Splendid Five-character Poems
4 min readThe five-character poems are the dominant form of ancient Chinese poetry and serve as the connecting link of the four-character and seven-character poems. Thefive-character poems actually began to sprout when the four-character poems were prevalent. In Book of Odes, many such poems had already been collected. However, they are not the five-character poems in the genuine sense, but they already possess the characteristics of five-character poems. The Chang Lang Ge is an important symbol in the growth of the five-character poems.
The use of rhymes, the form of creation, the designs of sentences are very close to the real five-character poems. When the wheel of history entered the early years of the Western Han, the five-word poems were already very popular and influential.
The standard rhyme pattern-one rhyme every one line appeared, though still immature but almost done in the form. The five-character poems was so prevalent in theEastern Han that great progress was achieved in the quantity, quality, length, content, ideological content and artistry. Many five-character poems were collectedby Yue Fu. Such poems as Mo Shang Sang and Peacocks Flying Southeast represent the highest level of poetry of that time.
These five-character poems tell new stories, display rich language and adroituse of skills. Poets of that time showed great interest in their creation andfollowed each others’ examples which greatly promoted the prosperity of five-character poems. The last years of the Eastern Han dynasty were the prime time for five-character poems and the expressive techniques were becaming perfect, signifying the end of the preliminary stage to the mature one. Among the famous poets the most representative are Qin Jia, Cai Yong, Li Yan and Xin Yannian. The most mature and typical works are The Nineteen Ancient Poems.
The Nineteen Ancient Poems got its name for the number of poems collected firstly by Xiao Tong in his Anthology. The names of the authors are no where to verify but one thing is for sure that there should be more than one poet and all of them came from middle and lower class but all had better education, These writer inherited the traditional techniques in Book of Odes and the odes of Chu, the essence of the Yue Fu folksongs and are very good at using the techniques of bi and xing, which endow deep emotions in short sentences. They created a unique artistic style and achieved great success in artistic creation.
However, The Nineteen Ancient Poems doesn’t cover a wide range of subjects with the majority of them depicting the homesickness of travelers and the sentiments oflonely wives. Only a few describe the sorrow and depression of frustrated people in a gloomy, stressful and woeful tone.The artistic characteristic can be generalized into the following four aspects.
Firstly, The Nineteen Ancient Poems are highly expressive of emotions. The authors paid special attention to the integration of meaning and forms, linking the subjective emotions and wills with specific time and space. The scenes and the feeling are combined in a perfect way. That is one of the most important reasons why The Nineteen Ancient Poems greatly touches our hearts.
Secondly, the language of The Nineteen Ancient Poems is very concise with skill use of reiterative locution and delicate music rhythms. The authors resorted not the difficult language but a simplistic diction to express their ideas in a very concise way. Besides, the authors also showed their deep emotions with a sense of critical thinking. Many sayings and mottos have been passed on to today. Thus, the poems realize very well the unity of explicitness and implications, which have satisfied the readers’ eyes and mind. In rules and forms, The Nineteen Ancient Poems has also made huge progresses by displaying an abundance of beautiful rhythms and tones.
Thirdly, the wide use of bi and xing exhibited a lingering charm. Among all the lines, we can see obviously the fascination of folksongs, not only in the naturalness and simplicity of language, or the repeated singing and convolution, but also in the introduction of figure of speech and puns. Besides, the use of references, the setting up of special environment, and the diction of even sentences and the use of reiterative locution all demonstrate super formal skills and rich language arts and strengthen the vividness and infectious power of the poems.
At a time when the morals and ethics and the meanings of life were subjective to the definition in the Study of Confucian Classics, the emergence of The Nineteen Ancient Poems brought the people a fresh impact. Not a trace of script study couldbe found in the poems. The subjects, no matter whether they were about the fame, the company of loving couples, or the romance of man and woman, or the “eat, drink and be merry”, were all contradictory to the doctrines of Confucian Classics. The poems are a frank expression of human desires, and a deeper exploration in the meanings of life. In nature, the poems represent the self-consciousness and awakening of human being and the sprouting of new outlooks on the world, life and values. This is where the significance of The Nineteen Ancient Poems lie in that age and is also an important reason they differ from the works of later generations which put enjoyment above everything else.
