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Chinese Poetry

Worksheet taken from

Form – the Shih

The oldest collection of Chinese poetry is The Book of Songs – or the Shih Ching.  The word shih refers to the poetic form in which the poetry was written.  The shih form was dominant from the second through the twelfth centuries A.D. The shih form is divided into two divisions – the “old style” ku-shih shih poetry and the “new style” chin-t’i-shih poetry.  The old style shih was very flexible in form. A sample of the rules regarding the the “old style” form of shih are as follows:

            1 – each poem must have an even number of lines

            2 – each line has the same number of words, usually 5 or 7

            3 – rhymes occur at the end of the even-numbered lines

4 - parallelism in some couplets often occurred but was not mandatory

5 – lines tend to be end-stopped (seldom do they run over into the next line)

 

The new style of shih was very rigid.  A sampling of the rules is as follows:

1 - poems had to have a certain number of lines  - either 4 lines (called a chueh-chu) or

8 lines (called a lu-shih) in length

2 – poems had to be a certain number of  characters in length (usually 5 or 7)

3 - poems had to be parallel in both structure and meaning in the two middle

couplets of an eight-line shih.

 

To truly understand the shih form, you must understand the Chinese writing system.  In simplified terms, each word is expressed with one written character, and each character is pronounced with a single syllable. This simplifies the concept because a single syllable may stand for a variety of words, such as the symbol for “tree” can also mean “wood”.  So a shih poem with 5 characters to each line would also be 5 syllables when spoken.  Adding in the parallelism and the rhyme schemes, the writing of a rigid shih poem becomes complex.  As you read, remember that the translations will not reflect the true number of characters or syllables per line. Indeed, even the line length can be different in the original language.

 

Persona – In today’s world, it would be incorrect to assume that the speaker of a poem is the author.  However, in much of shih poetry, the poet’s personal feelings, observations, and recollections are the topics.  Be aware, though, that there are always some exceptions, such as Li Po’s “The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter.”

 

Themes – Common themes of Chinese poetry are universal themes for all mankind! They are, however, generally humanistic and commonsensical.  The poetry was generally very descriptive, sometimes seeming to be an objective scene description as opposed to commentary on any event or person.

The natural world and our relationship to it                                    Imperial court life (ruler = heaven)

Famous events and people                                                       Parting from friends and family

Virtue                                                                                       Social and political issues

Romantic love from almost exclusively the woman’s point of view ( very restrained, not sexual)

Work – as in working in the fields                                        Death

 

NOT themes:  celebration of heroic deeds, feats of arms (battle), war and violence  (if war is mentioned, it is primarily in a negative way), and flights of fancy…such as the supernatural and magical

Focus on Wang Wei

Wang Wei was a well-known new style shih poet ( ?699-761) who was known for his poetry and his paintings. Although primarily writing in the “new style,” he also wrote some poems in the “old style.”  He was a devout Buddhist, and he lived and wrote in the same time as Li Po and Tu Fu (from our textbook).

 

The following poem is an example of chueh-chu (quatrain) – a four line poem in shih what uses a 5-ch., 7-ch., or rarely 6 –ch. line – the rhyme appears at the end of the 2nd and 4th line, with an optional rhyme at the end of the 1stline.

 

“The Hill” – a chueh-chu

 

No one can be seen on this silent hill,

But one may hear distant voices.

The rays of the sun filter through the deep foliage

And fall refreshingly on the mosses.

 

“Bamboo Mile Lodge”  -   5- ch. chueh-chu

 

Alone I sit in dark bamboo

Strumming the lute, whistling away;

Deep woods that no one knows,

Where a bright moon comes to shine on me.

 

The following is an 8-line poem – called lu-shih or “regulated verse”

“At My Country Home in Chung-nan”  - a 5-ch regulated verse

 

Middle age – I grow somewhat fond of the Way

my evening  home at the foot of the southern hills.

When moods come I follow them alone,

to no purpose learning fine things for myself,

going till I come to where the river ends,

sitting and watching when clouds rise up.

By chance I meet an old man of the woods;

we talk and laugh – we have no “going-home” time.

 

The following by Wang Wei is an example of “old style” using 5-ch and 6 lines

“Seeing Someone Off”

 

We dismount; I give you wine

and ask , where are you off to?

You answer, nothing goes right! –

back home to lie down by Southern Mountain.

Go then – I’ll ask no more –

there’s no end to white clouds there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other poetic forms:

 

The fu

Rhyme-prose form from 2nd century B.C.

            Lines of varying lengths, arranged in blocks of lines of a uniform length that alternate

with one another –often an 4-ch line and 6-ch line alternating

            Usually begins with an introduction in prose and contains prose interludes, concluding

 with a reprise in verse

            End rhyme is used throughout

            Alliteration and Assonance are extensively used

            Early topics:  court life, splendors of the capital cities, imperial hunts and

 entertainment

 

 

The tz’u

Lyric meter from as early as 8th century A.D. and gaining popularity in the 9th century

            Composed for music

            Topics were usually romantic lovers or other folk song themes

            Lines of  varying length – with length being dictated by tune

 

“Bamboo Branch Song” by Liu Yu-Hsu  (772-842)

Red blossoms of mountain peach crowd the uplands

spring waters of Shu river buffet the mountains as they flow

Crimson blossoms so quickly fading, like my lover’s ardor;

flowing waters so endless, like the sorrow I feel.

 

 

 

Sources: 

“Chinese Literature:  1000 B.C. – A.D. 1890”  Prentice Hall Literature:  World Masterpieces. 

 Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:  Prentice Hall, 1991. 193 – 249.

Watson, Burton, translator and editor.  The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry:  From Early

 Times to the Thirteenth Century.  New York:  Columbia U P,  1984.

 

 

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The Chinese Use of Color

 

            Chinese painter Victoria Yau researched the use of color in Chinese society.. Since color is a major component in sensory perception, it affects us both visually and emotionally. She found that many of the color usages in China are dictated by landscape. One point that she made was that some of the natural colors of China were very different from the natural colors of Europe: “The Northern area of China is usually cast with a brownish tone, a result of the yellow dust blown from the Yellow Plateaux.  This contrasts greatly with the greenness of the western landscape, which appears in a majority of areas. The trees in China are twigs when compared with California’s giant redwoods, even when they are the same age… resulting in pale-coloured, traditional, delicate landscape paintings”.  Color was also used politically to distinguish rank, title, and status.   The imperial court of the Ch’in dynasty used color as follows:

 

            Emperor – Yellow -  implying the brightest sunlight and greatest power

The emperor would wear blue when he worshipped heaven and yellow when he worshipped Earth.

Crown Prince – Orange– the sun’s glow – the second most powerful

Other Princes - Brown

                        1st degree to 8th degree Nobles -  Blue

                        1st degree to 9th degree officials of the court - Black

           

Royalty was represented by red, purple, and royal blue.  These colors were forbidden to the merchant class.  The colour of the costume accompanied the title.   Black was also used for elders in a household, to reflect the strong, distinctive, and sever side of colours and symbolize power.

 

Social Customs regarding Colour

            Red was a very popular colour with few restrictions.  It was a celebratory colour, often used on special occasions: “when opening a store, starting a business, completing buildings, or even at a wedding, red firecrackers were exploded from the roof beams.”   Red represented fire and yellow symbolized gold. This made the combination of colors very popular – together they were thought to convey good luck.  Red also symbolized the positive essence (Yang) and Heaven, while yellow symbolized the negative essence (Yin) and Earth.  The two colours were seen as complimentary colours.  On her wedding day, a bride would be dressed in red, symbolizing fertility.  White was reserved for funeral parties, while spectators would wear black. This enabled the funeral party to be easily distinguished from the rest of the group.  In theater, the hero’s face was painted red, the face of the boor or peasant was painted black, and the villain’s face was painted white, probably to symbolize deceit.  However, in opera, the heroine’s face is painted white to represent a porcelain completion and purity of character/exceptional beauty

            Other color interpretations:

           

                        Red – royalty

                        Purple – divine qualities similar to red but to a lesser degree

                        Black – a good but rather straightforward, rude character

                        Blue – forcefulness and craftiness, a snob

                        Yellow – all the qualities of blue but to a lesser degree

                        Green – an unstable, unreliable character

                        Melon Orange – old age or infirmity

                        Pale gray – physical or mental weakness

                       

Sources for this handout:

Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, eds.  The Regional Studies Series:  China.  New York:  Globe,

           1987.

Spirit of the Far East:  The Art of Asia 2000 Calendar.  Huntington Beach, CA:  Avalanche Publishing,

           1999.

Yau, Victoria.  “Use of Colour in China.”  The British Journal of Aesthetics  April 1994:  151(12).  Online.

           Infotrac.  25 February 2002. 

 

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