Poetry Synopsis

Chinese poetry sprang up long before written Language was devised, and its poetics were formed and developed through people's everyday labor, their songs and their dances.

The Book of Poetryis the first anthology of verse in China. It compiles 305 poems created between the 11th century BC and the 6th century BC. The poems are divided into three sections: feng (songs), ya (odes and epics) and song(hymns). Song was used by the ruling class during their sacrifices to the gods and ancestors. ya has two parts-odes and hymns-both Sung at courts or banquets. ya includes odes to former heroes and satire on the Current politics of the day. Feng is the most important part of the anthology, and includes folksongs collected from 15 city states.

of the great poets living in the 4th century BC, the most famous is Qu Yuan, born in the Kingdom of Chu (one of the seven states during the Warring States Period).Qu Yuan and his follower Song Yu established a new style of poetry-chu ci (literally, poetry of the south). Qu Yuan's major work was Li-Sao(Sorrow after Departure).

Chu ci developed more varied forms of poetry, freeing itself from four-character poetry, the form adopted in The Book of Poetry ,and developed three-character, four-character,five-character and seven-character

poetry. In terms of artistic technique, chu ci absorbed the romantic attributes of myth and established the romantic style of Chinese literary creation.

In the wake of The Book ot Poetry and chu ci rose a new form of poetry extant in the Han Dynasty-the yuefu folksongs (poetic genre of folk songs and ballads in the Han Dynasty). The yuetu folksongs of the Han Dynasty

contained more than 100 pieces, which were mostly written in five-character lines, and later became the major form of poetry during the Wei and jin dynasties.

The more famous yuefu folksongs of the Han Dynasty included: joining the Army at Fitteen, divulging the agonies of the common people caused by war; Luo Fu and Gentleman of the Palace Guard singing of women who were not enamored of wealth and power; and the long narrative poem Flight ot the PhoeniX to thc Southesst, telling of a tragic love story between jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi who, under the

pressure from Jiao's mother and Liu's family, separated. Narrative is the most distinct feature of the Wefu folksongs, and Flight of the Phoenix to the Southeast represents the best of these songs. The language used in yuefu folksongs is simple and colloquial, replete with unforgettable characters. Although most representations in yuefu folksongs are realist, many are tinted, to some degree, with romanticism, as in the last stanza of Flight of the Phoenix to the Southeast where both are artistically blended.

Five-character verse is the major form of Chinese classical poetry. The form took a long time developing from folksongs into formal literary works created by scholars. By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty,

scholarly five-character poetry matured, and is marked by the accomplishment of Nineteen Ancient Poems. Poems in this anthology were not written by a single poet, nor were they created during the same period. They mainly express sorrows at parting and lovesickness, or lament the fleetingness of life. Artistically Nineteen Ancient Poems were distinguished by their lyricism and use of expressive techniques like simile, metaphor and "evocation" (beginning a song by evoking images quite apart from the central subject).

During the Jian-an period at the end of the Han Dynasty, the "Three Caos" (Cao Cao, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi) and the "Seven Jian'an Masters" (Kong Rong, Chen Lin, Wang Can, Xu Gan, Ruan Yu, Ying Xi, Liu Zhen) Sustained the realism of yuefu folksongs and wrote five-character poems, unleashing an upsurge in scholarly poetry. Their poems spoke to the spirit of the times and invoked an ambience of heroism and sadness, molding a style later referred to as Jian-an. Among the seven Jian'an masters Wang Can is the most acknowledged, his Poem of Seven Sorrows mirroring the chaos caused by the war at the end of the Han Dynasty. The three Caos were very well-known in the literary circles of the Jian-an Period. The work of the eminent poet Cao Zhi (AD 192-232) was exacting and robust with exquisite description, flowery language and elegant metaphors, as in his Presented to Biao, King of Baima. Greatly influenced by yuefu folksongs but more lyrical, Cao Zhi's poems mark the transition in poetry from yuefu folksongs to five-character poetry.

Ruan ji (AD 210-263) was an Outstanding poet who, with Ji Kang, carried on the tradition of Jian-an style after the Jian-an Period was over.Ruan ji's Thoughts underscore the further development of lyrical five-character poetry. His poems expressed fears about the country's fate, misfortunes and the evading of reality. Ji Kang (AD 224-263), a contemporary of Ruan ji, wrote poems that waxed cynical as they relentlessly satirized the sleazier sides of reality.

In the jin Dynasty, poetry became more and more formalistic and vacuous, yet poets like Zuo Si (AD 250-305) still wrote in the jian-an style. His Thoughts on History(eight pieces) satirizes reality using episodes from bygone days. However, this kind of poetry was not typical of the times. It was not until the end of the period of the Eastern Jin that Tao Yuanming influenced poetry circles by bringing about works closer to reality.

Tao Yuanming, who led a reclusive life after rejecting the life of an official, made rural life the major subject of his creation and was thereby called a pastoral poet. At a time when poems written in excessively ornate language and strictly imitated forms, yet empty of content, achieved dominance in poetry circles, Tao Yuanming carried on the tradition of yuefu folksongs and formed his own simple and natural style, opening up a new vista for classical poetry. Moreover, he further refined the forms of the five-character poem.

Xie Lingyun (AD 385-433), who ived around the same time as Tao Yuanming, was the founder of landscape poetry. He was a master at infusing personal feelings into his poems. Yet some of his poems were verbose and affected, adopting too many literary quotations and parallel sentences.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Chinese poetry attained a new level of artistry. Another series of yuefu folksongs were created, which were not only imbued with social reality but also invented new art forms and styles. Folksongs during this period can be briefly characterized as short in length nd more lyrical than narrative. The yuefu folksongs of the day in the

Southern Dynasty included more than 480 pieces, which were mostly love songs written in a five-character quatrain. The number of yuefu folksongs created in the Northern Dynasty was less than that of the Southern Dynasty, but their diverse content, plain and honest language and forceful style were unmatched by works of the Southern Dynasty. If the yuefu poems of the Southern Dynasty were called "love songs," those of the Northern Dynasty were more aptly named "military songs." Beyond the five-character quatrain, the Northern Dynasty also created the seven- character quatrain and developed seven-character classic poetry and miscellaneous poetry. The most famous of the Nothern Dynasty yuefu folksongs was Ballad of Mulan, which was a long narrative poem and together with Flight of the Phoenix to the Southeast, were designated the "two jades" in the history of Chinese poetry.

The greatest poet of the Northern and Southern dynasties was Bao Zhao (c. AD 410-466), who carried on and developed the tradition of yuefu folksongs of the Han and Wei dynasties. He composed a large number of excellent five-character and seven-character yuefu poems.

His representative works were 18 poems under the title of Renditions of "Hard Goes the Wap" Bao Zhao's poems expressed his own misfortunes and protest against social injustice.

During Emperor Yongming's reign in the period of the Southern Qi, poetics stressed the harmony of tonality, which led to the formation of a new yongming style. The yngming style was the source of rhyming poetry.

of this period who was good at writing landscape poetry, had a certain impact on the formation of lushi (a poem of eight lines, each containing five or seven characters, with a strict tonal pattern and rhyme scheme) and jueju (a poem of four lines, each containing five or seven characters, with a strict tonal pattern and rhyme scheme) in the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty was the golden age of Chinese poetry. In a period of almost 300 years, about 50,000 poems were composed and handed down. More than 50 poets are distinguished for their own works and style.

wang Bo (AD 649-676), Yang jiong (c.AD 65O-693), Lu Zhaolin (c.AD 637 -689) and Luo Binwang (c. AD 640-684) were major poets of the early Tang Dynasty. Although they inherited the affected poetry style of the period of the Qi and Liang, they broke through the narrow confines of subject matter for poetry and helped to establish the poetic form which had eight lines with each containing five characters.

After that Chen Zi'ang (AD 661 -702) launched a more conscious attempt to reform the poetry style of Qi and Liang and advocated the styles of the Han and Wei dynasties. His representative works Thoughts (including 38 poems) explicitly manifest his spirit of renewal.

Chinese poetry reached its efflorescence in the rising Tang Dynasty. Apart from the most famous Li Bai and Du Fu, many other poets also made enduring contributions in this period. These poets fall roughly into two categories: the landscape poets represented by Meng Haoran and Wang Wei and the frontier poets represented by Gao Shi and Cen Shen. Wang Changling, Li Qi and Wang Zhihuan are the other famous frontier poets. Wang Changling's frontier poems expressed soldiers' longing for their hometowns and their desire to make a contribution to the country as in his joning the Armyand Beyond the Border Pass Li Qi's frontier poems were small in number but superb, with works like Ancient Feelings and Ancient Warror Wang Zhihuan's classic works included Songs of Liangzhou and on Stork Tower.

Poetry of the mid-Tang Dynasty built on the creative output of the height of the Tang Dynasty. Works of this period mainly spoke of social turbulence and people's sufferingS. Baijuyi is eminent as a realist poet of this period. He carried on and developed the realist tradition of The Book of P0etIy and the Wefu folksongs of the Han Dynasty, and inspired an Outpouring of realist poetry in terms of literary theory and practices-the new yuetu movement. Yuan Zhen, Zhang Ji and WangJian were important poets of this movement. Yuan Zhen's (AD 779-831 ) major works inciude: om Thcmes of Yuefu Songs (19poems) and new Yuefu Songs (12 poems).

Yuan Zhen and Bai juyi held similar views on literature, and their poems are very close in content and in form, written in free and easy language. Although Zhang ji and Wang Jian didn't have distinctive artistic claims, they became the backbone of the new yuefu movement by composing a large number of works. Zhang ji's poems expressed his sympathy towards peasants, as represented by Song of an old Peasant Li Shen's poems were of a similar style as the aforementioned poets. He didn't write many poems but his twathy tor Pedsant (two poems) gained him great renown.

Besides the new yuefu movement, a group of poets formed another style of their own' these poets included Han Yu, Mengjiao and Li He. Han Yu (AD 768-824), a famous prose writer, broadened poetry's scope of expression by incorporating a new language style and the art of composition into his poetry. But his poetry overemphasized litcrary talent and pursued a styIe of singularity. MengJiao (AD 751 -814) and jia Dao (AD779-843) were both known for being extremely deliberate about wording. They both pursued a style of fantasticism and put great efforts toward refining vocabulary and phrasing in their poems. Liu Yuxi (AD 772-842) was a creative folksong poet. His Song of Bamboo, including many separate poems, were very popular Liu was also good at writing lushi and jueju. Liu Zongyuan (AD 773-819), expressed in his poetry, as in his prose, his indignant and mournful feelings. His landscape poetry was gentle and beautiful, reflecting his noble and unsullied character, as in The Snowbound River. Li He's (AD 790-816) poetry originated an independent school with a strange, flowery and sentimental romantic style, evident in works like Su Xiaoxiao's Tomb and Heaven in A Dream.

Poetry of the late Tang Dynasty exudes a strong sentimentality, observed in poets such as Du Mu (AD 803-852) and Li Shangyin (AD 813-858). Du Mu was good at writing seven-character quatrains, as in his works Spring in the South, Walking in Mountains, Berthed at the Qinhuai River and Passing the Huaqing Palace Li Shangyin was good at writing love poems. His seven-character octaves were imitations of Du Fu's poems and adopted exquisite literary quotations and neat antithetical parallelisms, as seen in Ma Wei He also wrote very good seven-character quatrains, apparent in his A Poem to My Home in the North on a Rainy Night and Chang-er, the Lady in the Moon.

The late Tang Dynasty also witnessed the rise of a group of realist poets who carried on the spirit of the new yucfu movement. Adherents of this school included Pi Rixiu, Nie Yizhong and Du Xunhe, and their poems criticized social injustices.

Although poetry was not as effervescent in the Song as in the Tang Dynasty, it nevertheless carved out its own style. Poetry of the song dynasty was less lyrical but more narrative, with more commentary. It paid great attention to description and adoptcd a lot of sentence structure of prose. The poetry of Su Shi and Huang Tingjian (1045-1105) best embody the essence of Song poetry. Huang Tingjian's strange and powerful poetry was more popular than Su Shi's poetry. Huang Tingiian and Chen Shidao (1053-1102) jointly founded theJiangXi poetry School, the most influentiaI literary school of the Song Dynasty. Mei Yaochen (1002-1060) and Su Shunqin (1OO8-1048) of the early Song Dynasty were both initiators of song poetry style. Ouyang Xiu and Wang Anshi's poetry played an impoftant role in sweeping aside the affected poetic influences of the Xi Kun style. The prevaiIing (1021 -1086) poetry of the Southern Song Dynasty was ofoten fuIl of feeIings of gloominess and indignation, evident in the poet Lu You. Other prominent poets included Fan Chengda (1126-1193), famous for his pastoral poetry; Yang Wanli (1124-1206), famous for landscape and philosophical poetry; and Wen Tianxiang (1236-1282), the last great poet of the southern song dynasty,whose representative poem was Passing Lingdingyang.

Lyric poetry sprung up in the Tang Dynasty and bloomed in the Song Dynasty. Wen Tingyun (c.AD 812-866) of the late T8ng Dynasty devoted himself to the creation of lyrics. His works describe women's sorrows and lovesickness and were written in flowery language. Wen's poetry was labeled the "Flower School" by later generations. Li Yu (AD 937-978), an emperor during the Southern T8ng Dynasty, wrote an important chapter in the history of lyric poetry. The lyrics created in his later period achieved great artistic accolades, as in tunes The Beautiful Lady of yu and Sand-sifting Waves.

In the early Song Dynasty, Yan Shu (AD 991 -1055) and Ouyang Xiu both composed excellent lyric poetry, but they were unable to shake themselves from the influence of the Flower School. Liu Yong began to write longer lyrics or slower tunes, and from then on lyrics changed dramatically. Su Shi later widened still further the subject matter for lyrics. Qin Guan (1O49-110O) and Zhou Bangyan (1056-1121), both contemporaries of Su Shi, were also brilliant lyrical Poets. Qin Guan's solid writing is seen in works like tunes Silk-Washing Stream, Treading on Grasss and Immortals at the Magpie Bridge, which expressed the poet's sentimental emotions through describing scenery.

Zhou Bangyan not only wrote lyrics but was also good at musical composition. He wrote many new tunes and had a powerful influence on the development of lyric poetry. Zhou Bangyan's representative works include the tunes Passing the Qin Tower, Courtyard Full of Fragrance, Sovereign of Wine.

Zhou's lyrics were, in turn, greatly influenced by Liu Yong's works and were elaborate in wording, phrasing and description. Li QingZhao, a famous woman poet, had a very significant standing with her unique style in the lyric poetry circles of both the Northern and Southern Song dynasties.

Poetry and lyrics created in the early Southern Song Dynasty were imbued with a strong patriotism. The muchpraised patriotic lyric poetry of Xin Qiji influenced the largest Patriotic Lyrics School formed by Chen Liang, Liu Guo, Liu Kezhuang, Liu Chenweng and other poets, after the middle of the Southern Song Dynasty.

The lyrics of the most famous lyric poet of the late Southern Song Dynasty, jiang Ku (c.1155-1235), record his travels and chants, reflecting on his vagabond life and the rejectionsof love. This is evident in his tune Complaint of the Pavilion of Adieu. His lyrics inherited Zhou Bangyan's style of emphasizing rhetoric and rhymes but lacking content.

Lyric poetry reached its zenith in the Southern Song Dynasty, after which it gave way to the san qu songs of the Yuan Dynasty. The poetry of the Ming Dynasty sharpened the conflict between the "imitation of classics" and the "anti-imitation of classics." No great poets and works were highlighted in the Ming Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty witnessed a variety of literary schools. But most writers still could not free themselves from the shackles of formalism and the forms of the classics, therefore they were hard put to go beyond their predecessors. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Gong Zizhen (1792- 1841) broke the silence in poetry circles and took the lead in establishing the style of modern literature. His poems were useful weapons in criticizing social reality. Later, Huang Zunxian (1848-1905), Kang Youwei (1858-1927) and Liang Qichao (1873-1929) went on to induct poetry to propagate the reform movement.

Modern Chinese literature was born with the May 4th Movement. In 1917 Hu Shi (1879-1942) took the lead in publishing eight poems incorporating the rhythms and vocabulary of common speech in New Youth, and claimed to reform the style of the poem. He upheld that poetry should not confine itself to ge lu (rules and forms of classical poetic composition with respect to tonal pattern, rhyme, etc.) as well as level, oblique tones and length, and called this kind of poetry "Hu Shi style." Liu Bannong, Liu Dabai, Kang Baiqing and Yu Pingbo made enormous contributions to the formation of a new poetry Through these poets' efforts, modern poetry established its characteristics: no fixed ge lu, no confining rhythm, no particularities about wording and phrasing, and written in simple common speech. The earliest anthology of new poetry included Hu Shi's Tentitive Poems, Yu Pingbo's Winter Night,Kang Baiqing-s Grass and Guo Moruo's Goddess.

Guo Moruo's Goddess, imbued with the spirit of the May 4th Movement and other artistic qualities, laid the foundation for romantic new poetry. Goddess marked the juncture when new poetry finally replaced old poetry.

The poem successfulty created and used free-style verse and elevated new poetry to another level.

After the initial stage of development, new poetry developed a relatively perfected form: giving first place to free style and adopting the techniques of new metrical patterns and symbolism.

Writers of the Society of Literary Research wrote a large number of free-style verse, which mostly expressed, in a lyrical tone, the pursuits and anguish of an awakened bourgeoisie. The Poems of Zhu Ziqing, an exemplary proponent of this view, reflected on the enterprising spirit.For example, Light expressed the poet's wish to seek the truth independently, while Haste Since and Destruction revealed the poet's indomitable spirit despite frustration and disillusionment. Bing Xin was another unique stylist. Influenced by Rabindranath Tagore's Stray Birds, she published two anthologies, Stars and Spring Water. Poems collected in the two anthologies were called the "star style," and her poems embodied the spirit of motherhood as well as natural and pure emotions.

"Roaring poetry" refers to political lyric verse created by Communist writers such as Qu Qiubai and jiang Guangchi. A most prolific poet, jiang Guangchi's (1901 -1931 ) works had a distinct socialist hue, as in Omen in the Pacific Ocean, Songs of Chinese Labor and Cry Over Lenin's Death. jiang Guangchi's poems were powerful but some of his pofitical lyric verses were empty in content.

In creating new poetry, the Lakeside Poetry Society made a great contribution to the composition of love poems. Poets in this category include Wang Jingzhi (1902- ), Ying Xiuren (190O-1933), Pan Mohua (1902-1934) and Feng Xuefeng (1903-1976). The description of love was bold in their poems, but the simple and honest feelings reflected were deeply touching.

Feng Zhi (1 9O5-1 994), a poet of free-style verse, also made much advances in writing modern poems. His subject matter was mostly love, kinship and friendship, and anthologies include Songs of Yesterday North Tour and Others.

The Crescent Moon School advocated metrical poetry, and Wen Yiduo (1899-1946) is a well-known theorist of this form. He called for endowing poetry with the beauty of music, painting and architecture, and made great strides in practicing the theory himself. Wen Yiduo published two anthologies Red Candle and Dead Water His works were infused with a strong patriotism and the active and uplifting spirit of the May 4th era. He utilized the romantic style of expression in his poems and was good at expressing feelings through a description of other objects in a setting. The appropriate trope used in his poetry further enhanced the works' imagery and artistic appeal. His poems exhibited the beauty of music, painting and architecture as he had advocated, and exerted a great influence on the Metrical Poetry School.Xu Zhimo (1896-1931) was another important poet of the Crescent Moon School. His poetry reveals his pursuit of light and ideals and his discontent with reality. Poems expressing the liberation of individuality and the pursuit of love take an important place in Xu's works. His style, gentle and restrained, expressed deep and passionate emotions, and the language in his poetry is lucid and expressive. Xu Zhimo's collections include Zhimo's Poems, A Night in Florence, Tiger and Roaming

The Symbolist School existed about the same time as the Crescent Moon School. Symbolic poetry neither describes things verifiable nor expresses

feelings directly, instead it tries to create an obscure and cryptic atmosphere by using techniques of association, metaphor, and implication. The representative symbolist poet was Li jinfa (1900-1976), whose collections include Light Rain and Singing for Happiness. Li jinfa's poems reflect the pessimism of some intellectuals after the May 4th Movement. Due to the queer and obscure meaning of his poetry, Li was called the "poetic wack," but his poetry also had its own merits. For example, the depth of his distinctive metaphors, figurative fanguage and subtly expressed feelings are unmatched by many poets. Other famous symbolist poets include Wang Duqing, Mu Tian and Feng Naichao.

The "Left-wing" Poetry School was famous for its intense militancy in the 1930s. Yin Fu (1909-1931 ) is important among these political lyric poets. His works passionately praise the proletarian revolution and vividly describe the workers' movement. Owing to his actual experiences in struggle, his poem are full of vigorous and sincere feelings and at the same time devoid of vacuity. His representative works include Bloody Worda, May 1stin 1959, and our Poems. The Society of Chinese Poetry was an important component of the "Left-wing" Poetry School, advocated the popularization of poetry and also that poetry should serve people at the bottom of the society and sing the praises of the anti-Japanese resistance. The most representative poet of this society was Pu Feng (1911-1942).

On the heels of the Crescent Moon School, the Modern Poetry School spoke of the new emotions felt by modern people in modern times. The major poet of Modern Poetry School was Dai Wangshu (1905- 1950). He was also called the " Yu Xiang poet" for publishing an superb poem titled Yu Xiang(Alley in the Rain) in 1928. His anthologies included My Memory and Wangshu Grass. These works reflected the illusion and loneliness felt by intellectuals after the failure of the great revolution of 1927. Dai Wangshu's poetry used a lot of symbolic images, but the meaning, although tortuous and shadowy, was not obscure. His poems also adopted many fresh and apt metaphors and were written in elegant rhyme.

The july School was the most important poetry school after the outbreak of the anti-Japanese War. Important poets of this school include Hu Feng, Ai Qing, Tian Jian, Yi Men, Lu Li and Zou Difan. They wrote many political lyric poems full of intense patriotism rousing people's consciousness to fight the invading enemy. Poetry of the July School placed the emphasis on imbuing readers with fervent zeal instead of deliberating on wording and rhetoric. Simplicity, straightfotwardness and

boldness were common characteristics of July School poetry.

In the latter half of the 194os, new poetry in the style of folksongs flourished in the liberated areas of the countryside. The most exemplary were the narrative poems written by Li ji and Ruan Zhangiing.

Ma Fantuo was the pen name of Yuan Shuipai (1907-1983), who published satirical poems in the mid-1940s. His poems written in this period were later collected in a book entitled Ma Fantuo's Folk Songs, which was the most influential satirical collection in Kuomintang-dominated areas. The poems were written in the form of the ballad and madrigal with a sharp, acerbic and humorous touch.

Poetry entered a new stage of development after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. New subject matter and material ensued as required of a new iife. A fresh group of poets growing up after liberation created a variety of new works including Shao Yanxiang's Singing Beijing and Going to RCmotC Areas; the forest poet Fu Chou's The Woodchopper; Yan Zhen'S Lao Zhng's Hands; Wei Yang's I've Come Back,Motherland; Li Ying's Eyes under the Army CaP; Gong Liu's Short Songs of Remote City and City at Dawn; and Gu Gong's At the Foot of the Himalayas As well, new forms of poetry also were written under the influence of folksongs and poetry from other countries.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a new folksong movement sprang up in poetry circles and developed traditional folksongs. Pofitical lyric poetry emeopd as an independent art form in the 1960s. Guo Xiaochuan and He jingZhi were both excellent political lyric poets. Another marked achievement during this period was the long narrative poem. Guo Xiaochuan's Deep, Deep Valley and Trilogy of a General enjoyed high renown in poetry circles with their innovative form and profound ideological views. Li ji's The Story of Yang Gao, Wen jie's Fismes of Revenge, Han Qixiang's The Stoly of Liberation, Wang Zhiyuan's The Hutao slope, Zang Kejia's Li Dazhao and Tian jian's Biography of Cart Driver were all excellent poems. Despite these accomplishments, poetry produced in this period had some drawbacks. For example, literary materials, subject matter, the forms and the styles of poetry were rather narrow.

Having remained silent for ten years, Chinese poetry circfes flourished again in the period after the Cultural Revolution. Forms of poetry became freer and less rigid, with diverse styles. At the beginning of this new period, poetry ruminating on history built on the tradition of realism. At the same time, in the fast-changing late 1970s and early 1980s, a group of young poets came of age including Shu Ting, Gu Cheng and jiang He. Their poems expressed unusual and often obscure emotions, and were therefore called "Misty Poetry."

In the mid and late 1980s, a new poetry school called the "Third Generation" appeared among Chinese poetry circles.