Tang dynasty poetry

A man looks at the moonlight at the foot of his bed, takes it for frost, raises his head and thinks of his native land: twenty characters by Li Bai that every Chinese schoolchild still recites. Between the seventh and the tenth century, poetry in China was a matter of state, an examination subject for entering the civil service, and it produced thousands of short pieces holding friendship, exile, war and wine. Du Fu wrote famines and revolts, Wang Wei the empty mountain, Bai Juyi a long lament for an emperor and his favourite.

works 5

• PoetryThoughts of a Quiet Night靜夜思Li Bai · 750A Tang quatrain in which the brightness of the moon, one night, brings the poet back to thoughts of his native land.LiteraturePublic domain
• Poetry輞川集Wang Wei · 750not translated into EnglishTwenty sites of a mountain estate, sung in two voices by a poet and his friend.Literature
• Poetry贈衛八處士Du Fu · 759not translated into EnglishA poem from the years of civil war under the Tang, about an evening spent at the home of a friend from youth.LiteraturePublic domain
• PoetrySong of Everlasting Sorrow長恨歌Bai Juyi · 806An emperor, his favourite sacrificed to the revolt of his soldiers, and the endless mourning that follows.Literature
• PoetryPoems李義山詩集Li Shangyin · 850The work of the last great poet of the Tang, dense, allusive and constantly reinterpreted.Literature