of these aspects of Chinese was indirectly through Japanese adaptations of Chinese poetry forms, such as kanshi
Kanshi
Kanshi may refer to:* Kanshi , Chinese poetry written by Japanese* Kanshi, Fujian, a city in China....
, or writing, particularly kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
: one example of this is Ernest Fenollosa
Ernest Fenollosa
Ernest Francisco Fenollosa was an American professor of philosophy and political economy at Tokyo Imperial University...
. The unfolding of this historical process has resulted in an undue association in the west of Chinese poetry and written literature, especially the Chinese character. This has not been the case in China. Although historically and culturally, in China literature and literacy has a close association with poetry and the ability to write and to chant poems was for long considered an essential part of being scholar, poetry in China has always had a close association with the spoken, or sung, or chanted word (詩歌/诗歌). Thus while shi can mean poetry, it can also mean song or ode. In fact, the folk poetry of the illiterate masses, often in the form of songs or ballads, have been an abiding influence upon the shi of the literati, who often reworked these poems or adapted their styles, as is the case, for example with the Shijing, the Songs of Chu (Chuci) and the whole Ci genre
Ci (poetry)
Ci is a kind of lyric Classical Chinese poetry using a poetic meter based upon certain patterns of fixed-rhythm formal types. For speakers of English, the word "ci" is pronounced somewhat like "tsuh"...
. Indeed, shi can be divided into many categories, such as Biblical Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
(聖經), 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...
(中國古典詩歌/中国古典诗歌), knight-errant poetry (詩俠); and so, in short, shi today basically overlaps with the term "poetry".
Historical usages of the term shi
With the above caveat, shi has sometimes been used in a contrasting sense to other Chinese terms, sometimes more or less synonymous, for poetry, for example by Burton Watson, who sees a three part division of Chinese poetic literature, into "three important forms:" shi, fu, and ci. Generally, however, individual poems are not classified as being a shi poem, but rather as "Fields and Gardens" poem and/or "Five-character Four-line "Curtailed" Poems" (juejuJueju
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...
), and so on.
Origins
Shi JingShi Jing
The Classic of Poetry , translated variously as the Book of Songs, the Book of Odes, and often known simply as its original name The Odes, is the earliest existing collection of Chinese poems and songs. It comprises 305 poems and songs, with many range from the 10th to the 7th centuries BC...
(詩經 "Classic of Poetry") was the first major collection of Chinese poems, collecting both aristocratic poems (the "Odes") and more rustic poems, probably derived from folksongs (the "Songs"). They are mostly composed of four-character (四言) lines.
A second, more lyrical and romantic anthology was Chu Ci
Chu Ci
Chu Ci , also known as Songs of the South or Songs of Chu, is an anthology of Chinese verse traditionally attributed to Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the Warring States Period, though about half of the poems seem to have been composed several centuries later, during the Han Dynasty...
(楚辭 "Songs of Chu"), made up primarily of poems ascribed to Qu Yuan
Qu Yuan
Qu Yuan was a Chinese poet who lived during the Warring States Period in ancient China. He is famous for his contributions to the poetry collection known as the Chu-ci...
and his follower Song Yu
Song Yu
Song Yu was a well-known Chinese poet in the State of Chu. He is commonly said to have been a nephew of Qu Yuan, but no reliable biographical information is available...
. These poems are composed of lines of irregular lengths. However, note that the word shi does not appear in the title, but rather the character 辭 (ci, equivalent to the character 詞/词, also ci), referring to the ci genre of poetry
Ci (poetry)
Ci is a kind of lyric Classical Chinese poetry using a poetic meter based upon certain patterns of fixed-rhythm formal types. For speakers of English, the word "ci" is pronounced somewhat like "tsuh"...
.
From the Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
onwards, a process similar to the origins of Shi Jing produced the yue fu
Yue fu
Yue fu are Chinese poems composed in a folk song style. The term literally means "Music Bureau", a reference to the government organisation originally charged with collecting or writing the lyrics....
(樂府 "Music Bureau") poems. Many of them are composed of lines of five-character (五言) or seven-character (七言) poems. These two forms were to dominate Chinese poetry until the modern era. They are divided into the original gushi (old poems) and jintishi. The latter is a stricter form developed in the early Tang Dynasty with rules governing the structure of a poem. The greatest writers of gushi and jintishi are often held to be 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...
and Du Fu
Du Fu
Du Fu was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty.Along with Li Bai , he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations...
respectively.
Some types of shi
Hans H. Frankel categorizes Chinese poetry into nine different forms, but this is different from genre categorization, and ignores modern and vernacular varieties. To distinguish the classical form from the vers libre developed in the 20th century, the former is known as jiushi (舊詩 "old poetry", not to be confused with gushi 古詩) and the latter xinshi (新詩 "new poetry", not to be confused with jintishi 近體詩).Gushi
The term gushi (古詩 "old poetry") can refer either to the first, mostly anonymous shi poems, or more generally to the poems written in the same form by later poets. Gushi in this latter sense are defined essentially by what they are not: i.e., they are not jintishi (regulated verse). The writer of gushi was under no formal constraints other than line length and rhymeRhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...
(in every second line). The form was therefore favoured for narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
works and by writers seeking a relaxed or imaginative style; Li Bai is the most prominent of these, but most major poets wrote significant gushi.
Lüshi and jintishi
Jintishi (近體詩 "modern-form poetry"), or regulated verseConstrained writing
Constrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern.Constraints are very common in poetry, which often requires the writer to use a particular verse form....
developed from the 5th century onwards. By the Tang Dynasty, a series of set tone pattern
Tone pattern
Tone patterns are common constraints in classical Chinese poetry.The four tones of Middle Chinese—level , rising , departing , and entering tones—are categorized into level tones and oblique tones. All level tones are level. All other tones are oblique...
s had been developed, which were intended to ensure a balance between the four tones
Four tones
The four tones of Chinese phonology are four traditional tone-classes of words derived from the four phonemic tones of Middle Chinese. They are even level , rising , going departing , and entering checked .-Names:In Middle Chinese, each of the tone names carries the tone it identifies: 平 even ,...
of Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties...
in each couplet
Couplet
A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic...
: the level tone, and the three oblique tones (rising, departing and entering). The Tang Dynasty was the high point of the jintishi. Wang Wei
Wang Wei
Wang Wei , was a Tang Dynasty Chinese poet, musician, painter, and statesman. He was one of the most famous men of arts and letters of his time. Many of his poems are preserved, and twenty-nine were included in the highly influential 18th century anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems.-Name...
and Cui Hao
Cui Hao (poet)
Cui Hao was a Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty in China.Cui Hao was born in Biànzhōu and passed the imperial examinations in 723. He is known to have traveled extensively as an official, particularly between the years 723-744. He was known for three poetry topic - women, frontier outposts, and...
were notable pioneers of the form, while Du Fu
Du Fu
Du Fu was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty.Along with Li Bai , he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations...
was its most accomplished exponent.
The basic form of jintishi is lüshi (律詩), with eight lines. In addition to the tonal constraints, this form required parallelism between the lines in the second and third couplets. The lines in these couplets had to contain contrasting content, with the characters in each line usually in the same part of speech.
Another form is 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...
(絕句), or quatrain which followed the tonal pattern of the first four lines of the lüshi. This form does not require parallelism.
The last form is pailü
Pailu
Pailu refers to a Classical Chinese verse form of the regulated verse type: the rules and regulations of the pailu allow for a poem composed of a series of linked couplets, with no maximum upward limit such as the five, six, or seven character lushi have...
(排律), which extended lǜshi to unlimited length by repeating the tonal pattern and the required parallelism of the second and third couplets. Parallelism is not required for the first and the last couplets.
All forms of jintishi could be written in five- or seven- character lines. The six character-line form (六言) can be seen occasionally, but is not common. The rules on tones and parallelism are not strictly followed in all cases: when classifying poems as gushi or jintishi, commentators traditionally placed greater emphasis on following the tonal rules than on parallelism.
See also
- Chinese literature, Classical poetry section
- Chinese poetryChinese poetryChinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Yue Chinese, as well as many other historical and vernacular varieties of the Chinese language...
- Ci (poetry)Ci (poetry)Ci is a kind of lyric Classical Chinese poetry using a poetic meter based upon certain patterns of fixed-rhythm formal types. For speakers of English, the word "ci" is pronounced somewhat like "tsuh"...
- Classical Chinese poetryClassical Chinese poetrythumb|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 formsClassical Chinese poetry formsthumb|right|350px|Poet on a Mountaintop by [[Shen Zhou]], about 1500 CE .Classical Chinese poetry forms are those poetry forms, or modes, which typify the traditional Chinese poems written in Literary or Classical Chinese...
- Classical Chinese poetry genresClassical Chinese poetry genresthumb|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...
- Fu (poetry)Fu (poetry)Fu is a kind of rhymed prose, or poetry style essay, popular in ancient China, especially during the Han Dynasty. The term fu is often used in a multiway contrast with the more purely poetic shi style, with the fixed-rhythm forms of poetry , and with various more explicitly prosaic forms of...
- Japanese poetryJapanese poetryJapanese poets first encountered Chinese poetry during the Tang Dynasty. It took them several hundred years to digest the foreign impact, make it a part of their culture and merge it with their literary tradition in their mother tongue, and begin to develop the diversity of their native poetry. For...
- JuejuJuejuJueju is a style of jintishi, or "Modern form poetry", that grew popular among Chinese poets in the Tang Dynasty , although traceable to earlier origins...
- Korean poetryKorean poetryKorean poetry is poetry performed or written in the Korean language or by Korean people. Traditional Korean poetry is often sung in performance. Until the 20th century, much of Korean poetry was written in Hanja and later Hangul.- History :...
- List of Chinese language poets
- Qu (poetry)Qu (poetry)In Chinese literature, qu , or yuanqu consists of sanqu and zaju . Together with the various shi and fu forms of poetry, the ci, qu, and the other fixed-rhythm type of verse comprise the three main forms of Classical Chinese poetry.Yuanqu is a form of Chinese opera, which became popular in Yuan...
- Rime tableRime tableA rime table or rhyme table is a syllable chart of the Chinese language, a significant advance on the fǎnqiè analysis used in earlier rime dictionaries...
- Rime dictionaryRime dictionarythumb|upright=1.0|A page from Shiyun Hebi , a rime dictionary of the [[Qing Dynasty]]A rime dictionary, rhyme dictionary, or rime book is an ancient type of Chinese dictionary used for writing poetry or other genres requiring rhymes. A rime dictionary focuses on pronunciation and collates...
- Tang poetryTang poetryTang poetry refers to poetry written in or around the time of and in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, and/or follows a certain style, often considered as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry...
- Tone patternTone patternTone patterns are common constraints in classical Chinese poetry.The four tones of Middle Chinese—level , rising , departing , and entering tones—are categorized into level tones and oblique tones. All level tones are level. All other tones are oblique...
- Vietnamese poetryVietnamese poetryVietnamese poetry originated in the form of folk poetry and proverbs. Vietnamese poetic structures include six-eight, couplet of seven sextuplet of eight, and various styles shared with Classical Chinese poetry forms, such as are found in Tang poetry; examples include verse forms with "seven words ...
External links
- Chinese Poems, a collection of Chinese poems in the original Chinese, pinyinPinyinPinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
and English translations - Understand the basic forms of jintishi (regulated verse)