A History of Chinese Literature

At the beginning of the second century B.C., poetry was still composed on the model of the /Li Sao/, and we are in possession of a number of works assigned to Chia I (B.C. 199-168), Tung-fang So (b. B.C. 160), Liu Hsiang, and others, all of which follow on the lines of Ch`ü Yüan's great poem. But gradually, with the more definite establishment of what we may call classical influence, poet went back to find their exemplars in the Book of Poetry, which came as it were from the very hand of Confucius himself. Poems were written in metres of four, five, and seven words to a line. Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju (d. B.C. 117), a gay Lothario who eloped with a young widow, made such a name with his verses that he was summoned to Court, and appointed by the Emperor to high office. His poems, however, have not survived.

MEI SHÊNG (d. B.C. 140), who formed his style on Ssu-ma, has the honour of being the first to bring home to his fellow-countrymen the extreme beauty of the five-word metre. From him modern poetry may be said to date. Many specimens of his workmanship are extant: (1.) "Green grows the grass upon the bank, The willow-shoots are long and lank; A lady in a glistening gown Opens the casement and looks down. The roses on her cheek blush bright, Her rounded arm is dazzling white; A singing-girl in early life, And now a careless roué's wife. . Ah, if he does not mind his own, He'll find some day the bird has flown!"