r e C e n t-s t y l e Sh i P oe t ry : quat ra i n s 223we see a maximum of four topic + comment structures, but more usually three
(as second couplets tend to be continuous propositions to create closure) or even
two.
The heptasyllabic line, with its 4 + 3 meter, can and frequently does present two
distinct topic + comment structures. (In fact, this is its birthright: the heptasylla-
bic line developed gradually out of the tetrasyllabic couplet during the Han and Six
Dynasties periods.)25 A heptasyllabic quatrain could thus theoretically comprise as
many as eight topic + comment structures, although a number between four and
six is the norm, as poets tended to employ a balance of imagistic language (that is,
undergrammaticalized content words) and continuous propositions. Although the
qijue form is only eight characters longer than the wujue, it contains far more space
for development; moreover, since the overtones in a poem are often suggested
through implicit comparisons between the parts, the more parts there are, the
more potential there is for complexity.
The rhythm of the heptasyllabic line also differs from that of the pentasyllabic
line, which has implications for how poets approached it. When pentasyllabic
poetry is chanted, it rather naturally falls into eight beats per line: tum tum, tum
tum tum (rest, rest, rest) / tum tum, tum tum tum (rest, rest, rest). The length of the
silent rests gives the overall rhythm a slow and stately quality, which implicitly
suggests that the content is weighty and important. When heptasyllabic poetry
is chanted, it also naturally falls into eight beats per line: tum tum tum tum, tum
tum tum (rest) / tum tum tum tum, tum tum tum (rest). The four-beat unit at the
beginning of the line creates more momentum than does the two-beat unit at
the beginning of the pentasyllabic line; moreover, the single beat of rest at the
end of the heptasyllable gives the impression that each line rushes into the next.
Thus heptasyllabic poetry has a distinctive flow, continuity, and lightness. The best
poets of qijue carefully crafted the sound quality of the syllable combinations, em-
ploying alliterations, internal rhymes, and reduplication more frequently than in
the pentasyllabic line. Hu Yinglin observed: “Pentasyllabic jueju emphasize the
real and tangible; usually the substance exceeds literariness. Heptasyllabic jueju
emphasize the lofty and beautiful; usually literariness exceeds substance.”26
The differences between wujue and qijue had a clear impact on poetic practice.
After the Tang, wujue became increasingly rare; we can conclude that poets no
longer saw creative potential in the form—the great Tang writers had exhausted
it. Qijue, on the contrary, remained one of the most popular and expressive poetic
forms throughout the classical period.
Charles Egan
notes- Wang Kaisu (Qing dynasty), Saotan balüe (Eight Sketches of the Literary World), quoted in Qian-
shou Tangren jueju (One Thousand Jueju Poems by Tang Writers), ed. Fu Shousun and Liu Baishan
(Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1985), 1020. - Gao Buying, ed., Tang Song shi juyao (The Essential Shi Poems of the Tang and Song) (Hong
Kong: Zhonghua, 1985), 750.