Four-syllable verse in medieval China

This dissertation uses four-syllable verse as a window onto the function and meaning of poetry in early medieval China.; In the introduction, I outline the parameters of the topic, treating the early history of the four-syllable form, contrasting it with five-syllable poetry---the dominant form of the medieval period---and discussing the variety of genres in which four-syllable verse played a role.; My first chapter focuses on a group of 1st century BCE poems associated with Wei Xuancheng. Through a close reading of these poems, I show that they represent a new literary consciousness accompanying the emergence of the medieval bureaucratic elite. Comparing these poems with contemporary works, I discuss the conditions of literary composition at the dawn of the medieval period.; The second chapter is a study of the Jiaoshi yilin, a Han divination text in four-syllable rhymes. Tracing this four-syllable divination tradition back into antiquity, I argue that the Yilin verses are both a continuation of the antique mode and a transformation bearing the marks of the incipient medieval literary culture.; In Chapter Three I examine the shidian (school sacrifice) ceremony by looking at the tradition of four-syllable poetry associated with it. These poems give us insight into the political culture of the age, and their role in the ceremony also provides a basis for considering the meaning and function of "poetry" in medieval China.; In my fourth chapter I treat the medieval tradition of "presentation and response" (zengda) poetry. I outline the origins and decline of this genre, discuss a series of examples from the often-neglected 4th century, and again consider the implications of this kind of poetry for our understanding of medieval poetry in general.