Summary of Poetic Meter Rules

Author: Wang Li
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: To conduct in-depth research on the poetics of Chinese poetry, it is essential to thoroughly read this monograph, Poetic Rules of Chinese. If the purpose is to appreciate classical Chinese poetry or to learn how to write it, and one wishes to gain basic knowledge of poetic rules, then it is advisable to read the other three books by Professor Wang Li: Poetic Rules, Ten Lectures on Poetic Rules, and An Outline of Poetic Rules. "The dragon and the insect are both carved" is a consistent principle upheld by Professor Wang Li. While "carving the dragon" and "carving the insect" differ in subject and purpose, the seriousness of the author and the scientific nature of the work remain the same. Although An Outline of Poetic Rules is simpler than Poetic Rules and shares the same fundamental content, it still has its own distinctive features. In some places, it is even more detailed than Poetic Rules, for example, when explaining tones, it cites commonly used ancient entering tones to help readers from dialect areas without entering tones grasp the concept. In other places, it differs from Poetic Rules, such as dividing yao (irregular) tones into two categories: major yao tones must be rescued, while minor yao tones can be rescued or left unresolved. This is also done to help readers better master poetic rules. Another difference is that Poetic Rules uses many of Mao Zedong's poems to analyze poetic rules, whereas An Outline of Poetic Rules relies entirely on classical Chinese poetry as its basis for analysis. Mao Zedong's poems possess high artistic value, conform to poetic rules, and are relatively familiar to readers, making them suitable for examples and beneficial for popularizing poetic rules. However, fundamentally speaking, poetic rules are derived from the creations of ancient masters. Using the poems of ancient writers to explain poetic rules is arguably more appropriate.