The
Tang Dynasty was one of the most fruitful
dynasties in
Chinese history with regard to
literature and
verse. In 1763, a
scholar named
Sun Zhu, dissatisfied with the "new" style of
Chinese poetry and lack of attention toward the
Tang classics, compiled 310 selected
poems from prominent
poets in that era and published the
Three Hundred Tang Poems, or
Tang Shi San Bai Shou, which became an immediate best-seller in
China. Still a
classic today, this anthology is widely studied in
middle school and
high school to teach classic
verse.
Over seventy poets are represented in the collection, including the famed Li Bai (Li Po), and it is divided into seven sections, after each style of that was popular in the Tang Dynasty.
- Five-character-ancient-verse
- Five-character-regular-verse
- Five-character-quatrain
- Seven-character-ancient-verse
- Seven-character-regular-verse
- Seven-character-quatrain
- Folk-song-styled-verse
The
poems vary in length, from short blurbs to long
verses that span several lines. They are all very
articulate, and depending on the region from which the
poet came from, reciting the
poem in the
poet's regional
dialect might make it sound even better. The best
poems are often memorized by
schoolchildren. I still remember some from
grade school.
I particularly like Li Bai's drinking poems. They fit my line of thought.