balance of tones were other rules considered essential. This is called the "modern" or "ruled" poetry. In the Ch'ing or Manchu Dynasty the examination poem was standardized as a five-character-line poem of sixteen lines with every other line rhymed. This "eight-rhyme" poem was accompanied by the famous "eight-legged" literature (a form of literature divided into eight sections) as a guiding light for entrance into mandarin life.

　　The above-mentioned rules of poetry applied first only to examination poems. But afterwards they became a common exercise with "modern" or "ruled" poems in general. Chinese poetry since the T'ang Dynasty has followed practically only two forms, the "modern" or "ruled" form and the "ancient" or "unruled" form. A poet usually writes both. The "eight-rhyme" poem, however, was practised for official examinations only.

The progress of T'ang poetry may be viewed through a division into four periods, as distinguished by different style and a differing spirit. There were, of course, exceptional works, especially at the transient points, and it is difficult to draw an exact boundary-line between any two periods. The first period is approximately from A.D. 620 to 700, the second from 700 to 780, the third from 780 to 850, and the fourth from 850 to 900. The second period, corresponding to the summer season of the year, is regarded as the most celebrated epoch. Its representative figures are Li Po (705-762), the genie of poetry; Tu Fu (712-720), the sage of poetry; Wang Wei (699-759) and Meng Hano-jan (680-740), the two hermit-poets, and Ts'en Ts'an (given degree, 744) and Wei Ying-wu (about 740-830), the two magistrate-poets. The first period is represented by Chang Yueh (677-730) and Chang Chiu-ling (673-740), two premiers, and by Sung Chih-wen (died 710) and Tu Shen-yen (between the seventh and eighth centuries); the third, by Yuan Chen (779-832) and Po Chu-yi (772-846), two cabinet ministers, and by Han Yu (768-824) and Liu Tsung yuang (773-819), two master literati more famous for their prose writing than for their verse; and the fourth, by Wen T'ing-yun (ninth century) and Li Shang-yin (813-858), the founders of the Hsi K'un school, and by Hsu Hun (given degree, 832) and Yao He (A.D. 9th century). All these poets had their works published in a considerable number of volumes.