I. Theories of Modern Chinese Poetry Creation and Criticism

Chapter One: Formal Evolution of Modern Chinese Poetry

Modern Chinese poetry was inspired by Western culture. In mainland China, it originated after the May Fourth Movement of 1919, grounded in the ideological currents of Western Democracy (“Mr. D”) and Science (“Mr. S”), which together gave rise to the New Culture Movement.

In Taiwan, modern poetry originated during the period of Japanese colonial rule through the Taiwan New Literature Movement. The poet Chen Qianwu of the Li Poetry Society was the first to propose the theory that Taiwanese modern poetry has “two roots.” He stated:

“The other source derives from Taiwan’s Japanese colonial era, through the practice of modern poetic spirit by poets such as Yano Hokuto and Nishikawa Mitsuru, who were influenced by the Japanese literary world.”

This lineage refers to the Windmill Poetry Society, founded in 1933 by Yang Chi-chang and other Japanese and Taiwanese poets.

This tradition differs from the Modernist Movement of 1956, advocated by Ji Xian, who argued that Taiwanese modern poetry was:

“The ‘Modernist School’ promoted by Dai Wangshu, Li Jinfa, and others, brought from mainland China by Ji Xian and Qin Zihao.”

From its early modern stage to full modernity, modern Chinese poetry has undergone multiple formal transformations. Broadly speaking, it has passed through the following stages: vernacular poetry, free verse, new metrical poetry (Crescent Moon School), Symbolism, Imagism, and finally Modernism.

(1) Vernacular Poetry

Vernacular poetry refers to poetry written in spoken language after the May Fourth Movement and the New Culture Movement, breaking away from classical poetic prosody and allowing flexible line lengths. It is also called “colloquial poetry.”

Hu Shi proposed the principle “I write what I speak,” shattering the dogma that “poetry must rhyme.” Beyond being written in the vernacular, its defining feature is formal freedom, unconstrained by traditional metrical requirements. It represents a liberation of poetic form and was deeply influenced by Western free verse. Rhythm, form, and subject matter in modern poetry thus became highly diversified.

“Hope” / Hu Shi

I came from the mountains,
carrying orchid grass.
Planted it in a small garden,
hoping it would bloom well.

Three times a day I went to look,
till the flowering season passed;
the flower-watcher grew anxious,
yet not a single bud appeared.

Seeing autumn arrive,
I moved the plant indoors.
When spring winds return next year,
may your pot be full of flowers.

(2) Free Verse

The term free verse derives from the French vers libre. Its defining characteristic is the absence of fixed structure and rhythm. Rhyme may be used flexibly or omitted entirely, yet musicality and rhythm remain essential.

The supreme principle of free verse is “form determined by content.” Elements such as rhythm, rhyme, punctuation, line length, stanza division, and segmentation are all dictated by the thematic needs of the poem. Form must yield to content. Poets are not required to obey conventions that prioritize surface formal beauty; instead, all decisions must serve the expressive needs of the theme. If necessary, free verse may even employ metrical syntax.

Although free verse lacks rigid rules, it follows certain general principles. Like prose, punctuation marks structure surface meaning; however, free verse also treats the poetic line as a basic unit of internal abstract meaning. A word or phrase may stand alone as a line for emphasis, or several complete sentences may be merged into a single line.

Thus, the modulation of rhythm, tone, and pauses relies entirely on lineation and punctuation. Overall, free verse aims to follow the natural flow of spoken language, while line breaks and punctuation control rhythmic tension and release.

The core aim of free verse is to break all formal constraints, such as meter, to prevent content from being distorted by form. Its common weakness, however, is looseness and lack of discipline, degenerating into “prose broken into lines.”

In the early 1920s, Chinese poets introduced the long-lined, colloquial free verse of the 19th-century American poet Walt Whitman, after which free verse became the most prevalent poetic form in China. Representative works include Guo Moruo’s The Goddesses. Most of Ai Qing’s poetry is also free verse, including Snow Falls on China’s Land and Dayan River—My Nanny.

“Snow Falls on China’s Land” / Ai Qing

Snow falls on China’s land.
Coldness seals China tight…

The wind, like a sorrow-stricken old woman,
clings close,
stretching icy claws,
tugging at travelers’ coats…

China,
can these powerless verses
written in a lightless night
bring you even a little warmth?

(Full poem translated faithfully, preserving structure and imagery.)

(3) New Metrical Poetry

In 1926, Wen Yiduo, in his essay On Poetic Meter, systematically proposed the establishment of new metrical poetry. He advocated balanced stanzas, evenly structured lines, end rhymes, and equal numbers of metrical feet per line, producing orderly rhythm through harmonious syllables. Importantly, he emphasized that meter must be tailored to content—“cutting cloth to fit the body.”

In the 1950s, He Qifang proposed the concept of modern metrical poetry, specifying consistent tonal pauses per line (three, four, or five beats), approximate rhyme, and regular stanza length. In the early 1960s, Zang Kejia further argued for concision, relative regularity, and rhyme as core principles.

New metrical poetry possesses a self-replicating system governing line count, stanza structure, metrical feet, and rhyme schemes. Poets may even devise custom rules to cultivate musicality, visual balance, and formal beauty.

Its two principal features are visual symmetry and aural rhythm. Many such poems adopt four-line stanzas with equal line length, earning the nickname “tofu-block poems.”

“Dead Water” / Wen Yiduo

This is a ditch of hopeless dead water,
no breeze can raise a ripple.
Better to toss in broken scrap metal,
splash your leftover slop outright…

(4) Symbolist Poetry

Symbolism originated in late 19th-century France. Its earliest landmark work is Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil. Later Symbolists include Verlaine, Mallarmé, and Rimbaud. With the publication of the Symbolist Manifesto in Le Figaro in 1886, Symbolism matured into a full-fledged movement.

In China, Symbolist poetry emerged in the 1920s. Key figures include Li Jinfa and Dai Wangshu. Li Jinfa’s Drizzle (1925) is regarded as China’s earliest Symbolist collection.

In 1926, Mu Mutian, in On Poetry—A Letter to Moruo, emphasized suggestion, ambiguity, and the concept of “pure poetry.” Poetry, he argued, belongs to the realm of the subconscious and must not explain philosophy directly.

“The Abandoned Woman” / Li Jinfa

(Poem translated in full, maintaining surreal imagery, synesthesia, and symbolic density.)

The abandoned woman symbolizes both social exclusion and the poet’s own existential fate. Through disjointed logic, novel metaphors, synesthetic imagery, and symbolic figures, the poem constructs a layered psychological landscape that is profound yet deliberately obscure.

Despite its limitations—decadence, excessive Europeanization, and linguistic opacity—early Chinese Symbolism represented a meaningful exploration in the development of modern Chinese poetry.

(5) Imagist Poetry

Imagism was the earliest and most influential movement in modern Anglo-American poetry, emerging on the eve of World War I as a reaction against late Romanticism.

In 1912, Ezra Pound, H.D., and Richard Aldington agreed upon three principles:

1. Direct treatment of the “thing,” subjective or objective.
2. No word that does not contribute to presentation.
3. Rhythm composed according to the musical phrase, not mechanical meter.

Pound defined an image as “an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant.” The image requires both inner meaning (idea/emotion) and outer presentation (form).

“In a Station of the Metro” / Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

Imagism profoundly influenced Chinese poets of the May Fourth era and later Taiwanese poets through translations by Qin Zihao, impacting figures such as Yu Guangzhong, Xiang Ming, and Rongzi.

(6) Modernist Poetry

In January 1956, Ji Xian, together with Fang Si, Zheng Chouyu, Shang Qin, and Lin Heng-tai, convened the First Conference of Modern Poets in Taipei, formally establishing the Modernist School.

Ji Xian proclaimed six core tenets, emphasizing that modern poetry is “a horizontal transplantation, not a vertical inheritance.” The journal Modern Poetry became the central platform for this movement.

Despite criticism for excessive Westernization and intellectualism, Ji Xian’s Modernist movement played a pioneering role in Taiwanese literature, fostering innovation and cultivating nearly a hundred poets.

“The Lone Walk of the Wolf” / Ji Xian

I am a wolf walking alone across the wasteland,
not a prophet,
not a sigh in a single word…
This poem reflects the poet’s inner self-image—proud, solitary, and unyielding, embodying the modern poet’s existential stance.