Jueju

Jueju (traditional Chinese: 絕句; simplified Chinese: 绝句; pinyin: Juéjù; Wade-Giles: Chüeh²chü⁴) is a style of jintishi, or "Modern form poetry", that grew popular among Chinese poets in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), although traceable to earlier origins. Jueju poems are always quatrains, or, more specifically, a matched pair of couplets, with each line consisting of five or seven syllables each.^[1]

The five-syllable-long form is called wujue (Chinese: 五絕; pinyin: Wŭjué) and the seven-syllable-long form qijue (Chinese: 七絕; pinyin: Qījué).^[2]

History

The origins of the jueju style are uncertain. The wujue form may have developed from the pentasyllabic yuefu song form, dominant in the Six Dynasties period, as it carried over into shi composition. The result is a hybrid of yuefu quatrain and shi quatrain.^[3] Indeed, many Tang dynasty wujue poems were inspired by these yuefu songs.^[2]

The jueju style was very popular during the Tang dynasty. Many authors composing jueju poems at the time followed the concept of "seeing the big within the small" (Chinese: 小中見大; pinyin: Xiăozhōng jiàndà), and thus wrote on topics of a grand scale; philosophy, religion, emotions, history, vast landscapes and more.^[2]

Authors known to have composed jueju poems include Du Fu,^[4] Du Mu,^[5] Li Bai,^[6] Li Shangyin,^[7] Wang Changling^[8] and Wang Wei.^[9]

Form

Traditional literary critics considered the jueju style to be the most difficult form of jintishi. Limited to exactly 20 or 28 characters,^[10] writing a jueju requires the author to make full use of each character to create a successful poem. This proved to encourage authors to use symbolic language to a high degree.^[2]

Furthermore, tonal meter in jueju, as with other forms of Chinese poetry, is a complex process. It can be compared to the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in sonnets. A poet writing a jueju or similar lüshi-style poem needs to alternate level and oblique tones both between and within lines.^[11]

Example

This poem is called "Spring Lament" (Chinese: 春怨; pinyin: Chūn yuàn) and was written by Jin Changxu (Chinese: 金昌緒; pinyin: Jīn Chāngxù).^[12]

Traditional Chinese	Simplified Chinese	English translation
春怨 打起黃鶯兒 莫教枝上啼 啼時驚妾夢 不得到遼西	春怨 打起黄莺儿 莫教枝上啼 啼时惊妾梦 不得到辽西	"Spring Lament" Hit the yellow oriole Don't let it sing on the branches When it sings, it breaks into my dreams And keeps me from Liaoxi!

See also

• Classical Chinese poetry
• Shi (poetry)
• Ci (poetry)
• Fu (poetry)
• Qu (poetry)
• Shichigon-zekku
• Three Hundred Tang Poems

Notes

1. ^ Tian (in Cai 2007), p. 143
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Egan (in Cai 2007), pp. 199-201
3. ^ Egan 1993, p. 124
4. ^ Egan (in Cai 2007), pp. 216-217
5. ^ Egan (in Cai 2007), pp. 217-219
6. ^ Egan (in Cai 2007), pp. 210-212, 216
7. ^ Egan (in Cai 2007), p. 219
8. ^ Egan (in Cai 2007), pp. 213-215
9. ^ Egan (in Cai 2007), pp. 205-209
10. ^ Egan 1993, p. 84
11. ^ Cai (in Cai 2007), pp. 169-172
12. ^ Egan (in Cai 2007), p. 204

References

• Cai, Zong-qi (2007-12-14). "Recent-Style Shi Poetry: Pentasyllabic Regulated-Verse". In Zong-qi Cai. How to Read Chinese Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 161–180. ISBN 0231139411. 
• Egan, Charles (1993). "A Critical Study of the Origins of Chüeh-chü Poetry". Asia Major. 3rd ser. 6 (pt. 1): 83–125. http://www.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/~asiamajor/pdf/1993a/83.pdf 
• Egan, Charles (2007-12-14). "Recent-Style Shi Poetry". In Zong-qi Cai. How to Read Chinese Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 199–225. ISBN 0231139411. 
• Tian, Xiaofei (2007-12-14). "Pentasyllabic Shi Poetry: New Topics". In Zong-qi Cai. How to Read Chinese Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 141–157. ISBN 0231139411. 

External links

• "The Whole Collection of Tang Poetry"