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Poetry on history refers to poems written to convey a poet’s sentiments by reflecting on historical events or historical figures. A poem on history touched on historical events and expressed the poet’s historical insight as well as his emotional attachment to history. Such poems recounted, relived, revived, interpreted, or chanted about history. Some poets used historical figures or events as titles for such poems.
Shi (诗) is a major genre of ancient Chinese literature, the earliest literary form that emerged in China. Observing the requirements of a certain rhythm, rules of rhyming, number of characters, and type of verses, and using concise language and rich imagination, it reflects social life and conveys thoughts and emotions. Shi and wen (文) are two principal forms of ancient Chinese literature. Shi, as referred to by the ancient Chinese, consists of the older type of poetry and the latter type of poetry. It generally does not include ci (词 lyric) and qu (曲 melody), which appeared as literary genres after the Tang Dynasty. The older type of shi is also called gufeng (古风), meaning ancient style, which is a general appellation for all kinds of poetic forms produced prior to the latter type of shi, except the style employed in the odes of Chu. With relatively few restrictions in rules and forms, shi is not constrained by any antithetical arrangement or a fixed tone pattern, and its rhyme is fairly free. In addition, the length of a piece is not limited. A verse may have four, six, seven, or a mixed number of Chinese characters. The latter type of shi is also called gelüshi (格律诗), meaning poetry with fixed patterns. Its number of characters, rhyming, tone pattern, and antithetical arrangement are all strictly fixed. A poem of this type may contain four lines (known as jue 绝), each with five or seven characters, or eight lines (known as lü 律), each with five or seven characters. Occasionally, it is much longer than normal, expanding to one and a half dozen lines, which is referred to as pailü (排律). The difference between shi, and ci and qu is that the former is not set to music, while the latter may be set to music and sung. Shi has existed as a literary form for more than 2, 000 years in China. Ancient Chinese used shi to connect humans with nature, voice aspirations, and give expression to emotions. It embodied the spirit and aesthetic pursuits of literature and art in ancient China, which is very different from the West, which only sees poetry as a category of literature. In ancient China, Confucian thought played an important guiding role in poetic creation, while Daoist and Buddhist thoughts had a profound influence on the theory of poetry’s artistic conception. Since The Book of Songs was China’s earliest collection of poems, later generations also used shi to refer to The Book of Songs in particular.
This term refers to poetry that reflects social realities and major events of a historical period, thus possessing historical value. Some of the poems in The Book of Songs were about the realities of its time, which prompted Confucius（551-479 BC） to exclaim that “The Book of Songs enables one to understand society.” This means that he viewed The Book of Songs as using poetry to reflect history. Han dynasty scholars stressed the importance of poetry as a means of recording history. Subsequently, Chinese scholars of poetry believed that poetry should reflect reality through aesthetic means so as to provide aesthetic enjoyment, understanding as well as education. The poems of Tang poet Du Fu（712-770） are called “historical poetry” because they reflected what the country went through during the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion and the author’s acute sense of sadness about the misery the country and its people suffered in times of national crisis.
This term refers to a poetic style that chiefly explicated Laozi, Zhuangzi (369?-286 BC), Buddhism, and The Book of Changes. Metaphysical poetry emerged at the end of the Western Jin Dynasty and flourished during the subsequent Eastern Jin Dynasty. Represented by Sun Chuo (314-371), Xu Xun (314-361), Yu Liang (289-340), and Huan Wen (312-373), this genre featured the expounding of abstruse and metaphysical thinking in poetry. During the turbulent years of the Wei and Jin dynasties, scholars stayed away from politics and focused on the study of Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Buddhism to explore abstruse and philosophical ideas unrelated to current social developments. By the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, this rarefied discourse found its way into writing, creating the metaphysical style of poetry, which later merged with landscape poetry.
Recluse poetry refers to poems written by literary figures who retreated to the remote mountains or countryside and expressed their sentiments through depicting this kind of life. Some Chinese scholars in the old days, having disdain for taking official position or were dissatisfied with political reality of the day, chose to live in seclusion in mountains and forests or in the countryside. They expressed their pursuit of a state of mind that transcended the worldly through depicting images of mountains, rivers, and other natural scenes. Tao Yuanming (365 or 372 or 376-427) is regarded as the forerunner of this genre. Inspired by his recluse lifestyle, many learned men in the post-Tang and Song period also sought solace and peace of mind in the mountains and countryside, thus giving rise to recluse poetry.
Landscape poetry, as the name suggests, describes the beauty and charm of natural scenery, and landscape poets express their emotions through extolling the enchanting scenery. Landscape poetry is characterized by vivid description of sights with rich and refreshing language. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, scholars who had fled war-torn homes in the north sought solace and escape in nature in the south, and this found expression in poetic description of mountain and river scenes. Xie Lingyun (385-433), a great poet of the late Eastern Jin and early Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties, created this poetic style. He introduced the depiction of natural beauty into poetry writing, freeing poetry from bland and insipid moral preaching. Further developed by Xie Tiao (464-499), He Xun (?-518?), Yin Keng, and others, landscape poetry became an important literary school. It gained prominence in the Tang Dynasty, especially in the prime of Tang, during which such landscape poets like Wang Wei (701?-761) and Meng Haoran (689-740) distinguished themselves. Mid-Tang poets including Liu Changqing (?-789?), Wei Yingwu (737?-791), and Liu Zongyuan (773-819) also became famous for writing landscape poems. This gave rise to a new form of expression in poetry and a new trend of aesthetic appreciation.
Poems of this kind depicted frontier scenery as well as fighting along the northern border area and the life of soldiers garrisoned there. These poems described the scenic splendor north of the Great Wall, fierce war scenes, or hardships endured by frontier guards. Some of the works were about soldiers’ agony caused by long separation from families and about their homesickness, but many such poems also extolled their patriotism. Some of the works voiced the longing for reunion of women left at home when husbands and sons went to the frontier. Frontier poems showed the poets’ attitude towards and reflections on war, highlighting the tension between valuing individual lives and the need to respond to call to duty. The most compelling frontier poems were written in the Tang Dynasty. Frontier poems of later generations could not rival the powerful expression of Tang frontier poems.
A genre created by Tao Yuanming (365 or 372 or 376-427) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, idyllic poetry depicts rural life and scenery. Taking country life as his favored theme, Tao Yuanming used plain language to portray rural scenes. His poems were unpretentious, refreshing, and natural, thus creating a far-reaching aesthetic conception and a lasting charm. Idyllic poetry represented a new stage in classical Chinese poetry and shaped poetic development in the Six Dynasties period and beyond.
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