On The Development Of The Five-Character And Eight-Line Chinese Poems In Southern Dynasties

Those poems with five-character had no definit structure since Han Dynasty . But the structure of poems began to show regular changes during Southern Dynasties . The length became short gradually . The development of Eight-line structure covered three periods : appearance period , development period and maturity period . Each period had its own features . The amount of eight-line poems increased quickly , and its structure also tended to be fixed . There were different reasons which caused the changing of structure . Intrinsic reasons concerned the utilization of poetic skills , such as rhythm , antithesis ; extrinsic reasons included social values , aesthetic preferences , and poetic theories . The improvement of antithesis technique influenceiupon the length and structure of poems ; special communicative places of Southern Dynasties pushed the development of eight-line poetic structure .Five-character and eight-line Yuefu poems of Southern Dynasties developed rapidly . It came from Han-Wei Yuefu and Southern folk songs , and from which it drew their contents , forms and writing styles . It was also influenced by the rhythms of Yongming poems , so it highlighted its utilization of rhythms and antithesis .Five-character and eight-line poems of Southern Dynasties had two main characteristics : eight-line poems belonged to Poetic cycle in terms of form , and its themes covered three parts : favorite materials , Gongti and scenery .Eight-line struture came into being , and became popular in the creation of five-character poems at the end of Southern Dynasties , later it evolved to be the basis of Tang's poems .