Chinese poetry sprang up long before written language was devised, and its poetics were formed and developed through people's everyday labor, their songs and dances.

Qu Yuan

The Book of Poetry, which consists 305 poems created between the 11th and 6th centuries BC, is the first anthology of verses in China.

Of the great poets living in the 4th century BC, the most famous was Qu Yuan, born in the Kingdom of Chu (one of the seven states during the Warring States Period from 475-221BC).Qu Yuan and his follower Song Yu established a new style of poetry called chuci (literally poetry of the south), absorbing the romantic attributes of myth and established the romantic style of Chinese literary creation. Qu Yuan's major work was Li Sao (Sorrow After Departure ).

In the wake of The Book of Poetry and chuci rose a new form of poetry popular in the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD) -- the yuefu folksongs (poetic genre of folk songs and ballads in the Han Dynasty). The yuefu folksongs contained more than 100 pieces, which were mostly written in five-character lines, and later became the major form of poetry during the Wei and J in dynasties.

During the Jian-an period at the end of the Han Dynasty, the "Three Caos" (Cao Cao, Cao Pi, and Cao Zhi) and the "Seven Jian'an Masters" (Kong Rong, Chen Lin, Wang Can, Xu Gan, Ruan Yu, Ying Xi, and Liu Zhen) sustained the realism of yuefu folksongs and wrote five-character poems, unleashing an upsurge in scholarly poetry. Their poems spoke to the spirit of the times and invoked an ambience of heroism and sadness, molding a style later referred to as Jian-an.

Among the seven Jian'an masters Wang Can is the most acknowledged, with his "Poem of Seven Sorrows" mirroring the chaos caused by the war at the end of the Han Dynasty.

In the Jin Dynasty (265-420), poetry became more and more formalistic and vacuous; nevertheless, poets like Zuo Si (250-305) still wrote in the Jian-an style. His Thoughts on History (eight pieces) satirizes reality by using episodes from bygone days. However, this kind of poetry was not typical of the time. It was not until the end of the period of the Eastern Jin (317-420) that Tao Yuanming influenced poetry circles by bringing about works closer to reality.

Page:

1

2

3

4

5