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Chinese Literature - Poetry - Ancient Poetry - Popular Verses of the Yuan Dynasty

In China "poetic education" in the original meaning is learning The Book of Songs. This is the first comprehensive anthology of Chinese poems including including 305 poems of the Zhou Dynasty (1122-256 B.C.). It was originally called Shi (Poems) and Shi Sanbai (Three Hundred Poems). Each poem in The Book of Songs was set to music and could be sung. The compilers classified the 305 poems into folk songs, ceremonial songs, and sacrificial songs, according to their contents and the style of the music. Folk songs, which were popular among the people, made up the best part of The Book of Songs, while ceremonial songs and sacrificial songs were used mainly on sacrificial or ceremonial occasions to eulogize the merits and virtues of the Son of Heaven and of his forefathers.

Confucius (551 B.C. - 479 B.C.), a great philosopher and educator was very fond of The Book of Songs. He used to recite the poems from time to time, and used it as a textbook for his pupils. In the Han Dynasty, The Book of Songs was formally accepted as a classic of the Confucian school.

The Book of Songs has over a long period of times been highly appreciated, and has exerted a profound and far-reaching influence on the development of Chinese literature, especially that of poetry, over a period of more than 2000 years. It has also served as important historical data for the study of ancient China from the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period.

All three hundred and five songs were drawn from the region north of the Yellow River. They are typical products of north China, the area administered by the Kings of the House of Zhou in Confucius's time. By the 4th century B.C. China's boundaries had expanded to include the vast area of the Yangtze river valley, where the strong State of Chu became even stronger. This region is very fertile and the life of the inhabitants was more highly developed than that of the northern people. They produced their own type of song, a representative collection of which was compiled under the name of Chu Ci or The Songs of Chu. The representative poet is Qu Yuan, who wrote many excellent poems in his life, a large number of which were composed in his exile. The style of Qu Yuan's poems is different from that of The Book of Songs. It is called "poetic prose of Chu", or "the Sao style", in the history of Chinese literature. In the following literary history, there were certain periods which were dominated by one distinctive predominant literary genre, such as fu (descriptive prose interspersed with verse) during the Han Dynasty, poetry in Tang, Ci poetry (a special poetic form) of Song and qu (singing verse) of Yuan. The Tang Dynasty was a period of great radiance in literary creation and was especially noted for poetry writing, for which it has been dubbed the golden age of poetry, a predominant genre among all literary forms popular with both the rulers and the populace for about 300 years. There had emerged during this period of time a considerable number of brilliant poets and outstanding poetic compositions. All subsequent Chinese poetry derives its forms from the creations of this time. The number of known Tang poets runs into thousands; their output was enormous, and almost very great poet's work was published in one way or another. Yet a selection for common use from this vast field did not appear until the 18th century that an anonymous scholar who signed himself Heng-tang-tui-shi, the Retiring Scholar of the Fragrant Pool, compiled the third standard anthology of Chinese poetry, the Tang Shi San Bai Shou or Three Hundred Tang Poems. Readers in general accepted the book, and it has been reprinted in countless editions for two hundred years. Schools have used it all over China, and scholars generally know a great deal of it by heart.

Three Hundred Tang Poems contains representative poems by seventy-seven of the greatest Tang poets. Nine of the seventy-seven poets in the anthology: Wang Wei, Zhang Jiuling, Meng Haoran, Li Bai, Du Fu, Li Shangyin, Bai Juyi, Du Mu and Liu Zongyuan, are read more than the others by the Chinese themselves. Four: Wang Wei, Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juy are widely known in translation in many lands outside China. Thus the translation of the entire anthology, which includes the most representative, and some of the most beautiful, Chinese poems, is of immense value to those who wish to acquire a general idea of what Chinese poetry really is.

Towards the end of the Tang dynasty, the ci lyric became more popular. Most closely associated with the Song dynasty, ci most often expressed feelings of desire, often in an adopted persona, but the greatest exponents of the form (such as Li Houzhu and Su Shi) used it to address a wide range of topics.

As the ci gradually became more literary and artificial after Song times, the san qu, a freer form, based on new popular songs, developed. The use of san qu songs in drama marked an important step in the development of vernacular literature.

chinese verses

Yuan Qu San Bai Shou, 300 Selected Yuan Qu (Popular Verse of Yuan Dynasty) -Chinese Reader illustrated by famous artists, published by Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, 2000, 850 x 1168 306 pages, paper back. ISBN 7532606635.

元曲三百首（名家配画诵读本）

元曲三百首（名家配画诵读本）
作者：刘旦宅 等绘
出版社：上海辞书出版社
出版日期：2000-7-1
ISBN：7532606635
页数：306
包装：平装
开本：大32开

【内容提要】
　　元曲、古文，同唐诗、宋词一样，也是中国古代文学的精华。元曲刻露尖新，宜俗宜雅，特色鲜明；古文众体荟萃，风格各异。它们韵律优美，词采斐然，意境深邃，琅琅上口，历来为人们所喜爱。古代童子发蒙，士子进学都很重视文学的诵读功能，因为在诵读中能充分地感受前人作品中的情感韵律、词章精华，更深地领略其中的意蕴。实践证明，诵读古诗文，是学习传统文化的有效途径。
在建设社会主义精神文明的今天，开展诵读古代文学精品的活动，有利于加强人们的传统文化修养，营造文明祥和的社会氛围，弘扬社会正气，陶冶人们的思想情操。为此，我们在《曲与画·元曲三百首》、《文与画·古文二百篇》的基础上，改编出版了《名家配画诵读本·古文二百篇》，遂与先朝出版的《名家配画诵读本 ·唐诗三百首》、《名家配画诵读本·唐宋词三百首》珠联璧合。为了适合中等文化程度的读者诵读，我们对原文中难读难认的冷僻字、容易读错的多音字注上了拼音，并对其中脍炙人口的名句加以划线标识。
【目录】
[双调]骤雨打新荷（绿叶阴浓）
[越调]小桃红（满城烟水月微茫）
[越调]小桃红（采莲湖上棹船回）
[南吕]干荷叶（干荷叶）
[般涉调]耍孩儿（风调雨顺民安乐）
[仙吕]醉中天（弹破庄周梦）
[双调]拨不断（胜神鳌）
[越调]小桃红（万家灯火闹春桥）
[越调]小桃红（绿云冉冉锁清湾）
[越调]小桃红（杏花开侯不曾晴）
[双调]潘妃曲（带月披星担惊怕）
[双调]潘妃曲（一点青灯人千里）
[中吕]阳春曲（几枝红雪墙头杏）
[中吕]阳春曲（残花酝酿蜂儿蜜）
[双调]沉醉东风（锦织江边翠竹）
[中吕]喜春来（金鱼玉带罗襕扣）
[正宫]黑漆弩（苍波万顷孤岑矗）
[越调]平湖乐（采菱人语隔秋烟）
[越调]平湖乐（社坛烟谈散林鸦）
[双调]沉醉东风（挂绝壁枯松倒倚）
[双调]沉醉东风（对酒问人生几何）
[双调]沉醉东风（恰离了绿水青山那答）
[双调]蟾宫曲（沙三伴哥来嗏）
[中吕]喜春来过普天乐（琉璃殿暖香浮细）
[中吕]山坡羊（伏低伏弱）
[中吕]山坡羊（晨鸡初叫）
[南吕]四块玉（旧酒投）
[南吕]四块玉（南亩耕）
[双调]沉醉东风（咫尺的天南地北）
[双调]大德歌（子规啼）
[双调]大德歌（俏冤家）
[双调]大德歌（雪纷纷）
[南吕]一枝花（轻裁虾万须）
……

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