Jueju (traditional Chinese: 絶句; simplified Chinese: 绝句; pinyin: juéjù), also known as a Chinese quatrain, is a type of classical Chinese poetry that became popular during the Tang dynasty (618–907). It has roots in older forms of poetry but was widely used during this period. Jueju poems always have four lines, or two pairs of rhyming lines, with each line containing either five or seven syllables. The version with five syllables is called wujue (五絕; Wǔjué), and the version with seven syllables is called qijue (七絕; Qījué).

History

The origins of the jueju style are not clear. Fränkel suggests it began from the yuefu form in the fifth or sixth century. This five-character line style, common during the Six Dynasties period, may have influenced shi poetry, creating a combination of yuefu and shi four-line poems. Many Tang dynasty wujue poems were inspired by these yuefu songs.

In the seventh century, jueju developed into its modern form, becoming one of the three "modern" verse styles, or jintishi. The other two jintishi styles are lüshi and pailu.

The jueju style was very popular during the Tang dynasty. Many poets who wrote jueju poems focused on the idea of "seeing the big within the small" (Chinese: 小中見大; pinyin: Xiǎozhōng jiàndà). They wrote about large topics such as philosophy, religion, emotions, history, and vast landscapes.

Poets known to have written jueju poems include Du Fu, Du Mu, Li Bai, Li Shangyin, Wang Changling, and Wang Wei.

Form

Traditional literary critics believed the jueju style was the most challenging form of jintishi. Limited to exactly 20 or 28 characters, writing a jueju requires the author to use every character carefully to create a successful poem. This strict format encouraged writers to use symbolic language extensively.

The tone patterns in jueju, like other Chinese poetry forms, are complex. They can be compared to the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in sonnets. A poet writing jueju or similar lüshi-style poems must alternate between level and oblique tones both between and within lines.

Some rules of regulated verse were applied to the shorter jueju form. These rules include consistent line length, using a single rhyme in even-numbered lines, strict patterns for tone alternations, a major pause before the last three syllables, optional parallelism, and ensuring each line functions as a complete sentence. Each couplet usually forms a separate unit, and the third line often introduces a shift in thought or direction within the poem.

Structure

Jueju follows specific tonal patterns. A circle (○) represents a level tone, while a dot (●) represents an oblique tone, which is a rising, departing, or entering tone.

Example

This poem is titled "Spring Lament" (Chinese: 春怨; pinyin: Chūn yuàn) and was written by Jin Changxu. The poem describes a common theme in this type of poetry: a lonely woman who feels sad because her husband or lover is missing. It is likely that the husband is a soldier who has traveled to Liaoxi, a place now located in Mongolia. In the first part of the poem, she scares away orioles to stop them from singing. The second part explains that the birds' songs interrupted her peaceful morning dream of seeing her husband in a distant land. The words used in the poem strongly affect her emotions.