Jueju

=Jueju=

//**Jueju**// (Traditional Chinese: 絕句; Simplified Chinese: 绝句; pinyin: Juéjù; Wade-Giles: Chüeh2chü4) is a style of //jintishi//, or "Modern //shi// poetry", that grew popular among Chinese poets in the fifth to sixth centuries in the Tang Dynasty. //Jueju// poems are always quatrains, or, more specifically, a matched pair of couplets, with each line consisting of five or seven syllables each. The five-syllable-long form is called //wujue// (traditional Chinese: 五絕; pinyin: //Wŭjué//) and the seven-syllable-long form //qijue// (traditional Chinese: 七絕; pinyin: //Qījué//).

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 Indeed, many Tang dynasty //wujue// poems were inspired by these //yuefu// songs. 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" (traditional 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. Authors known to have composed //jueju// poems include Du Fu, Du Mu, Li Bai, Li Shangyin, Wang Changling and Wang Wei.

Form
Traditional literary critics considered the //jueju// style to be the most difficult form of //jintishi//. Limited to exactly 20 or 28 characters,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. 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.

Example
This poem is called "Spring Lament" (simplified Chinese: 春怨; traditional Chinese: 春怨; pinyin: //Chūn yuàn//) and was written by Jin Changxu (traditional Chinese: 金昌緒; pinyin: //Jīn Chāngxù//). 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! ||
 * ~ Traditional Chinese ||~ Simplified Chinese ||~ English translation ||
 * 春怨