104 t He Han Dy na s t y
- The first two characters make up a disyllabic segment (usually a disyllabic
compound), and the remaining three a trisyllabic segment (usually a
disyllabic compound plus a monosyllabic word).
Disyllabic segment Trisyllabic segment
ride chariot upper◦ eastern gate 驅車上東門 (qū chē shàng dōng mén)
distant behold wall north◦ grave 遙望郭北墓 (yáo wàng guō bĕi mù) ▲
white poplar how◦ bleak bleak 白楊何蕭蕭 (bái yáng hé xiāo xiāo)
pine cypress line◦ broad road 松柏夾廣路 (sōng bó jiá guăng lù) ▲I ride my carriage to the Upper East Gate,
Gazing at the graves north of the wall.
White poplars, how bleak they are in the wind!
Pine and cypress flank the broad paths.
[Poem 13, lines 1–4; WX 29.1348]The first and second rules set forth the spatial configuration of a pentasyl-
labic poem; the third and fourth, the rhyming pattern; and the fifth, the semantic
rhythm. Of these five rules, the last represents an important metrical innovation.
Before the rise of pentasyllabic poetry, disyllabic beat was the most important met-
rical unit in Chinese poetry. In the Shijing (The Book of Poetry), for instance, tetra-
syllabic lines, made up of two disyllabic segments, were used with a much higher
frequency than any other poetic lines (chap. 1). While tetrasyllabic poetry has an
even 2 + 2 beat, pentasyllabic poetry, with the addition of one monosyllabic word,
produces a much more dynamic rhythm. In a pentasyllabic line, a semantic pause,
generally treated as an unmarked caesura, falls between the second and third char-
acters and divides the line into two distinctive units (as indicated by the column
division). This creates a distinctive 2 + 3 semantic rhythm.
This semantic rhythm can be further divided because there is a secondary
caesura (as indicated by ◦) between the monosyllabic word and the disyllabic com-
pound in the final unit. Depending on whether the secondary caesura occurs after
the third or the fourth character, a 2 + 3 semantic rhythm can be broken down into
either a 2 + (2 + 1) rhythm (as in lines 1 and 2) or a 2 + (1 + 2) rhythm (as in lines
3 and 4). In short, the imbalance of the disyllabic and trisyllabic units, together
with the shifting of the secondary caesura, creates a varied, fluid rhythm. Not only
is this new shi rhythm uniformly employed in all subsequent pentasyllabic poetry
(chaps. 6–8, 10, and 11), but it also serves as the core rhythm in heptasyllabic
poetry (chaps. 9 and 10).t h e m e : a g i n g a nD h u m a n t r a n s i e nC e
What distinguishes the “Nineteen Old Poems” from earlier shi poetry is their cen-
tral theme. Commenting on this distinguishing trait, Qian Qianyi (1582–1664)
wrote, “‘Man’s life is between heaven and earth, / Rushing through like a traveler
with a long way to go.’ These poetic lines convey a meaning not to be found in