Reading classical poetry: line length, 平仄, rhyme and reading aloud

Lines and forms

Tang poetry (唐诗) counts characters. Each character is one syllable.

Three poems everyone knows

• 床前明月光，疑是地上霜。(Chuáng qián míng yuè guāng, yí shì dì shàng shuāng.)Before my bed the moonlight is bright; I took it for frost on the ground.
• 举头望明月，低头思故乡。(Jǔ tóu wàng míng yuè, dī tóu sī gù xiāng.)I raise my head to gaze at the bright moon, and lower it, thinking of home.

李白《静夜思》 (Quiet Night Thoughts). The version taught in schools comes from Ming-dynasty editions and was fixed by the Qing anthology 《唐诗三百首》; earlier Song editions read 床前看月光 and 举头望山月.

• 春眠不觉晓，处处闻啼鸟。(Chūn mián bù jué xiǎo, chù chù wén tí niǎo.)Sleeping in spring, I miss the dawn; everywhere I hear birds singing.
• 夜来风雨声，花落知多少。(Yè lái fēng yǔ shēng, huā luò zhī duō shǎo.)In the night, the sound of wind and rain: how many petals fell?

孟浩然《春晓》 (Spring Dawn).

• 白日依山尽，黄河入海流。(Bái rì yī shān jìn, Huáng Hé rù hǎi liú.)The white sun sinks behind the mountains; the Yellow River flows into the sea.
• 欲穷千里目，更上一层楼。(Yù qióng qiān lǐ mù, gèng shàng yì céng lóu.)To see a thousand li further, climb one more storey.

王之涣《登鹳雀楼》 (Climbing Stork Tower). Its two couplets are also parallel: 白日 with 黄河, 依山尽 with 入海流.

Rhyme

In a quatrain the even lines rhyme, and the first line often does too: 光, 霜, 乡 in 《静夜思》; 流, 楼 in 《登鹳雀楼》. Regulated verse rhymes on level (平) tones. 《春晓》 rhymes on oblique-tone words (晓, 鸟, 少), so although anthologies list it among the 五言绝句, it is usually classed as an old-style quatrain (古绝) that doesn't follow the regulated rules.

Pronunciation has changed since the Tang dynasty, so some rhymes no longer sound right in Mandarin:

• 远上寒山石径斜，白云生处有人家。(Yuǎn shàng hán shān shí jìng xié, bái yún shēng chù yǒu rén jiā.)Far up the cold mountain the stone path slants; where white clouds rise there are houses.

杜牧《山行》: 斜 (xié today) once rhymed with 家 and 花. Some teachers read it xiá to keep the rhyme; the dictionary reading is xié. Both practices exist.

平仄: level and oblique tones

Middle Chinese had four tone categories: 平 (level), 上 (rising), 去 (departing) and 入 (entering, syllables ending in -p, -t or -k). Poets grouped them in two: 平 (level) and 仄 (oblique = 上, 去, 入). Regulated verse alternates them in set patterns.

As a rough guide, modern 1st and 2nd tones come from 平, and 3rd and 4th tones from 仄. But the entering tone disappeared from Mandarin and its syllables were spread over all four modern tones. So some 1st- and 2nd-tone characters were 仄: 白, 国, 一, 十, 出, 黑.

白 (bái) looks level today but was an entering-tone syllable. Southern varieties such as Cantonese still keep the entering tone, which is why they show the pattern more clearly.

Reading aloud

• Five-character lines divide 2 + 3: 白日 / 依山尽. Seven-character lines divide 2 + 2 + 3 (or 4 + 3).
• Lengthen the rhyming syllable at the end of each line, and pause at the comma.
• Read in Mandarin with today's tones; don't try to "reconstruct" Tang sounds.

Nobody knows exactly how Tang poetry sounded. Scholars reconstruct Middle Chinese from rhyme dictionaries, but reconstructions differ. Treat 平仄 as a pattern of categories, not a recording.

Common mistakes

• Assuming every 1st- or 2nd-tone character is 平: 白, 国 and 一 were entering-tone, so 仄.
• Expecting every rhyme to work in Mandarin: Tang rhymes follow Tang pronunciation.
• 《春晓》，李白 → 《春晓》 is by 孟浩然. 《静夜思》 is by 李白.
• Reading 白，日依山尽 with the pause in the wrong place: 白日 is one word.
• Presenting the school text of 《静夜思》 as the only original: it's the most famous version, not the oldest.