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Qu (poetry)
The ''Qu'' form of poetry is a type of Classical Chinese poetry form, consisting of words written in one of a number of certain, set tone patterns, based upon the tunes of various songs. Thus ''Qu'' poems are lyrics with lines of varying longer and shorter lengths, set according to the certain and specific, fixed patterns of rhyme and tone of conventional musical pieces upon which they are based and after which these matched variations in lyrics (or individual ''Qu'' poems) generally take their name.Yip, 306-308 The fixed-tone type of verse such as the ''Qu'' and the '' ci'' together with the '' shi'' and '' fu'' forms of poetry comprise the three main forms of Classical Chinese poetry. Names and types In Chinese literature, the ''Qu'' () form of poetry from the Yuan Dynasty may be called ''Yuanqu'' (元曲 P: ''Yuánqǔ'', W: ''Yüan-ch'ü''). Qu may be derived from Chinese opera, such as the ''Zaju'' (雜劇), in which case these Qu may be referred to as '' sanqu'' (散曲). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Chinese Poetry Forms
Classical Chinese poetry forms are poetry forms or modes which typify the traditional Chinese poems written in Literary Chinese or Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese poetry has various characteristic forms, some attested to as early as the publication of the ''Classic of Poetry'', dating from a traditionally, and roughly, estimated time of around 10th–7th century BCE. The term "forms" refers to various formal and technical aspects applied to poems: this includes such poetic characteristics as meter (such as, line length and number of lines), rhythm (for example, presence of caesuras, end-stopping, and tone contour), and other considerations such as vocabulary and style. These forms and modes are generally, but not invariably, independent of the Classical Chinese poetry genres. Many or most of these were developed by the time of the Tang dynasty, and the use and development of Classical Chinese poetry and genres actively continued up until the May Fourth Movement, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Sanqu Poetry
''Sanqu'' () is a fixed-rhythm form of Classical Chinese poetry or "literary song".Crump (1990), 125 Specifically ''sanqu'' is a subtype of the '' qu'' formal type of poetry. ''Sanqu'' was a notable Chinese poetic form, possibly beginning in the Jin dynasty (1115–1234), but especially associated with the Yuan (1271–1368), Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties. The tonal patterns modeled on tunes drawn from folk songs or other music. Overview The ''sanqu'' were literary lyrics directly related to the ''zaju'' arias: these were dramatic lyrics written to fixed musical modes or metrical forms and could contain several aria or lyric song segments in one suite. ''Sanqu'', however, could be composed in single discrete sections. It is often said that the ''sanqu'' verses tend to reflect excess energies and resentments of contemporary disenfranchised Chinese literati, due to contemporary Jurchen and Mongol political domination. Often the poetry could be humorous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wai-lim Yip
Wai-lim Yip (; Jyutping: Jip6 Wai4-lim4, pinyin: ''Yè Wéilián''; born June 20, 1937), is a Taiwanese poet, translator, critic, editor, and professor of Chinese and comparative literature at UC San Diego. He received his PhD in comparative literature from Princeton University. He is also a visiting teacher at China's Peking University and Tsinghua University. Life Yip was born in Guangdong province. At the age of 12, he moved to Hong Kong, where he started writing poetry and was active on the poetry scene. He graduated from National Taiwan University (BA, 1959) and went on to National Taiwan Normal University (MA, 1961), where he did a thesis on T.S. Eliot and translated " The Waste Land." In 1963 he went to the United States to attend the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, whose director, Paul Engle, went to Taipei to negotiate permission for Yip's wife Tzu-mei and their daughter to leave Taiwan; he received an MFA in 1964. He then did graduate work at Prin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Song Poetry
Song poetry is poetry typical of the Song dynasty of China, established by the Zhao (surname), Zhao family in China in 960 and lasted until 1279. Many of the best known Classical Chinese poems, popular also in translation, are from the Song dynasty poets, such as Su Shi, Su Shi (Dongpo), Ouyang Xiu, Lu You and Yang Wanli. This was also a time of great achievement in painting and literature, and many artists were accomplished in more than one of these fields while simultaneously holding government positions. Historical background The Song dynasty (960–1279) was the first time that China was unified into one state since the Tang dynasty, the two dynasties were separated from each other by the Tang-Song transition period, known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, a period of disunity. The Song period is divided into two parts. The first was the Northern Song (960–1127) which consisted of the China as reunified by the dynastic founder Emperor Taizu of Song. The second ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melisma
Melisma (, , ; from , plural: ''melismata''), informally known as a vocal run and sometimes interchanged with the term roulade, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as ''melismatic'', as opposed to ''syllabic'', in which each syllable of text is matched to a single note. History General The term ''melisma'' may be used to describe music of any genre, including baroque singing, opera, and later gospel. Within the tradition of religious Jewish music, melisma is still commonly used in the chanting of Torah, readings from the Prophets, and in the body of a service. Melisma is prevalent in many forms of Gregorian chant (see e.g. Jubilus) as well as late-medieval sacred polyphony, notably in works by Guillaume de Machaut, John Dunstaple, and many early Tudor composers represented in the Eton, Caius, and Lambeth choirbooks. Today, melisma is commonly used in Middle Eastern, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretches from Yunnan in the southwest to Xinjiang in the northwest and Heilongjiang in the northeast. Its spread is generally attributed to the greater ease of travel and communication in the North China Plain compared to the more mountainous south, combined with the relatively recent spread of Mandarin to frontier areas. Many varieties of Mandarin, such as Southwestern Mandarin, those of the Southwest (including Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese) and the Lower Yangtze Mandarin, Lower Yangtze, are not mutually intelligible with the Beijing dialect (or are only partially intelligible). Nevertheless, Mandarin as a group is often placed first in lists of languages by number of native speakers (with nearly one billion). Because Mandarin originated in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yuan Poetry
Yuan poetry refers to those types or styles of poetry particularly associated with the era of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), in China. Although the poetic forms of past literature were continued, the Yuan period is particularly known for the development of the poetic aspects included in the complex mix of different art forms which characterize Chinese opera, namely the '' qu'' or fixed-tone pattern type of verses that were delivered by the actors of these shows. Although the language of Yuan poetry is still generally considered to be Classical Chinese, a certain vernacular aspect reflecting linguistic changes can be seen in some of the fixed-rhythm verse forms, such as Yuan ''ci'' and ''qu''. Certain aspects of Yuan poetry can be understood in the context of the social and political changes which took place as part of the process of the Mongol conquest of the Jin and Song Dynasties and their subsequent establishment of the Yuan dynasty. History The history of Yuan poetry involves b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Song
The Song dynasty ( ) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Song frequently came into conflict with the contemporaneous Liao, Western Xia and Jin dynasties in northern China. After retreating to southern China following attacks by the Jin dynasty, the Song was eventually conquered by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The dynasty's history is divided into two periods: during the Northern Song (; 960–1127), the capital was in the northern city of Bianjing (now Kaifeng) and the dynasty controlled most of what is now East China. The Southern Song (; 1127–1279) comprise the period following the loss of control over the northern half of Song territory to the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song wars. At that time, the Song court retreated south o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zaju
''Zaju'' was a form of Chinese opera which provided entertainment through a synthesis of recitations of prose and poetry, dance, singing, and mime, with a certain emphasis on comedy (or, happy endings). Although with diverse and earlier roots, ''zaju'' has particularly been associated with the time of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), and ''zaju'' remains important in terms of the historical study of the theater arts as well as Classical Chinese literature and Classical Chinese poetry, poetry. ''Zaju'' is known to have been performed during the earlier Song dynasty, Song (960–1279) and Jin dynasty (1115–1234), Jin (1115–1234) dynasties. The various particulars of the ''zaju'' multimedia performance were derived from many and diverse sources of musical, dance, poetry, and theater traditions. Characteristics The Yuan ''zaju'' were poetic music dramas comprising four acts, with the "act" (齣, ''chu'') defined as a set of songs following and completing a certain musical modal prog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tone Pattern
Tone patterns () are common constraints in classical Chinese poetry. The four tones of Middle Chinese—''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: 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, 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 regula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Opera
Traditional Chinese opera (), or ''Xiqu'', is a form of musical theatre in China with roots going back to the early periods in China. It is an amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more than a thousand years, reaching its mature form in the 13th century, during the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD). Early forms of Chinese theater are simple; however, over time, various art forms such as music, song and dance, martial arts, acrobatics, costume and make-up art, as well as literary art forms were incorporated to form traditional Chinese opera. Performers had to practice for many years to gain an understanding of the roles. Exaggerated features and colors made it easier for the audience to identify the roles portrayed by the performers. There are over a hundred regional branches of traditional Chinese opera today. In the 20th century, the Peking opera emerged in popularity and has come to be known as the "national theatre" of China ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Division of the Mongol Empire, its division. It was established by Kublai (Emperor Shizu or Setsen Khan), the fifth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire from the Borjigin clan, and lasted from 1271 to 1368. In Chinese history, the Yuan dynasty followed the Song dynasty and preceded the Ming dynasty. Although Genghis Khan's enthronement as Khagan in 1206 was described in Chinese language, Chinese as the Han Chinese, Han-style title of Emperor of China, Emperor and the Mongol Empire had ruled territories including modern-day northern China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan officially proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Han style, and the conquest was not complete until 1279 when the Southern Song dynasty was defeated in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
