Tang Poetry

The Tang Dynasty is considered by modern Chinese scholars as the golden age of Chinese poetry，during which time poetry reached its peak，surpassing that of all ages before.In this age，poetry had developed well and always been the most important literary and social genre.The writing of poetry became the feature of everyday life in China.Even Tang rulers were all patrons of arts and were often poets themselves.Tang poets are perhaps the best known and most revered of all Chinese literary figures.Furthermore，in 680，composition of poetry was introduced as one of the requirements in the Imperial Examination，which was held to recruit candidates outside of the governing elite for civil service.During this long period of nearly 300 years，more than 50，000 poems were created by more than 2，200 poets who came from all walks of life.These poems were compiled into The Complete Anthology of Tang Poetry by Qing scholars Cao Yin（1658-1712）and Peng Dingqiu（1645-1719）under the order of Emperor Kangxi.Another book worth mention is 300 Tang Poems by Qing scholar Sun Zhu（1711-1778），a collection of Tang poems which are very popular and effective in character development.Sun’s collection became the best seller soon after its publication.The compiler said，”Learning Tang poems three hundred by heart，you can chant poems though you know not the art.”

Tang poetry is characterized by its variety of forms，beauty of imaginations and broadness of themes.In general，Tang poetry is highly stylized and regulated，written in couplets of fixed length，usually with each line five or seven characters long.A poem is basically confined to four couplets based on a series of set tonal patterns using the four tones of the classical Chinese language in each couplet:the level，rising，falling and entering tones.’

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