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Article AN ESSAY ON THE CHINESE POETRY. ← Page 3 of 4 →
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An Essay On The Chinese Poetry.
this vegetable with the greatest pains , and nurse slips of it in flowerpots with as much care as we should the most delicate flower . The missionaries , who ought to be well acquainted with the subject of the Chinese literature , have informed us , that in the Chinese poetry the verses ought to have a particular relation , not only in their rhymes , but also in their signification and meaning : thus , if one verse signify a mountainfirewateror any other thingthe
cor-, , , , respondent verse ( as suppose the first and fourth ) must likewise correspond in its meaning . Theysay , moreover , that they have another kind of poetry , which is without rhyme , and which consists in the antithesis , or opposition of the thoughts ; insomuch , that if the first thought relates to the spring , the second shall turn upon the autumn ; or if the first mention firethe other shall express water . In short
, , the more difficult their compositions are , the more highly are they valued . From this account no great matters can be expected from the Chinese poetry : and yet this pleasing art hath been no where held in higher request than in China , where it has been the first vehicle of their morality , religion , and politics , and where it hath
ahvavs been regarded with peculiar reverence and esteem . Nay , a facility of composing verses is not only entitled to general applause , but is among the qualifications expected in all their great doctors and mandarines of letters . And they have often occasion to exert these talents ; for the Emperor sometimes sends them pictures or furniture for them to embellish with poetical inscriptions : nor is it unusual , at great entertainments , for the company to divert themselves
with capping extemporary verses . But , after all , the Chinese poetry seems to be chiefly of the epigrammatic kind , and to consist of those difficiles nuga , which good taste and sound criticism have taught Europeans to neglect . It does not appear that they have ever attempted the higher kinds of poesy ; at least this is true of the Epic : and it is doubtful whether the Dramatic maybe excepted : for the Chinese plays seem to be mere prosaic dialogues , interspersed with a few airs , like the Italian opera . Their antient odes , it must be
confessed , have a grave and majestic simplicity ; but if we mayjudge from the specimens produced by Du Halde , they are rather solemn lectures on morality , than fraught with that bold and daring sublimity , which we expect to find in compositions of that name . The only kinds of poetry that are cultivated much among the Chinese , are either short pieces , resembling the epigrams , rondeaus , and madrigals of the last age , or else collections of moral apothegm ' s , which '
are their only essaysof any length . But in almost all their poetical productions there appears a quaintnessand affixation , a fondness for little conceits , and a want of that noble simplicity , which is only to be attained by the genuine study of nature , and of its artless beauties : a study to which the Chinese seem to pay the least attention of any people in the world . Atsd yet amidst all the restraint and disguise in which false taste mzy have confined or obscured it , true genius will exert its powers ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
An Essay On The Chinese Poetry.
this vegetable with the greatest pains , and nurse slips of it in flowerpots with as much care as we should the most delicate flower . The missionaries , who ought to be well acquainted with the subject of the Chinese literature , have informed us , that in the Chinese poetry the verses ought to have a particular relation , not only in their rhymes , but also in their signification and meaning : thus , if one verse signify a mountainfirewateror any other thingthe
cor-, , , , respondent verse ( as suppose the first and fourth ) must likewise correspond in its meaning . Theysay , moreover , that they have another kind of poetry , which is without rhyme , and which consists in the antithesis , or opposition of the thoughts ; insomuch , that if the first thought relates to the spring , the second shall turn upon the autumn ; or if the first mention firethe other shall express water . In short
, , the more difficult their compositions are , the more highly are they valued . From this account no great matters can be expected from the Chinese poetry : and yet this pleasing art hath been no where held in higher request than in China , where it has been the first vehicle of their morality , religion , and politics , and where it hath
ahvavs been regarded with peculiar reverence and esteem . Nay , a facility of composing verses is not only entitled to general applause , but is among the qualifications expected in all their great doctors and mandarines of letters . And they have often occasion to exert these talents ; for the Emperor sometimes sends them pictures or furniture for them to embellish with poetical inscriptions : nor is it unusual , at great entertainments , for the company to divert themselves
with capping extemporary verses . But , after all , the Chinese poetry seems to be chiefly of the epigrammatic kind , and to consist of those difficiles nuga , which good taste and sound criticism have taught Europeans to neglect . It does not appear that they have ever attempted the higher kinds of poesy ; at least this is true of the Epic : and it is doubtful whether the Dramatic maybe excepted : for the Chinese plays seem to be mere prosaic dialogues , interspersed with a few airs , like the Italian opera . Their antient odes , it must be
confessed , have a grave and majestic simplicity ; but if we mayjudge from the specimens produced by Du Halde , they are rather solemn lectures on morality , than fraught with that bold and daring sublimity , which we expect to find in compositions of that name . The only kinds of poetry that are cultivated much among the Chinese , are either short pieces , resembling the epigrams , rondeaus , and madrigals of the last age , or else collections of moral apothegm ' s , which '
are their only essaysof any length . But in almost all their poetical productions there appears a quaintnessand affixation , a fondness for little conceits , and a want of that noble simplicity , which is only to be attained by the genuine study of nature , and of its artless beauties : a study to which the Chinese seem to pay the least attention of any people in the world . Atsd yet amidst all the restraint and disguise in which false taste mzy have confined or obscured it , true genius will exert its powers ,