Master Chinese Poetry with These 5 Insider Rules

If you remember last time, we looked at a poem called Grass by Bái Jūyì. We first did a character by character translation of our poem. Then we broke the lines into groups of two and three to figure out how the characters go together. But now we're going to really get into what the poem's talking about. Let's take a quick look at what we did last time. 离离原上草， Lí lí yuán shàng cǎo, 一岁一枯荣。 Yī suì yī kū róng。 野火烧不尽， Yě huǒ shāo bú jìn, 春风吹又生。 Chūn fēng chuī yòu shēng。 远芳侵古道， Yuǎn fāng qīn gǔ dào, 晴翠接荒城。 Qíng cuì jiē huāng chéng。 又送王孙去， Yòu sòng wáng sūn qù, 萋萋满别情。 Qī qī mǎn bié qíng。 Lush grasses on the plain, each year withering and then flourishing. The wildfires can't extinguish them. Spring winds blow and the grasses come back to life. The faraway fragrance invades the ancient path. Emerald green under the sun meets the abandoned city. I send off the nobleman's son again. The lush grass. I'm full of emotions of parting. Not bad. Now, if we want to get a deeper understanding of the poem, we have to know the rules on the poem's meaning structure. Táng poetry is separated into four stages, which are Qǐ chéng zhuǎn hé (起承转合). Each stage is two lines. The first two lines are you introducing your theme which is qǐ. Then you elaborate on that theme which is chéng. Then you turn to a new topic which is zhuǎn. Then you bring everything together which is hé. With that in mind let's look at just the English translation of this poem. Lush grasses on the plain each year withering and then flourishing. All right, so it's pretty obvious that our theme's going to be grass. I mean, you could tell that from the title. It's called Grass. We also have some sub themes of the cycle of life. The wildfires can't extinguish them. Spring winds blow and the grasses come back to life. Okay, so here's where the poet elaborates. He goes further into the idea that despite the life and death cycle of nature, the grasses are never extinguished. The faraway fragrance invades the ancient road. Emerald green under the sun meets the abandoned city. So this is where the poet makes his turn. Now usually what happens around this point is that nature is contrasted with humanity. We saw that grass is essentially everlasting. But the poet shows humanity to be temporary. Green vegetation is taking over roads and cities that once flourished but now lie in ruins. I send off the nobleman's son again. The lush grass. I'm full of emotions of parting. Now, this is where the poet ties everything together. So, we go from the natural world to humanity and end the poem on the personal feelings of the author. So the last line with lush grass could really be translated as the lush grass represents my being full of emotions of parting. So his friendship with this nobleman's son is like the grass. It withers when they separate. And like the cycle of life, it rejuvenates when they meet again. So even though humanity is much more temporary than nature, the immortality of nature is within us all. All right. So that's the basic structure. Let's go one step deeper and look at parallelism. In Táng poetry, you have to mirror certain phrases and structures. And that's how you add obvious emphasis to the symbolism of your poem. So the first really obvious thing we have is that the poet starts the first line with Lí lí and starts the last line with Qī qī. Both of these basically mean lush grass. So it's super clear that this is the theme he's going with. Now there's also a rule in Táng poetry that the middle two couplets of the poem. So lines 3–4 and 5–6 have to be parallel couplets which means that each syllable unit has to match thematically. So let's look at those middle couplets again. 野火烧不尽， Yě huǒ shāo bú jìn, 春风吹又生。 Chūn fēng chuī yòu shēng。 远芳侵古道， Yuǎn fāng qīn gǔ dào, 晴翠接荒城。 Qíng cuì jiē huāng chéng。 In the first couplet, for our two-syllable unit, we have wildfire and spring wind, both nature concepts. And for the three-syllable unit, we have two verbs sandwiched by a connector word — shāo bú jìn (burn not finish), chuī yòu shēng (blows and revives the grass). For the second couplet, Bái Jūyì flips around the parallel. So he starts again with a nature scene for the first two characters with faraway fragrance and sunlit greenery. But he also doubles the theme of the last two characters. Line five is ancient path and line six is abandoned city. So again, he's tripling down on the contrasting images of everlasting nature versus short-lived humanity. All right, so that's parallelism. But let's say you've done all this analysis and the symbolism still isn't so clear. Try to look up how Chinese poetry represents certain things. Chinese poetry has its own symbolic language. For instance, the moon often represents homesickness. The willow tree represents a departure and the plum blossom represents strength and purity. When you know these symbols well, it will be easier to interpret poems. You also want to know if there are some major historical events around the poem. For instance, there's a famous poem by Dù Fǔ called Lament of the Homeless that has one section like this. 我里百余家，世乱各东西。 Wǒ lǐ bǎi yú jiā, shì luàn gè dōngxī。 存者无消息，死者为尘泥。 Cún zhě wú xiāoxī, sǐ zhě wéi chén ní。 The various members of my hometown are scattered to the wind. Those who are alive have disappeared and those who died have become dust and mud. Heavy stuff. Well, Dù Fǔ wasn't just making up stuff. He was writing about the Ān Lùshān Rebellion, which was a bloody civil war during the Táng dynasty. When you know the background, the poem hits that much harder. All right, so let's look over our steps again. Read the poem character by character to get a rough idea. Then break it down into either 2 + 3, 3 + 2, or 2 + 2 + 1 syllable divisions. Then you go through the stages of telling the poem — the Qǐ chéng zhuǎn hé (起承转合). Then you look for parallelism. Then you look for further symbolism or historical background. When you've got all that down, you have mastered this poem. So, was this video helpful? Are there any other poems you'd like us to cover? Let me know in the comments below. And until next time, if you enjoy the deeper meaning behind Chinese culture, folklore, legends, and strange true stories, then come explore more with me on Jared Tells Tales, where mystery, meaning, and the otherworldly still live on. Click the link to watch your first tale.