Tone patterns () are common constraints in classical
Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language. While this last term comprises Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Yue Chinese, and other historical and vernacular forms of the language, its poetry ...
.
The
four tones
This article summarizes the phonology (the sound system, or in more general terms, the pronunciation) of Standard Chinese (Standard Mandarin).
Standard Chinese phonology is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. Actual production varies wid ...
of
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
—''level'' (平), ''rising'' (上), ''departing'' (去), and ''entering'' (入) tones—are categorized into level (平) tones and oblique (仄) tones. Tones that are not ''level'' are ''oblique''. When tone patterns are used in poetry, the pattern in which level and oblique tones occur in one line is often the inverse of that of the line next to it. For example, in the poem 春望 (
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
: chūn wàng, ''Spring View'') by
Du Fu, the tone pattern of the first line is 仄仄平平仄, while that of the second line is 平平仄仄平:
In poetry
In
Classical Chinese poetry
Classical Chinese poetry is traditional Chinese poetry written in Classical Chinese and typified by certain traditional forms, or modes; traditional genres; and connections with particular historical periods, such as the poetry of the Tang dy ...
, the presence or absence of formal tonal constraints regarding tone pattern varies according to the poetic form of a specific poem. Sometimes the rules governing the permissible tone patterns for a poem were quite strict, yet still allowed for a certain amount of liberty and variation, as in the case of
regulated verse Regulated verse – also known as Jintishi () – is a development within Classical Chinese poetry of the ''shi (poetry), shi'' main formal type. Regulated verse is one of the most important of all Classical Chinese poetry types. Although often rega ...
. In the fixed-tone pattern type of verse, poems were written according to preexisting models known as "tunes". This was the case with the
ci and the
qu: an individual poem was written so that its tone pattern (and line lengths) were the same as one of the model types, the poetic variation was in the change in the particular wording of the lyrics.
See also
General
*
Tone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...
*
Four tones of Middle Chinese
Tone pattern in poetry
*
Chinese Sanqu poetry
*
Ci (poetry)
CI or Ci may refer to:
Business terminology
* Customer intelligence, a discipline in marketing
* Competitive intelligence
* Corporate identity
* Continual improvement
* Confidential information
Businesses and organisations Academia and educatio ...
*
Qu (poetry)
*
Regulated verse Regulated verse – also known as Jintishi () – is a development within Classical Chinese poetry of the ''shi (poetry), shi'' main formal type. Regulated verse is one of the most important of all Classical Chinese poetry types. Although often rega ...
Chinese poetry
Chinese language
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