Understanding a Tang Dynasty poem
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Keywords/Vocabulary:
Parallelism: a rhetorical device in Chinese poetry where two lines of poetry in a given couplet must be balanced in content, parts of speech, cosmological/mythological/historical allusion, and tonal patterns.
Regulated Verse: form of poetry that dominated Tang Dynasty poetics; it has a determined number of characters per line that must use parallelism and a set rhyme pattern.
Couplet: a pair of lines in verse.
Five Elements: (a.k.a. Five Phases) A complex Chinese cosmological series of natural associations that include elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), directions (east, south, center, west, north), colors (green, red, yellow, white, blue), seasons (spring, summer, change-of-seasons, autumn, winter), among other qualities. These associations inform poetic parallelism as well as many other Chinese aesthetics.
Literati: From the Sui to the Qing, scholars who were trained in the Confucian classics, who mastered calligraphy and verse, and who passed a rigorous imperial examination gained high-level posts in the state structure.
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Du Fu (pinyin spelling of 杜甫, which also appears in the
Wade-Giles romanization as Tu Fu, 712-770 BCE) is a major poet
of the Tang Dynasty who witnessed first-hand the devastation
wrought on Chang’an during the An Lushan Rebellion of 755.
The poem this lesson uses, “Facing Snow,” is a poem that was
written during this tumultuous time period. It is an example of
regulated verse, an important poetic form that dominated the Tang
Dynasty. This type of poem uses a strictly measured number of
Couplets with a regulated number of characters per line that must
correspond to one another based on Chinese aesthetic principles
informed by a cosmological ordering based on the Five Elements.
The An Lushan Rebellion (755-763 BCE) is a major rebellion
that engulfed the Tang Dynasty and caused millions of deaths.
An Lushan (703-757 BCE) was an ambitious general of
Sogdian descent who took advantage of widespread discontent
with the extravagance of the Chang’an court during a time beset
by natural disasters. An Lushan was successful in defeating the
imperial army guarding the capital city and forcing Emperor
Xuanzong and his court to flee to Sichuan. Eventually, the
Emperor abdicated the throne in favor of his son and the Tang
court formed alliances with Turkish tribes from Central Asia and
the Imperial forces successfully retook the capital.
Initially, Du Fu left Chang’an at the outbreak of the rebellion in
order to ensure his family was out of harm’s way, but he
personally returned to Chang’an in an attempt to join the Crown
Prince’s court, but he was captured by the Rebellion forces and
taken to Chang’an. He eventually escaped an joined the Tang
court, but never achieved a great post he seemed destined for.
The experiences of the war and his disappointment of never
achieving a worthy office to serve the state inform the tone of his overall work, which are widely regarded as one of the greatest literary achievements in both Chinese and world literature.
Columbia University’s Asia for Educators program has a very brief introduction to Du Fu that students might want to review before the class.
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