Tang Poetry

Tang Poetry

Introduction

Tang poetry (唐詩) refers to poetry written in or around the time of or in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, (June 18, 618 - June 4, 907, including the 690-705 reign of Wu Zetian) and follows a certain style, often considered as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry. According to the Quantangshi anthology created under the Kangxi emperor of the Qing dynasty, there were almost 50,000 Tang poems written by over 2,200 authors. During the Tang dynasty, poetry continued to be an important part of social life at all levels of society. Scholars were required to master poetry for the civil service exams, but the art was theoretically available to everyone. This led to a large record of poetry and poets, a partial record of which survives today. Two of the most famous poets of the period were Du Fu and Li Bai. Tang poetry has had an ongoing influence on world literature and modern and quasi-modern poetry.

The most popular Tang Poems collection might be the so-called 300 Tang Poems compiled by Qing dynasty scholar Sun Zhu. It is so popular that many poems in it have been adopted by Chinese language text books of China's primary schools and secondary schools. Some of the poems in it are normally regarded as must-recite ones. He said he found the poems in the poetry textbook students that had been using, "Poems by A Thousand Writers" (Qian-jia-shi), were not carefully selected but a mixture of Tang dynasty poems and Song dynasty poems written in different styles. He also regarded that some poetry works in that book were not very well-written in terms of language skill and rhyme. Therefore, he picked those best and most popular poems from Tang dynasty only and formed this new collection of about 310 poems including poems by the most renowned poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu. These poems are about various topics including friendship, politics, idyllic life and ladies' life, and so on.

Famous Poets

1. Li Bai / Li Po (李白) known as "Poet Immortal" (诗仙)2. Du Fu (杜甫) known as "Poet Saint" (诗圣）

3. Wang Wei (王维) known as "Poet Buddha" (诗佛)

4. Su Shi (苏轼) known as "Poet God" (诗神)

5. Bai Juyi / Po Chu-I (白居易) known as "Poet Devil" (诗魔)

6. Li He (李贺) known as "Poet Ghost" (诗鬼)
7. Liu Yuxi (刘禹锡)
8. He Zhizhang (贺知章)
9. Wang Changling (王昌龄)
10. Li Shangying (李商隐) 

Famous Poems

1. 静夜思（李白)

床前明月光

疑似地上霜

举头望明月

低头思故乡

Night Thoughts (by Li Bai)

I wake, and moonbeams play around my bed,
Glittering like hoar-frost to my wandering eyes;
Up towards the glorious moon I raise my head,
Then lay me down and thoughts of home arise.

2. 枫桥夜泊（张继）

月落乌啼霜满天

江枫渔火对愁眠

姑苏城外寒山寺

夜半钟声到客船

A Night Mooring Near Maple Bridge

While I watch the moon go down, a crow caws through the frost;
Under the shadows of maple-trees a fisherman moves with his torch;
And I hear, from beyond Su-chou, from the temple on Cold Mountain,

Ringing for me, here in my boat, the midnight bell.