Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/194

170 such a mechanical arrangement of sentences, would be intolerable in European composition, but are quite elegant and almost essential in Chinese. Tautology, which is justly repudiated with us, is much indulged in by them; and sentences are rendered emphatic and distinct by repeating words, and sometimes phrases, or by reiterating the same idea in other terms.

In ancient times the Chinese composed a number of odes, which were handed down to later ages. Out of three thousand of these poems, Confucius selected three hundred, which are still extant in the book of odes. The principal of these are on the usual subjects of love and war, and are replete with metaphor drawn from nature. In these compositions some little attention is paid to rhyme, but none to measure; the poetry consisting chiefly in the arrangement of the sentences, and the figurative character of the language.

During the Tang and the Sung dynasties, the art of poetry was much cultivated, and the present system of Chinese versification was then established. Their poetic effusions are of three kinds, odes, songs, and diffuse poems. In their modern odes, they observe both rhyme and measure, and are very particular about the antithesis. Their verses consist of four lines, with five or seven words in each; the first, second, and last line of the verse being made to rhyme. The measure consists in the right disposition of the accents, which have been above described as four. In poetry, however, they divide these into two, viz., the even and the oblique; which latter includes all besides the even. The rule is, that if the first two words are in the even, the next two must be in the oblique tone, and so the oblique and even tones must be diversified and