Northern Song Seven Quatrains

During the early time of north Song dynasty, there existed three types of poem styles which inherited that of post-middle Tang dynasty .i.e. Baiti style, later-Tang style and Xikun style. The Qijue poem, comprising four sentences each made of seven words, written by those who advocate Baiti style, were so plain that they can be easily understood by any readers, but look like somewhat crude. The Qijue poem written by those who advocate later-Tang style mainly express pathos with the words full of sensations, but they seem to be much grieved. The Qijue poem with Xikun style are highly artistic and imbue elegance, but lack of subaudition. When the time of the poem-articles renovation came, Mei Yaochen wrote Qijue poem with the unvarnished words to express his true idea, just like Du Fu did, while OuYang Xiu like to be quietly elegant and simple skilled, which accord with the style of middle-Tang. Su Shunqin's Qijue poem come forth a tendency to emphasize idea. In this phase, Cai Xiang's Qijue poem achieved the highest level, clear, metaphorical, pithy and exquisite, as the same as those of magnum opus of Tang dynasty.During the period of middle Song dynasty, Wang Anshi became a influence in the development of Qijue poem of north Song,. His Qijue poem were so skilled and much elegant, euphemistic but not pressing. Although closed to those of magnum opus of Tang dynasty, they show another way of the development of poem in the Song dynasty. During the same time, Su Shi wrote many poem with diverse style, which resemble Tang style, but mainly displayed the characters of Song style, such as majesty, openness and amusement. Metamorphic style of Du Fu's Qijue was also developed by Huang Tingjian and Chen Shidao. Huang Tingjian inherit it but rebuild it, while Chen Shidao continue it mostly. Huang tingjian's poem were much skillful, elusive and interesting because he was good at using literary quotation. Chen Shidao's poem abandon gorgeousness, ,and like using tight and tough words to express idea.At the later north Song dynasty, the poem, wrote by Chao Buzhi, Qin Guan and Zhang Lei, show the characters of Tang style more of less. Chao Buzhi learned from Li Bai, whose Qijue poem were beautiful and elegant. But there exist two types of style in the poem by Qin Guan, some of them were graceful and restrained which seem like Ci, the others were bold and generous, by which the writer seem to be so open-minded. As the poet whose Qijue poem survived till now become the most in that of the north Song, Zhang Lei was the most important representative who return to the Tang style in the later north Song, whose poem were so natural, comeliness and chipper.It is no different to cognize the style of Qijue poem between north Song and Tang. Qijue poem can also be sung accompanying with the music in the north Song, but it is not as popular as it be in the Tang dynasty. Since Du Fu solely reformed Qijue poem of the great Tang, most of the poets of north Song learned from him. The Qijue poem by Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi, Li Shangyin and Du Mu, the famous poets lived in the post-middle Tang, virtually influenced the same work of those who lived in the north Song as well. The turning in the work of Qijue of north Song, which transferred expressing general emotions traditionally to expressing personal sentiment, was much prominent than that of the post middle Tang. Especially, some of the work were filled with literati's gout by depicting the missing of tea and mountains, enjoying the calligraphies, paintings and the four treasures of the study, i.e. writing brush, Chinese ink, paper and inkstone. As for the writing skills,...