Nineteen Old Poems
古詩十九首 (Gushi Shijiu Shou)
Ordinary human losses, a friend's departure, a wife left waiting, the felt shortness of life against unmarked time, need no mythological or political frame to carry philosophical weight; plain five-syllable lines about missing someone are argument enough that life is brief and should be lived with that fact in view.
- plain five-syllable verse as personal lyric
- themes of separation and the shortness of life
- anonymous, of uncertain individual authorship
- foundation of the mature Chinese lyric tradition
Nineteen anonymous pentasyllabic poems, of unknown authorship and uncertain individual dates, first assembled as a group in the influential early 6th century anthology Wen Xuan, where they head its section of miscellaneous poetry. Their plain, unornamented language treats separation, the ache of travel, the passage of time, and the shortness of life with an intimacy and lack of allegorical or courtly framing new to Chinese poetry, establishing five-syllable verse (wuyan shi) as a vehicle for direct personal feeling rather than ritual or political occasion. They are widely regarded as the technical and emotional foundation on which the mature Chinese lyric tradition, including Cao Zhi and the poets who followed him, was built.
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