Heptasyllabic regulated verse (qiyan lüshi, or qilü) came into being along with
pentasyllabic regulated verse during the Early Tang but remained a relatively mar-
ginal form through much of its early history. One of the key figures in expanding
the range and importance of the form was Du Fu (712–770), who did more than
anyone else to establish it on an equal footing with its pentasyllabic counterpart.
This chapter focuses on a particular line of development linking Du Fu’s hepta-
syllabic regulated verse with the “hermetic” mode in Late Tang writers such as Li
Shangyin (813–858), in which the form’s potential for complexity of syntax and
compression of image is fully realized. Du Fu’s engaging, intimate, and often para-
doxically informal writing in this technically demanding mode was influential on
poets from the Late Tang on, while the intensity and stunning structural com-
plexity of the work of his last years remained an unsurpassed standard for the qilü.
Li Shangyin’s compressed, allusive, and ambiguous qilü style was influential in
the early Song dynasty—the so-called Xikun style (Xikun ti) based on this vein in
Li Shangyin became, for a time, the dominant poetic fashion at the early North-
ern Song court. While this style of shi poetry was subsequently criticized, and to a
great extent abandoned in favor of other models, the enigmatic and elusive poetic
atmospheres created by Li Shangyin retained a significant influence, particularly
in the genre of the song lyric, or ci.
t h e l e g aC y oF D u F uDu Fu was undoubtedly the most adventurous writer of heptasyllabic regulated
verse of his age. The form was one in which he seems to have been drawn to
challenge the boundaries of poetic craft. He composed, for example, a number
of heptasyllabic verses that follow the general eight-line expositional structure of
regulated verse but that also include deliberate violations of the regulated tonal
patterns or the customary syntactic groupings within the line, intended to create
the “craggy” or “rough-hewn” feel of “ancient-style” poetry (guti shi). Later critics
formulated the category “skewed regulated verse” (ao lü), largely to accommodate
this sort of formal experimentation by Du Fu. The poems discussed here are all
prosodically strict regulated verses, but we can see in these works as well Du Fu’s
recurrent preoccupation with the tension between technical polish and deliberate
awkwardness.
❀ 9 ❀
Recent-Style Shi Poetry
Heptasyllabic Regulated Verse (Qiyan Lüshi)