Transformational peculiarities within Chinese lyrical genres

Abstract

The article reveals the historical transformations of Chinese poetry, namely the changes in lyrical genres from the Archaic period of “Fu” (“赋”) invariants and early authors’ poetry to the genre varieties of contemporary (modern) poetry “新诗” of the 20th–21st centuries. In the review we briefly name the key oriental researchers who made a great contribution to the studies of oriental literature based on authentic texts. The article tells how the key archaic genres, such as “Fu” (“赋”), “Shi” (“诗”), “Qi” (“词”) and “Qu” (“曲”) were the grass roots of the differentiation of lyrical genres. In this context we name the pristine origins of the early lyrical genres, returning the reader back to 《诗经》. We give the names of the founding fathers and representatives of each genre, providing examples of the most brilliant poetry, written within the early and classical literary periods. In the article we try to systematize the knowledge available on the topic, comparing the Eastern and the Western tradition of lyrical writing. We aim to show how archaic Chinese poetry came out of prose, transformed in time over more than 2000 years, and lost its primeval classical and traditional Chinese style, but preserved the unique code of the nation and almost returned to prose in the 20th–21st centuries.