Midnight Songs poetry (), also Tzu-yeh Songs, refers both to a genre of poetry as well as to specifically collected poems under the same name, during the fourth century CE. This is of major significance within the
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 dyn ...
tradition, finding such practitioners of the genre as
Li Bai
Li Bai (, 701–762), also pronounced as Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai (), was a Chinese poet, acclaimed from his own time to the present as a brilliant and romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights. He and his friend Du F ...
(also known as Li Bo or Li Po); as well as importantly influencing world poetry through translations, such as by
David Hinton
David Hinton is an American poet, and translator who specializes in Chinese literature and poetry.
Life
He studied Chinese at Cornell University, and in Taiwan. He lives in East Calais, Vermont.
Awards
* 1997 Academy of American Poets Harold Mo ...
. The Midnight Songs have been much used as inspiration for later poetry.
Poet(s)
Although, traditionally the original set of poems was considered to be composed by an eponymously named woman ("Lady Midnight") living during the
Jin Dynasty, in modern
Jiangnan
Jiangnan or Jiang Nan (; formerly romanized Kiang-nan, literally "South of the River" meaning "South of the Yangtze") is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, incl ...
, it is more likely that the Midnight Songs are actually a collection of poems by various poets, and/or from the folk tradition.
Poems
The poems are arranged into four sections for the four seasons: spring, summer, winter, and autumn. Thematically, they thus represent four views of the seasons. According to one count, there are 117 of the poems in the traditional collection.
[Hinton, 73] They are all considered to be in the
yuefu
''Yuefu'' are Chinese poems composed in a folk song style. The term originally literally meant "Music Bureau", a reference to the imperial Chinese governmental organization(s) originally charged with collecting or writing the lyrics, later the t ...
form; however, they are also all five-character per line
quatrains
A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines.
Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Greec ...
, created from two
couplets
A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...
each, similar to the
jueju
''Jueju'' (), or Chinese quatrain, is a type of '' jintishi'' ("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 s ...
form of later popularity.
See also
*
Six dynasties poetry
Six Dynasties poetry refers to those types or styles of poetry particularly associated with the Six Dynasties era of China (220 CE – 589 CE). This poetry reflects one of the poetry world's more important flowerings, as well as being a u ...
*
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 dyn ...
*
Classical Chinese poetry genres
Classical Chinese poetry genres are those genres which typify the traditional Chinese poems written in Classical Chinese. Some of these genres are attested to as early as the publication of the Classic of Poetry, dating from a traditionally, and ...
Notes
References
*Hinton, David (2008). ''Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology''. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. / .
*Watson, Burton (1971). ''CHINESE LYRICISM: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century''. New York: Columbia University Press.
External links
John Thompson Websiteon an adaptation of one of Li Bai's Midnight Songs poetry style poems to the
guqin
The ''guqin'' (; ) is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement, as highlighted b ...
music.
{{Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry genres
Chinese poetry collections
Six Dynasties poetry