Speaker | Event 95 – Introduction to Prosody of Classical Chinese Poetry and Composition Techniques
| Location | Zoom |
| Date | September 4 to November 13 Once every two weeks, see details below |
| Workshop Leader | Site Li |
Workshop Description
Poems and songs have existed since ancient shamanistic rituals. Behind the seemingly irregular and repetitious use of simple words, they are vessels of China’s earliest musical and literary traditions, leading to the Classic of Poetry, Lyrics of Chu, Old Poems of the Han and Wei Dynasties, folk songs of the Six Dynasties and so on. On top of natural and vivid emotions, poems rely on certain compositional regulations called gelü (classical Chinese poetry forms/prosody). Gelü is the most foundational and integral part of the “regulated verse”, or “recent-style poetry” (jintishi). However, it would be wrong to say that gelü limits poetic creation– on the contrary, it imbues poems with infinite possibilities. Learning gelü is comparable to learning a new language, which is a process of gaining a firm grasp of the foundational techniques for composing classical Chinese poems. Through five sessions of the workshop, I hope you will gain a systematic understanding of classical Chinese poetry and gelü and will be able to create your own regulated verses.
Requirements for the workshop: passion for poetry
| Session 1 9/4 Fri 19:00-21:00 | Types of poems and rhythms |
| Session 2 9/18 Fri 19:00-21:00 | Foundational poetic devices |
| Session 3 10/2 Fri 19:00-21:00 | Quatrains “jueju“ |
| Session 4 10/16 Fri 19:00-21:00 | Regulated Verses “lüshi“ |
| Session 5 10/30 Fri 19:00-21:00 | Poetic declensions |
| Session 6 11/13 Fri 19:00-21:00 | Discussion |
Workshop dates and times are in Pacific Standard Time (PST). Please scan the QR code for this workshop on our WeChat public account home page to enter the group chat for the latest updates.
This workshop will be held on Zoom, see details below:
Join Zoom Meeting：https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/91912733583?pwd=U0QzcGxwV200YmFOV05nY0dGNVkvUT09
Meeting ID: 919 1273 3583
Passcode: 7PMSalon
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