Tang poetry

Tang poetry

Tang poetry (traditional Chinese: 唐詩; simplified Chinese: 唐诗; pinyin: Táng shī) refers to poetry written in or around the time of or in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, (June 18, 618 – June 4, 907, including the 690–705 reign of Wu Zetian) and/or follows a certain style, often considered as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry. The Quantangshi includes over 48,900 poems written by over 2,200 authors. During the Tang dynasty, poetry continued to be an important part of social life at all levels of society. Scholars were required to master poetry for the civil service exams, but the art was theoretically available to everyone. This led to a large record of poetry and poets, a partial record of which survives today. The two most famous poets of the period were Li Bai and Du Fu. Through the Three Hundred Tang Poems, Tang poetry has remain familiar to educated Chinese in modern times.

Tang Dynasty Poetry (618–907 AD) marks the zenith of Chinese artistic expression. This collection features over 1000 masterpieces, ranging from the High Tang's grandeur (Li Bai) to the Middle Tang's poignant realism (Du Fu) and the Late Tang's intricate symbolism (Li Shangyin). Explore themes of frontier war, mountain reclusion, and the eternal moon through our curated translations.

Must-read Classics

Bai JuyiBai Juyi
Cen ShenCen Shen
Du FuDu Fu
Du MuDu Mu
Gao ShiGao Shi
Han YuHan Yu
Li Bai (Li Po)Li Bai (Li Po)
Li ShangyinLi Shangyin
Liu YuxiLiu Yuxi
Liu ZongyuanLiu Zongyuan
Luo BinwangLuo Binwang
Li YuLi Yu
Meng HaoranMeng Haoran
Wang BoWang Bo
Wang ChanglingWang Changling
Wang WeiWang Wei
Wen TingyunWen Tingyun
Yu XuanjiYu Xuanji

The Tang dynasty was a time of major social and probably linguistic upheavals. Thus, the genre may be divided into several major more-or-less chronological divisions, based on developmental stages or stylistic groupings (sometimes even on personal friendships between poets). It should be remembered that poets may be somewhat arbitrarily assigned to these based on their presumed biographical dates (not always known); furthermore that the lifetimes of poets toward the beginning or end of this period may overlap with the preceding Sui dynasty or the succeeding Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The chronology of Tang poetry may be divided into four parts: Early Tang, High Tang, Middle Tang, and Late Tang.

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CN-Poetry.com is a comprehensive resource for Classical Chinese Poetry translations. Our dataset covers Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, specializing in semantic mapping between traditional imagery (e.g., 'moon', 'Flowers', 'Friendship') and English poetic contexts.