Topics on Writing Poems in Prose Styles and the Beginning of Chinese Classical Poetics

The poet Du Fu initiated the transition of writing poems in prose styles in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. Due to the central status of Du Fu′s poems, topics concerning writing poems in prose styles has become the focus of Chinese poetics. On the surface, writing poems in prose styles advocated blending poetry and prose skills. In fact, it was a crucial debate on the literary styles of poems. Many renowned writers, such as Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Chen Shidao, and important theorists of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties could not avoid this topic and thus participated in discussions. Then these topics were interwoven with Du Fu poetics, debates between Tang and Song poems, and the theory that Tang poems are paradigms. The heated discussions of these debates have deepened the understanding of poems and proses, two core literary styles, and the natural disposition of literature, facilitating the unfolding and evolution of Chinese classical poetics. Hence the topics concerning writing poems in prose styles have revealed the transition of Chinese literature from classical lyrical traditions into modern narrative traditions.