Song Poetry in China
3 min readIn the Song Dynasty，technology progressed rapidly.
Three major inventions such as the compass，typography and powder were put to use.Of the three，typography invented by Bi Sheng appeared 400 years earlier than that in the Europe.The first chronometer was also invented by Su Song during this period；Shen Kuo’s handbook of Sketchbook ofDream Brook enjoyed a high reputation in technology.All of the inventions，especially the typography，greatly helped develop culture and literature.
In culture，research on the universal order was popular among such scholars like Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan .Religiously Daoism，Buddhism and religions from abroad were all welcomed.Ouyang Xiu compiled the New Book of Tang ，which contributed to the preservation of Tang history.Comprehensive Mirror Providing Material for Government（Zi Zhi Tong Jian ）written by Sima Guang is an impressive chronicle.
In literature，the Song Dynasty saw eminent prose writers including Ouyang Xiu and Sushi .Ci ，a kind of poetry，reached its zenith of development with Yan Shu，Liu Yong ，Zhou Bangyan ，Li Qingzhao and Xin Qiji being the representatives.Operas were also popular during this time.In painting，natural landscapes，flowers and birds were the main objects for painters.The greatest work of all is The Riverside Scene at Qingming by Zhang Zeduan .
Every important age in Chinese literature has its own special forms and styles in response to its new aesthetic and cultural values of the age.A genre does not remain static-it emerges，is developed reaches its peak the falls from favor.Its essential qualities on the conventions followed mainly by individual poets and writers.
The Ci lyric is very different from the Shi type.Today the term“Ci”simply means“word”.While the older Tang Dynasty Shi lyric can be read without minding the underlying melodies-even if there existed some underlying melodies-Ci poetry must be seen as written songs.Most of theCi poems do not even have their own title，but they are named after an original melody.Composers and writers used this melody to write a new poem that could be sung to the original famous melody or tune pattern .This is the reason why we often see the same title for a Ci poem，like Die Lian Hua “Butterflies love blossoms”，Man Ting Fang “Scent fills the hall”，or Yu Meiren “Beauty Yu”.There are more than 800 tune patterns.Ci lyric emerged during the Tang Dynasty in response to the popularity of foreign musical tunes imported from Inner Asia.
Already the outer shape of the Ci lyric is clearly different to the Shi lyric:the verses have different length.
In its development，Ci falls finally into as many as 600 types.Each type bears its own title（the name of the tune）.
But the title too often has nothing to do with the contents and purport of a poem，and its only function is for composers toobserve strictly its peculiar scheme of meter and rhyme.Despite its seeming rigidity，Ci hands itself to the harping of a variety of theme from all departments of life and is best suited to expressing sentiment such as love，sorrow，joy and indignant，carrying a beauty and rhythm of its own.
Generic changes happen not overnight，but during a period of gradual transition.The origins of Ci go back the Southern Dynasties of the 5-th and 6-th centuries.During the Tang Dynasty，“Dunhuang Ci Songs” appeared.
