As defined by Watson (1986), poetry is a creative understanding of knowledge uttered through meaning sound and musical language choices in order to evoke an emotional reaction. Since times immemorial, poetry has been credited for its application of rhythm and meter in the passing and expression of knowledge. Poetry has undergone numerous milestones and drastic reinvention which has brought it to its present status (Watson, 1986). Specifically, china has in the past and present been positioned in the global platform due to the numerous developments in its poetry. Over the years, china poetry has also been undergoing significant changes and transformation from the traditional Chinese poetry to globally recognized poetry. This paper will profoundly discuss Chinese past and present poetry (Watson, 1986).
In the past, Chinese poetry was divided into a number of subgenres which included ci and qu. In relation to these traditional subgenres of poetry I china, it is revealed that all of them were rhythmed (Smith, 1990). This is to say there was a regular and consistence pros in the texts of the poets thus producing a musical sound. Nevertheless it should be considered that, not all rythmed texts were classified as poetry in china. Bookings relating and depicting the existence of poetry in china date back to 770-476 BCE. This is a very strong evidence of a rich culture of poetry in china (Smith, 1990).
One of the oldest poetry is the Shi Jing which is a collection of many poems referred to as classic of poetry. On other aspects, traditional poetry in China composed of the aristocratic poems and rustic poetry of ancient days. It is further evident that, the poems of these ancient days were derived from folksongs and were predominantly developed of four characters. The other aspect of old poetry in Chinese origin is the Chu
Ci which is referred to as the "Songs of the South". Unlike the Shi Jing poetry, the Chu Ci was more romantic and lyrical. The structure of the poems entailed irregular line length (Smith, 1990).
The past poetry in china between the period 206BCE-220CE, the Chu Ci poetry style encountered many developments. It evolved to the descriptive poem which was a mixture of verse and prose. This was a more developed form of poetry and depicted the knowledge and skills of the poet rather than passing on emotional experiences. During this era, the descriptive poem remained very dominant across the Chinese despite that the poems gradually changed in length and message. As described by Cooper (1973), the poems became personal and shorter. The end of this period of this period of poetry was characterized by the entrance of the Han form which was five-character poetry(Cooper, 1973).
At these early ages, folk style became dominant in the poetry genre as there was increased interest in government's interest in poetry. A point worth noting is that, there was a mix up in the structure of poems. This is most evident by the seven-character and the five-character as contrasted to the 4character in the times before. More importantly, a drastic revolution in the poetry industry in china took place at this period. The number of poems being composed at the time sky rocked to more than 50,000 which in this case was the highest number across the globe at the time. In addition, all aspects of human life were integrated with poetry. This is witnessed that anyone interested in government post could take an exam in poetry (Watson, 1986).
Some of the major developments marking the end of ancient poetry were the inclusion of the regulations. Despite that, the two styles of regulated and unregulated poetry coexisted both at the same time, the differences were more evident.
Further, advancements in poetry were facilitated by the increase in population literacy which enhanced printing thus making evaluation of poems easier. This period ran up to the 1920s when the vernacular literature came into being. A point worth of consideration at this new era was the rise of the novels and the opera which became the new ways of cultural expression(Chien, 2000).