Jueju

jueju Chinese 絕句 / 绝句 , Pinyin Juéjù is a form of poetry from the Tang period . The Jueju is a form of Jintishi .

shape

The Jueju consists of a stanza of four verses with five or seven characters each. The first and second two verses of a stanza are combined into a pair, to which certain rules apply.

A typical poem (with five characters per line) looks like this: ( 登鸛雀樓 / 登鹳雀楼 , dēng guàn què lóu - " Ascent of the stork tower " by Wang Zhihuan in Chinese 王之渙 / 王之涣 , Pinyin Wáng Zhīhuàn ,):

Long characters

白日依山盡，
黃河入海流。
欲窮千里目，
更上一層樓。

Abbreviation

白日依山尽，
黄河入海流。
欲穷千里目，
更上一层楼。

Sounds

There are special rhyme rules for the tones, the tones of standard Chinese are divided into the two categories Ping ( 平 , píng ) and Ze ( 仄 , zè ). The ping tones are the 1st (¯) and the second (´) tone, the Ze tones are the 3rd (ˇ) and 4th (`) tone. Toneless syllables are classified according to how they are normally syllabically stressed.

Rhymes

The final syllable of the second and fourth verses must rhyme, the third verse may also rhyme, but the first must have a different final. In addition, the rhyming syllables must both have ping tones.

Here related to the previous poem, the last syllable is shown next to it in Pinyin :

白日依山盡 jìn
黃河入海流 líu
欲窮千里目 mù
更上一層樓 lóu

The final sound of the rhyming syllables is ou (not evident from the transcription, pronunciation actually liou). The second and fourth lines rhyme (líu and lóu), but the first and third lines have a different ending (jín and mù).

Parallelisms and tone variations

The couples should, but need not, show parallelisms . This means that the superimposed syllables in the pairs each have the same part of speech.

For every pair of verses, the same applies to the second and fourth syllables of each line that the tones come from different groups. For example, if the second syllable in the first line has a ping tone, the second syllable in the second line must have a Ze tone.

caesura

When a jueju is read, a caesura must be made after the second syllable of each line .

Individual evidence

↑ Ascent of the stork tower at Wikisource (Chinese)

[1] Ascent of the stork tower at Wikisource (Chinese)